I just spent a week in Montana using a 25-year old rod, a $40 reel, whatever fly line was on the reel, wearing sub-$100 waders and my no-longer-waterproof duck hunting coat, with a $20 waist pack holding the few extra items that wouldn't fit in my pockets. Caught enough fish my arm will need to regrow. Only thing that would have improved it is me not tying up a bunch of flies on some store brand hooks instead of the ones I normally use. None of that high end gear (hooks aside, and I could have just CHECKED the damn hooks as I fished to prevent missing fish) would have resulted in me catching any more, bigger, or prettier fish.