Tackle Opinions

Looking to upgrade/revamp my rod and reels set ups. Want about 4-5 set ups to cover most bass fishing techniques in the south. Mostly Spillway and Venice fishing. Looking for some 300-500 dollar combos (or less). Love to stick within a brand if possible. Let me know, love to hear some opinions.

Spinnerbait/ Crank Combo ?
Flippin Stick ?
Frog combo ?
Texas rig / jig ?

Spinner bait and crank bait I use same rod set up, standard 7\\\' medium heavy with a 6.4/1 reel. I have abu garcia reels on all-star rods. My frog rod an my light weight flipping rod(3/16 oz) is 7\\\'fast medium heavy all-star with 7.1/1 reel these are lews then I have 2 meat sticks for punching. One is a okuma 7\\\'3\\\' heavy with a ardent 7.5/1 flipping reel for 3/4 and 1 oz weight and the big daddy is a 7\\\'11. X-heavy okuma with a ardent flipping reel 7.5/1 for 1 1/4 to 2 oz weight. Have plenty others in my boat but thats the ones that always hit the deck on a trip. Hope this helps. I fish the south in heavy cover 95%of the time. Tight lines

I personally love the Lew's brand and got real good deal on high-speed(lethal with swimbaits,spinnerbaits)reel,think 8.3/1 ratio mated to medium heavy Lews Tournament TP1 rod,has toasted some big ole reds up to about 27 inches and does even better job on bass,they got NO chance with dat set-up and I started using Suffix Advance Fluro in 17 lb test,again bass and reds got NO chance with that set-up.

Mandevillian

Shimano Metaniums all around. Order on ebay and save 100 bucks a reel compared to TW.

I used to use almost exclusively Shimano reels,had MAJOR bearing issues with a few,returned one to Gus's,had issues with replacement reel and found out from few gents that repair reels dat Shimano AINT what dey used to be and price aint come down so I shy away from Shimano.They must have had vastly inferior bearings in quite a few reasonably expensive(roughly $200 reels,not inexpensive in anyone's opinion)and whoever steered me to Lew's stated the case that plenty guides are SPONSORED by Shimano and HAVE to feature their gear aboard just like lotta guides sponsored by soft plastic manufacturers and guess what they EXCLUSIVELY feature(definitely NOT CUSTOM swimbaits)!!!Just my humble 0.02!!

Mandevillian

I own 6 Metaniums. They are impressive.
FYI...If it don't say 'Made in Japan'. I'm not buying it.

Well dat is fine but ya ain’t gonna believe this-just yesterday CCAguns and I fished together and we saw a familiar face headed towards Lake and turned out to be someone I had met about a year ago. Texted her and we chatted about four hours later and she indicated that she was just getting back into chasing reds and I told her about our catch and she asked about lure selection and I mentioned use of finely tuned baitcasters. Turns out she had my experience with Shimano though spinning gear and CCAguns told me his brother’s unfortunate situation with fairly expensive Shimano spinning reel and he further advised that after a whopping THREE years,Shimano quits making parts how bout DAT for customer service. Ya can have ALL the Shimano’s ya want as far as I am concerned🎩😜

Mandevillian,Lew’s ALL de way.

If you are willing to spend that much. Why not get custom rods made. My brother builds awesome rods. D&T custom rods. You could get color and design scheme you want. He personalizes them with name tags or anything else you want. You can go from a very solid work horse rod, to a top of the line fully custom rod. it all depends on your budget.