Are cheap poles worth it?

I don't fish the pole myself, but my Dad is looking for a new one so thought I might be able to glean some advice from you guys!!

I've had a look on the web for deals and have seen some websites selling carp poles for ?50 (rated to 20 elastic, 1075gm @ 11m). Would a pole at this price be totally useless, or is it a good deal? Would it be more than adequate for someone like my Dad who probably only gets a dozen sessions in a year??

Bearing in mind his current pole is a 15 year old 8 metre glass fibre telescopic...

Any advice greatly received!!

I`m really a carp angler, but I did buy a few cheap poles for me and the lad when he was young, and they did produce the goods. I suppose these experts will argue forever more on the virtues of more expensive models, I really wouldnt know, but for us they do the trick, I think the old addage of you get what you pay for has long gone out of the window in these days of the rip off era, I`d give them a try.

i own and use a dragon carp kickstart ?49 11mtr pole and have fitted it out with some
black hydro and its handled carp to 5lb+
and i got a free poleroller and floats with
it,one thing with cheeper poles is they're
more flexable (bendy)which some see as bad
but i think it helps as it makes the pole
less brittle.

Kickstart special offer

I have one of the 8m starter poles (rated to 10 elastics) from WMAC in my rodbag. Its useful for fishing the margins for silverfish when bites are hard to come by with a running line. All in all its a good starter kit for silver fish, coming ready elasticated with size 4 elastic,an additional flick tip, some ready rigs and roller. All you need to add is a disgorger,plummet (maybe a landing net) and bait and you are ready to fish.

There's nothing wrong with a cheap pole for the occasional fishing session but your decision should be governed by the availability and price of spares. At some point you are likely to break a section or two - maybe two or three years down the line- and I somehow doubt that you will be able to easily get spares for many of the unknown brand budget poles on the market when that happens, if you can source them at all. I would suggest that you look at the budget end of the well known brands - they'll probably cost a little more but you can usually get spares without too many problems.

try buying secondhand was a bit of a traditionalist [ rod and line ] but bought a cheap second and now enjoy it thoughroly