Rod Info

[Red Owl]

You can pay any where from a few bucks to a thousand "ish" for a fly rod. I know that if you pay more you get more but what are the features gained from the more expensive rods? Lighter and stronger? Able to cast more easily or farther? Etc.
For a beginning trout rod, say a 9' 5wt. for nymph and dries, what would be a good starting choice (i.e. fairly reasonable on cost)? For example, is there a breaking point, such as rods under $50.00 are worthless, or, is it rods under $100 worthless, etc.
Thanks for any help.

 

[tlcrep]

You can pay any where from a few bucks to a thousand "ish" for a fly rod. I know that if you pay more you get more but what are the features gained from the more expensive rods? Lighter and stronger? Able to cast more easily or farther? Etc.
For a beginning trout rod, say a 9' 5wt. for nymph and dries, what would be a good starting choice (i.e. fairly reasonable on cost)? For example, is there a breaking point, such as rods under $50.00 are worthless, or, is it rods under $100 worthless, etc.
Thanks for any help.

I would say rods under $89 are going to be pretty poor. And as far as rod cost, there are a couple of factors that go into price
1) the quality of the components (the rod will cast just as nicely, but has better eye candy
2) warranty, they have to figure that you will break the rod and they will have to send you a brand new rod. Shipping is probably only about $13. A korean rod only costs about $20 -$50 to make, that includes, from what I am told by rod manufacturers in the business the tfo Deer Creek. So if tfo make $125 of a ticr, and it is broke at the butt 6 times, 6 x 33 (oh, forgot, inside knowledge says a ticr only costs tfo $33 to be made (for the whole rod, not counting shipping to the US) = $188 + (25-13 =12 x6 = 72) tfo is losing money on that rod. It is late so I am probably making some silly math mistakes.
3) Some company's sell a made in the USA rod for $350 that is as nice as a $600 sage. Consumers would happily pay $1.99 for a bag of "poop" if the bag had a sage logo on it, so why shouldn't Sage be making the money? (they dont, but they figuratively could)