ULTIMATE Trout Fishing Rod/Reel Buyers Guide (All budgets) 

Novice lake trout angler here and this video is very helpful! I think i will get an okuma pro rod based on your enthusiasm! Thank you for the tip!

Thanks I just bought a pflueger President 25 and I already had A Okuma celilo!

That was an awesome vid bud sad season is done here but I get t next year for now I will be watching you and opening up some MTBs on Christmas !

Great vid.

The Okuma Celilo/president combo was my first combo I ever bought for myself. I had so much fun catching trout with that combo. Definitely would recommend for people starting out and want something good and inexpensive

You're correct sir on how can Okuma make money selling the Celilo Rods at those low MSRP's? And quality built as well.

Yeah I’m doing the Celilo president combo. Just came into these. Excited to test them out . Good video . Every try Berkeley fluroshield. It’s cheap and effective

The GX2 is a ridiculously good rod and reel combo. I have it and the Shakespeare micro-series combo and there's no contest. The reel is insanely good for the price. Smooth, fantastic casts, superb reeling. The Rod is nimble but feels really durable and I like the sensitivity a lot. I think it's perfect for anyone just starting out. I do plan on getting a President, but right now I'm looking for a matching reel for a Kast King Centron 500. Great videos btw. Also: I think you forgot to link the beat but I found it just by copy/pasting the text.

Ive been rocking a shimano sedona 10p0 with and B&M TCB rod.

My trout combo runs at $500 even daiwa kage lt 1000 ($200) and a phoenix redeye trout/fly travel rod 7ft ($300) love the combo so much

I own a couple of Phenix rods for saltwater fishing and bass fishing, although I don't own any of their ultra light rods I have held and used their mirage and elixir rods they are light, sensitive and have great hook up rates and if you pair a nice light reel you will have a really nice light setup. And here in SoCal you'll see plenty of guys using their elixirs and mirages at the local lakes and ponds and It is quite a popular choice. Overall Phenix makes phenomenal rods for all applications and If you want a Cadillac setup for trout fishing I would definitely recommend Phenix's ultra light rods. Also great video :) 👍

Bought the Celilo based on your review and I LOVE that rod. Paired it with a Shimano Sahara 1000 with 8lb braid.

Best video I ever seen really awesome I haven’t see all your videos, but I would like to have multiple opinions on 200-300 budget

I just picked up a 6' Okuma Celilo and a size 20 pfluger pres. and I would suggest to go with the 25 size for the bigger spool diameter to increase casting distance. I ended up pairing it with a 1000 daiwa regal, it has 9bb+1, great drag and casting distance with a little wider spool all for around the same price

I bought this rod and caught a fish i could see through. Paired it with a Scheels Daiwa One. This combo is great

I think I've finally seen enough hype for the Celilo to grab one for myself. I have an 66mf ugly stick with a 6.2:1 Lew's on it that has been really good with the stocker trout here this last week but I want to get them 1/8 and 1/16 ounce rooster tails out further. May end up with the pflueger president 30 while I'm at it. I just switched all my reels to flouro this year and now I'm looking at these trout setups and it's all braid.

I'm old school I love my ugly stick and vintage Mitchell 300 but I do want to add something affordable and rugged that will cast farther

Currently for this year I bought a 8ft mod action Phenix Dragonfly rod paired with a Shimano Miravel 1000 and it’s a great feeling rod for the weight as well.

Headed to bass pro today to get 4 of the rods you sugessted. Rod 2 and rod 3. Already have the reels. Taking the fam fishing the next few months.

I own 4 Phenix rods and I can personally attest to there quality. I’ve been using Phenix rods for three years now and have never had any issues with tips breaking but I do baby my rods And reels..Phenix has an excellent warranty… The two elixirs I own I use for drop shot exclusively. I also own the Phenix feather light and it doesn’t feel as flimsy as the elixir but still super sensitive. I use that for spoons and kastmasters. I recently bought the Phenix dragonfly 8’ and its perfect for flinging tiny jigs. If you ever get a chance to fish with one you should!

6'6 Okuma Celilo paired with Okuma C20 or C30 Ceymar reel. Cant beat it.

I have a Penn Battle 3 2000 with a cheap 6' light/fast rod that I broke at trout camp. Looking for a new rod to replace it. I have a couple "mid level" (couple hundred $) fly rods, generally like ugly sticks for spinning and casting and Okuma for trolling. They are tough inexpensive and work well. I don't like too short of rods, but the 6' was an experiment, my Northern Michigan waters can be very small streams in very dense forest. After I broke my rod I threw the reel on an old, old 6'6" uglystick and really liked the way it cast. So my plan is to get a 6'6" Light/ Fast action in the $100 +/- range. Thanks for the info, just starting my research, I do have a couple rods in mind.

I have a St Croix trout series 5'10" rod paired with a Shimano 2000 twin power reel.

I might just get on a waiting list for the Okuma Guide . FENWICK has some good rod about same price. I have a few rods and reels. The FENWICK Eagle rod and the Lews American hero reel fit perfectly for under $150. The rel is a 2000 size but looks like a 1000 with a bigger spool. Its great. It's what I find myself using the most. The Okuma Celio is a great budget rod. The Shakespeare Micro Series rod are a very good budget rod. At about $20 they really have no competition . The Ugly Stik combos are a good deal just for the rod. You better have a backup reel. That is , if even want to mess with it. You might be better off sticking a Chinese reel on it .......the quality is likely better. Unless things have changed.

