cheap vs expensive gear

hi just wondering what the people thought of cheap fishing tackle in general?. i know a old timer who uses really cheap gear and tackle (fladen stuff mostly) and always catches good amounts of carp and bream, he is generally looked down on by others who use very expensive stuff but the thing is they never really catch any fish....

The main difference i can see between cheap and expensive is the quality of the finish, they seem to function the same tho (apart from reels imo).

Buy on quality and you buy once, buy on price, you buy twice.

Does that make sense?

Also, you buy quality items like Shimano reels or Preston rods say and when you've used them for 5-10 years decide to sell to upgrade, they'll still fetch a really good price on Ebay. I'm afraid the old timer's Fladen, although it is reasonable and performs well enough, will fetch damn all when he comes to sell it. But, it's your choice......

luremanmike said:

hi just wondering what the people thought of cheap fishing tackle in general?. i know a old timer who uses really cheap gear and tackle (fladen stuff mostly) and always catches good amounts of carp and bream, he is generally looked down on by others who use very expensive stuff but the thing is they never really catch any fish....

The main difference i can see between cheap and expensive is the quality of the finish, they seem to function the same tho (apart from reels imo).

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I'll get hung drawn and quartered for this....

I'm strictly leisure/pleasure type, been back fishing for about two years after twenty year lay off. When I came back I spent months reading, researching and physically checking shed loads of different tackle before making any purchases. Normally I go for quality rather than price. I used to think it was false economy going for cheap(er) things. I am very demanding and it takes a lot to impress me.

My personal view, and it is my view only (before anybody gets offended or defensive!) is that there is a huge amount of tackle tart snobbery in the fishing world. I've noticed some of the cheaper suppliers get a lot of unfair and biased criticism. Just my experience.

I went down the cheap route and have no regrets whatsoever. I have had a lot of Dragoncarp tackle without any problems and I am more than happy with what I bought and the quality.


My little red rocket, 10' "carbonactive" float rod that cost ten quid from Sir Roger and "Jooleh" was my bargain of the decade. On Friday it handled a 11lb Mirror no probs. Over the last twelve months it's had loads of use and abuse from my eight year old son. Love it to bits. It even managed very well with a 6lb salmon which we caught accidently while fishing for river perch!

I was so impressed with the red rocket I bought the RDX2 11' Pellet/Waggler yesterday at the Uttoxeter Tackle Tour. I'm no expert but I think this is an excellent rod. To the untrained (me!) it's light as a feather, ultra slim, no marks, blemishes or scratches. I'm amazed!
I can't believe the quality for twenty quid. I'm looking forward to testing it tomorrow.

Also, have three cracking Okuma reels that were all less than fifty quid each.

Like most industries there will be a lot of cheap sheyet out there and you do have to be careful. However, overall I'm very impressed with the quality of the tackle I have bought so far.

Getting the cheap(er!) stuff has got me and my son into fishing. If we had bought expensive it would have been prohibitive and we probably wouldn't have bothered.

On a shelf in my garage is a Shakespeare Omni telescopic spinning rod that I bought in 1989. It's travelled all over the world and caught more species than I can name - it's personal best is a 24lb Chinook Salmon caught in 1990. If I'm going away on a trip that rod is still the first thing that goes into my suitcase. The late Barrie Rickards swore by Omnis. Yet at the time they were regarded as cheap gear.

My point is that cheap gear can be quality gear and give honest service for as long as you need it to. Gear doesn't catch fish, all it needs to do is allow you to land what you've hooked and if it does that then why worry. People talk about gear that is a pleasure to use and sometimes this is top money stuff, but not always and it pays to search out those humble gems.

For much of the last two years a good bit of my barbel fishing has been done with an old cane rod and an equally old Grice and Young centre pin that cost me £35 and £11. Through my own incompetence I managed to break the rod, but for the princely sum of £12 I managed to obtain a new center section and the Lazarus Avon picked up its bed and walked.

Having said that I had a waggle of an Orvis Zero Gravity fly rod on Saturday and I was smitten!

i have some expensive items of tackle ,some mid range & some cheapo budget stuff .so long as it does what i require ,i'll use whatever tool fits the job .i don't see too much difference apart from names and weight .after all ,the only thing tackle catches is anglers ,i catch the fish .

chavender said:

i have some expensive items of tackle ,some mid range & some cheapo budget stuff .so long as it does what i require ,i'll use whatever tool fits the job .i don't see too much difference apart from names and weight .after all ,the only thing tackle catches is anglers ,i catch the fish .

