>>974421Already been said but:
- Brand
- Action
- Power
- Lure/Line Raiting
- Baitcast/Spincast/Spinner/Fly/Ice/Cane Pole
If you want top-dollar then St. Croix makes some phenomenal spinning rods for trout with nice warranties depending on what model you go with... of course I can furnish a whole fucking tackle bag for their cost. Going inexpensive Berkley makes light and ultralight rods in their "AMP" line that feel amazing. Super sensitive tip perfect for small jig spinners, inlines, tiny crankbaits, etc... but their downside is pic related. Be prepared to replace the guides in short time if you're consistently hooking into 2+ lb fish or anything that fights particularly hard. I figure these rods are geared more toward sunfish, crappie and the like and I was hooking into 3+ lb largemouth and snakehead left and right. Still I was upset these guides went to shit in only a couple months.
General advice would be to avoid rods with similar looking guides to the Berkley AMP series. Next time you're at a BPS or the sort look at the guides on a basic model Berkley Lightning Rod and then look for a Berkley Lightning "Shock" rod and see the guides on that. The ones on the shock used to come on the original IM6 Lightnings as well and are far superior.than that super-soft steel they're throwing on their shit now.
As for reels I'm a fan of the Abu Cardinal SX line. Most of my spinning rods use an SX-10. Inexpensive and effective. You could spend way more on a spinning reel but I don't see the point. My cardinals are running several years strong fishing brackish water and with just a bit of cleaning/oiling/greasing.
