What makes a good fishing rod? What are the differences between the cheap rods and the much more expensive and custom made rods?

I don't know much about selecting fishing rods so I would like to know your opinions.

Stop up and talk to Lonnie. Tell him what you are looking for. Give him a price range and he will take it from there.

A big difference with the balnks are sensitivity and weight of the blank.

The big difference for me between a low end and $100+ rods are the feel you get. I can feel the bites and the bottom much better on a nicer rod which will catch you more fish. I would rather have one really good rod than 5 of the cheaper ones and I fished with cheap rods most of my life.

It took me a long time before I would accept the fact that a high dollar priced rod is worth it's cost. I didn't know and couldn't tell much seeing the rods, but then I look at the price tag and !!!!. Years ago I decided to buy my first $100 rod, a St.Croix Premier. I didn't think much about it and was upgrading from my Cheapo Walmart rods. I have about a dozen rods already and this one rod showed me, that I had wasted all that time and money and was missing out on some fishing experience. All of a sudden, I could cast faster, more accurate, less effort. I could dance my jigs, poppers, spooks, and jerkbaits with ever greater control and precision on hook sets. Soon after that I still couldn't afford the high dollar rods, but I look even harder for those value rods in the mid-range price. Found some here and there. It has only been recently in the last few years that I've saved enough to buy a few St.Croix LE's and these rods have me completly blown away. My reels even worked better on these rods, than on my other rods.

I will never criticize someone for their expensive rods. I can say the exact same thing about expensive reels and customizing them. I still haven't figure out what I would want in a custom rod yet.

I have a cabelas fish eagle 2 6' medium, fast action. I like that way better than the 2 piece shakespere that my dad borrowed me. I think the fish eagle rod was around $60 if I remember right. The shakespere has been around for a long time so I am not sure what that was worth when it is new. When I bought all my stuff this year, the guy at Cabelas directed me to the $200-$300 rod range. I wanted to slap him for not listening. I will upgrade my heavier rod hopefully next spring. So maybe Thorne will have a good sale when I want to upgrade.

Another thing to look for the difference in the rods are the line guides. A lot of your low end rods have stainless steel line guides or a rather large ceramic ring. The large ceramic ring along with the heftly frames takes away from the action and feel of the rod. Even the aluminum oxide ceramic ring have differences in material quality. For example you will see a rod with the tag on it saying it has Fuji Hardloy guides or Fuji Alconite guides. At the bottom end for Fuji is Hardloy, then comes, Alconite, then comes SiC (Silicon Carbide) guides. Following this example, look at a St.Croix Premiere and it comes with Fuji Hardloy guides and the next model up the St.Croix Avid and it comes with Fuji Alconite Guides.

Here are some info about guide rings material hardness (copied and pasted from Tackletour).

Hardness values:
Stainless Steel (SS): 400
Chrome: 800-1000
Carbaloy: 1000
Aluminum Oxide: 1200-1400
Alconite : 1300-1500
NanoLite : 1800
Zirconia: 1000-1400
Zirconia PVD: 1600
SiC: 2200-2400

Light guides definitely, especially on light equipment. The heavier the guides the more it dampens the blank action, but there reaches a point where you cannot get any lighter and still have hard enough guides. Also single foot guides, where they are strong enough, reduce the amount of wrapping needed which can also dampen a blank's natural action, although they are not strong enough for all kinds of applications. Additionally some lines are "sharper" than others and require harder guides.

The ability to handle the weight of the lines and baits or lure you are using is a primary consideration. That is the ultimate bottom line, not just feel for bites, but how it casts and how it fights fish once you hook them. IOW how it balances with the rest of the presentation.

Personally I also find that decorative windings distract me from fishing. I want as plain a rod as possible, regardless of the quality. For me you can put the decorations in a museum; at times I will actually remove decals from what I fish with. I always remove that "made in China" sticker.

All the technical stuff aside, the best rod is the one you catch the most fish on. Quite honestly, it doesn't have to be a $300 or even a $50 rod. I caught most of my fish this past year on rods that cost me as little as $5.00; none of my summer rods cost me more than $20. I pick them pretty carefully, since most everything at that price level is junk, but not all of it is. My buddy's main rod cost him nothing. I fished that one out through the ice two winters ago and gave it to him, and it was a cheap stick to begin with. He has become a master using it with the little jigs not only for crappies, but also for some very nice oversized fish.

One of the things that expensive rods can do is show you what to look for in the bargain rack.

It really does boil down to what you catch fish with. That is your best rod. You pick that one through experience.

To start out there is probably no better advice than to talk to one who customizes rods for all kinds of different personal use, and there aren't many anywhere as experienced or do a better job of that than Lonnie in the Thorne brothers rod shop. Then fish and fish and fish to find out exactly what you personally need b]and like[/b]. If you don't like fishing with it, it makes no difference what kind of quality a rod has, because you won't use it enough to appreciate the quality.