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Absolutely right, tackle does catch anglers. I got caught by a Marco Cortesi centrepin yesterday. I didn't go out to buy it, I didn't need it, it wasn't on my list but it hooked me!

i had a Marco Cortesi centrepin sneak up ,and take me by suprize ,my brother got me one for my birthday ,its with my other centrepins ,i just have too find a use for it

I have a ron thompson war lord barbel rod 1.75lb and it is a very good carp rod has a through action and is much nicer to play fish on than my fox warrior carp rod (in my view an expensive rod)yet ron thompson rods get slated on barbel forums etc .

My brother has just bought the updated version called a godfather on my recomendation these rods cope with 3 ounce leads and pva bags no problem ,I cast mine too far today .

I have had a dragon carp 13ft rod that was amazing till I broke it in the van .

As far as I'm concerned, modern fishing gear, rods and reels in particular, are much like cars. There's very little that's really bad these days. You can get perfectly good fishing gear for not a great deal of money. However, if you can afford it, it's nice to have top end clobber. No different to cars, a Ford will get you from A to B quite nicely. However, how many of us would turn down an Aston Martin if we had the money? Granted, some would, most wouldn't. That's the way of the world. As long as people don't assume that because they have expensive gear (or car) it automatically makes them a better angler (or driver) it's really not something for anyone else to worry about, other than the owner, how they choose to spend their money.

Would I buy Fladen gear? No. Do I assume that anyone fishing with it is automatically an inferior angler? No. Would I swap my gear for Fladen? Not a chance. If I owned Fladen gear, would I swap it for top end clobber if someone was daft enough to offer? Absolutely.

Tackle is the tools that let us do the job. Experience and skill will catch you more than owning the best gear on the planet.

I started off with cheap gear - it was all i could afford. I never felt it blighted a fishing session - I was even the more pleased to suceed using it.

This is not a dig at Carp anglers, but the modern carp scene must look extravagantly exclusive - rod pods, a bivvy, bed chair - probably several hundred pounds before even talking about rods and terminal tackle. It is great to aspire to owning this stuff - only that new carp anglers (and by this I mean school kids) - think they need this expensive stuff to actually catch carp. I've seen it many times - christmas comes and provides most of this flash stuff - but often in less than a years time its been flogged or never used. Worse still, disatisfaction because they haven't got the 'right' stuff.

Best to start off cheap and then build up.

You can still buy cheapish and buy branded. Daiwa and shimano rods and reels for £30 odd each, maver and garbolino are knocking out short float and feeder rods for less than that. They are popular with the match boys who are happy to shell out the better part of a grand on a seatbox.

I am one of those who doesn't buy very expensive, neither do I buy cheap. Mid price range rods by Drennan are some of the best on the market.

As regards lines, well for fly fishing I tend to buy Shakespeare which is mid range and is excellent. I don't buy expensive fly reels because they are not worth the money and are more a fashion statement if you ask me.

Lines for coarse fishing include Daiwa Sensor, Krystonite, Pro Gold and Incognito hook lengths.

I tend to stay with Drennan and Kamasan for virtually all my hooks.

As regards coarse reels, I buy the very best I can afford. I don't buy reels very often and expect them to last for at least 10 years. I have recently acquired a Daiwa TDX 3012. I expect this reel to outlive me by a considerable number of years.

I tend to agree with Ron on this one. In general terms tackle today is far superior to the tackle available in the past so there is no need to spend a fortune.
Tackle needs to be reliable and really cheap and nasty stuff can cost fish. On the other hand there is no need to spend a fortune. The current range of Drennan rods are absolutely superb and not at all expensive. The last three rods I have bought have been Drennan. I still swear by Shimano reels and the ones I buy are reasonably priced. There are some very good lines available at a low price, Diawa Sensor being a prime example.
I am very fussy with items like hooks, nets etc. and buy whatever the best available for my purposes at the time is.
For bite alarms, pods etc. Fox make some really good stuff at low prices. They also make some very good luggage.

Pretty much agree with what everybody else is saying here, mid price range stuff is more than adequate although i do like to use shimano reels.

Ive been impressed with Korums range of rods, not dirt cheap and not overly expensive worth looking at.

I have acquired a lot of stuff in my life second hand, including some really top class fly rods such as Sage. Provided you know the owner, second hand rods and reels are well worth looking at, and you can save yourself a fortune.

