Thread: am I cheap?

I had a rich older friend that hired a guide 3 days a week (paid him in cash every time) and always invited a buddy along. He had dozens of rods with Shimano Stella and Daiwa Steez reels. He had the most expensive rods he could find. Sometimes I brought my own rods (built by me) and sometimes I used his. We were vertically jigging walleyes and I had my St. Croix SCIV 63MXF with a little Pflueger President. We were all boating eater walleyes. He told me I had to try one of his "good rods". Well, I couldn't tell the difference between the Stella or the Steez, and my little President was just as smooth. His rod handles were too long for fishing in MN in October with a winter coat and a life jacket on. I could feel bites better on my rod. The most expensive reels I buy are Pflueger Supremes (because they are very light).

like my daddy taught me many years ago ....something is only worth what someone will actually pay for it . that said I can hurt fish with cheap equipment pretty well and it probably wouldn't be fair to the fish for me to own the expensive stuff ......

I dabble at fly fishing and one of my favorite outfits is a old standby Pflueger rod and reel, probably around $100 total.
I was in a reel repair shop in the Oregon boonies and I saw a Sage fly rod on a rack of used rods. I asked how much and he said a guy was down on his luck and he bought it from him and he wanted $100 for it. I only had to think a minute, because this is a $400 rod. I also bought the reel that was with it. $50 for a $200 Orvis reel.
Bottom line, I can't tell a dimes difference in the two outfits and I am scared to death I am going to slam the Sage in a door or trunk lid.
I've had several fellow fly fishers do a blind test using both and they could not tell any difference either.
Course we just good old country boys so what do we know?

Originally Posted by deathb4disco

Something I said before bears repeating:

LOL,I have all his books. Love his writing.

Originally Posted by Locator79

A quality rod is worth every penny...I can feel fish look at my jig with some of my Loomis rods. Not saying you should go buy one, not saying they aren't pricey. To each their own, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

So that's what you do with all the money I send you for those gently used rods/reels I've bought from you off the Classifieds ...

Seriously though ... I haven't made a bad deal with this man on the products he's sold to me, and I'm still using all of them !!

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

So that's what you do with all the money I send you for those gently used rods/reels I've bought from you off the Classifieds ...

Seriously though ... I haven't made a bad deal with this man on the products he's sold to me, and I'm still using all of them !!

I admit....I'm a junkie with no intentions of stopping.

Something I forgot to add in my previous post; I had a guy in Lawton, OK make me a Lamiglas 6' pistol grip rod in the 70's to hold my 5001c Ambassaduer reel that was the best I could have thought of at the time. The rod had my name on it before the finish was applied. That rod was stolen by a neighbor shortly after returning to FL a few months later, never saw it again. Kinda skewed my thinking on high end rods.

To each his own, but in my opinion no reel is worth $799.00. Again just my opinion... anyone who pays that much for reel is trying to impress.