Quote Originally Posted by Allan View Post
This reminds me of a few threads on this site in which I was chastised for my comments about 'inexpensive' rods, wherein I stated I prefered comfort, reasonable casting, reasonable quality, 'Plain Jane' cosmetics, cheap cork and reel seat over such things as: 'grade A' cork, stainless this and that, architecturally designed something, state of the art that thing, etc. I was reprimended with the old saying that, "You get what you pay for". Well, it appears that while I fish comfortably, happily and without fear of damaging my $$$s rod, there are those who truly get what they pay for - they get a 'Royal Screw'.
Oh, and from a comfort, casting, action, big fish fighting and overall functional perspective, I'll put my very inexpensive 9', 5wt rod up against anyones TOTL equivelant anytime. Actually, I have and, more often then not, it came out on top even by the other rods' owner.
I fish everything from TOTL to pretty ordinary rods and when salmon fishing (where lots of rods get broken) or dry fly fishing for grayling (where soft is just fine) I will use cheap rods and enjoy them.

But if wind has to be bucked or really big bugs need heaving a stiffer, better rod is often required. Cheaper stiffer rods weigh a lot more than TOTL stuff and that is a huge difference.

The skill set the caster has is the real difference between how well rods work. And the line is actually the biggest limit to the entire set-up short of the caster.

If you cannot cast into the backing every time you may want to be careful about betting on any rod...