But don't buy ropey stuff second hand, only the best. FS reels should be Shimano or Daiwa, nothing less. Fly reels and centre pins tend not to wear out like FS reels, although the top named fly and centre-pin reels tend to hold their price. Always keep the box and instructions safe, these will help maintain a good price if you sell the reel. Some reels are so well made, you never become the owner, you are in fact the custodian and when you die it passes on to who you bequeath it, that's if of course you don't decide to sell it.

I would love to own a Lythe centre-pin, but I'm afraid if I order one, I will be long gone by the time the reel is built.

It is impossible to be on one side or other of this 'debate' I've got loads of gear from expensive to cheap. Yet certain bits of equipment are more used than others - as they just seem to work well together.

An example of this is my Shakespeare Quo gold match rod £30 - coupled with a Diawa 123m closed face reel £20, an outfit which is more readily reached for than my Diawa Spectron £200 and TDR £130 combo.

The amount of tackle tarts in the carp world is a joke. The most popular threads on a certain carp forum is about whose tackle is the nicest and the shinest, nothing about function all about formmg:

Budget stuff has got very good, particularly rods, and generally performs well. However I would agree with the comment about cheap reels. In the last 5 years I've bought four cheap daiwa reels for occasional use and three where shot after a season.

The price of top end stuff doesn't seem to have changed very much. I'm sure top end coarse rods 15 years ago where around £200 and they still are.

blackstar said:

Absolutely right, tackle does catch anglers. I got caught by a Marco Cortesi centrepin yesterday. I didn't go out to buy it, I didn't need it, it wasn't on my list but it hooked me!

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A most excellent reel I would recommend anyone starting into centrepin fishing on a budget buy one, then before you put the line on, while you are watching television spin the reel back and forwards for a while and you will be surprised as to how well they perform. Yes the level of inspection for smoothness and quality may be a lot less than some other manufacturers and perhaps they don't use the very best bearings they could and yes you can get a duff one.

You can get duff goods from any manufacturer.

I have used centrepins since 1953 and have them over a very wide price range including Zen Master, Marco Cortesi, Truepin Trotters, top end Okuma's, a load of J W Young reels and a couple of hand made reels.

---------- Post added at 04:09 ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 ----------

A while ago I went nuts (yes I probably am still crazy...hehehe) and decided to bite the bullet after being asked by non anglers about tackle and costs.

I bought and tested lots of tackle and I am still writing some up and have a lot more to write up even put the results of the first 12 rods on my website - which is just a website I did for fun as I don't sell anything. Go and have a look at what I thought of the first 12 cheap rods I have put up but remember its just my personal opinion and it will naturally be flavoured by my personal style and tastes but it is a totally independent review.

watatoad

Cheap vs Expensive gear

watatoad said:

A most excellent reel I would recommend anyone starting into centrepin fishing on a budget buy one, then before you put the line on, while you are watching television spin the reel back and forwards for a while and you will be surprised as to how well they perform. Yes the level of inspection for smoothness and quality may be a lot less than some other manufacturers and perhaps they don't use the very best bearings they could and yes you can get a duff one.

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With respect to 'watatoad' I think that that there's more in this post than first meets the eye. The Marco Coresti centre pin has been scrutinised by many and as one poster here said, it is a better reel than it has any right to be at that price. But in the debate between cheap and expensive gear what actually stops it catching fewer fish than say a Chris Lythe Reel?

If its about wanting to own an expensive reel (Chris Lythe) because you've worked hard, come into some money or because you just want one then I believe this isn't a debatable issue.

If its about how long a reel spins for? Then again its a different (and I would say pointless) debate.

If you look on the websites these for hand built reels and rods they all play up to the 'discerning angler' with 'specialist' needs this is still advertising that is designed to catch the angler - don't be fooled. But again, this is also about freedom of choice and a market economy.

For me the most important thing in angling is enjoyment. If you have all of the best gear, 'great'; if you have the satisfaction that you get all of your budget gear at low low prices, again 'great' - it doesn't matter. Most of us operate somewhere between these two extremes.

EDIT: I've just bought a 10ft John Wilson float rod - it cost me a penny less than £30, it has a great action and will be ideally suited to some of the smaller rivers that I'll be fishing next month if I break it whilst striking into some tree branches I won't worry, if I get that second hand Centre pin that I'm bidding on I'll have a new outfit for the rivers for less than £50.

We all have a budget and everyone's will be different.