Try the fen wick eagle light rod it’s so good for the price

my 4'8 cought the most trout ever. gx2 UL ladies

I got a UGLY Stick GX2 medium heavy with Ugly reel 4000 for bass and catfish one piece for $59 bass pro shops or Cabela's like in my city. I'm very happy with it is my better rod other one's in in higher price I have not seen a big difference in bringing fish.

What is your opinion on the st croix legend elite panfish

How would you compare the actions between the GSP and the Elixir? I’m trying to decide between the two and i don’t have a shop nearby that stocks the GSP. I tend to like a more fast action on my ultralight rods.

What is your though on G. Loomis Trout series?

Best trout rod I used the “Shimano Cardiff Stream Custom S66UL-2” is $500+, and yes you heard me it’s a Shimano rod that you’ll never knew, because it only in Japan, if Shimano bring this rod to America the msrp will be around $700+ I just pair up with a Shimano Stella 1000SSP reel

Can you also catch salmon and or catfish on any of those rods??

Your high end rod pick was bougee. G loomis makes some excellent trout rods in the 3-500 dollar range and they leaps and bounds above anything on this list. The Stella is a flex reel honestly. But it is the best. So a g loomis rod and a Stella would be the crème de le creme of trout rods.

I’m looking for. A good Rod that I can fish trout magnets and spinners + Powerbait off the bottom. I want to catch rainbows browns and brookies that can reach up to around 15 inch’s in my area my budget is 200$ any good ideas?

Is the ugly stil gx2 collapseble (7')

BPS branded rods are consistently better than price point. When 13 fishing first started to enter the north American market, after having been a JDM product for years, they offered a range of rods which were better than price point in order to attract brand loyalty. Its hard to tell without handling a rod what the blank will really feel like, because the specifications from manufacturer to manufacturer (or assembler to assembler) are not the same. When they talk about 40ton graphite, or GXII blanks, or spiral wrap, or multidirectional fibers, or whatever standard they use is pretty opaque and not comparable to others because they are protecting the more proprietary carbon fiber technology developments but also trying to get customers excited about those new developments. But the first generation Omen rods were obviously better than their similarly priced St Croix mojo bass contemporary of the day. Why is that? how can companies make profit like that? If you handle a rod made 30 years ago sold at a mid level price point from one manufacturer in one action and compare it to a rod from the same manufacturer in the same action and same price point today you'll quickly realize that blanks have gotten better because the materials are space age materials now being made available to factories that make fishing rods, its not the consequence of any other factors but that. We're in a golden age of fishing equipment development with everything getting better quite rapidly and companies willing to invest in somewhat risky ventures to put technologies into their products because they predict that the consumer market will continue to be eager for more fishing combos in the future. Insiders with more direct access to the carbon fiber suppliers or involved with its development in general would have been able to tell that the product was being sold at a very slim or no profit margin but the company can afford to sustain such margins or loses as they try to capture a portion of the market. Its not clear if they are still doing things like that but I do occasionally see people fishing those more distinctive colorful 13 fishing reels especially the one that had no bearings that seemed to be innovative and capture the imagination of the consumer. The first generation omen rods disappeared really quick because they were great and presumably the company never intended to manufacture all that many as part of its ongoing overseas production runs - but they always intended to ship them to north America and make a name for themselves here. BPS seems to be making their rods in house, at a slim margin relatively speaking, and selling them like that consistently, simply to maintain that brand loyalty and bring customers into their huge stores to get a rod you can't get anywhere else - its a solid business model. You need to make the business also a destination to bring customers into the store. Great staff, pro demonstrations and other events help do that but also having a product no one else has is great. Customers will buy things off the shelf on impulse and at a premium price if they come into the store to get one item that they had hunted for and researched for for a long time because they are already in the store and already aiming to spend money. Most other products at bass pro which are carried by other brick and mortar retailers are a bit more expensive at BP like Rapala and Shimano and things you can find in just about any fishing store or ordered from online will be cheaper - but there are other negative components to ordering from distributors besides sticker cost. Companies go belly up all the time who were selling Rapala for cheaper but they couldn't get the customers in fast enough. But bass pro has one of the best websites for fishing stuff, with the product descriptions and review section being very good, and bass pro does other customer services things the right way too. Some of the clothing is ultra cheap too, and has limits on how many customers can buy. Tackle warehouse is actually similar if you look closer its an apparel store that sells some fishing stuff too. Basspro is a manufacturer I believe and they make hats and fishing stuff. Branded hats are a big deal for the Americans but I'm convinced all the textiles come from overseas regardless.

Setup #2 links appear to be incorrect.

Did you say 7'-8' Rod for trout? That's a new one to me but hey man whatever you like,I've just never heard of that big a rod for trout. EDIT: OH your talking about lake trout,my bad.

4ft 8 to 5 ft for trout stream cant handle 7ft for stream

Dude I think I live close to you. Mt shasta ca

What line setup do your run on the #4 combo ?

FYI...Your Okuma Celilo link that you gave goes to the wrong amazon page. Wrong product. May want to update that. - Thxs

The Okuma rod link is bad.

No St.croix? C’mon lol.

Go JDM and never look back.

I have a phenix elixir and mirage but I always go back to my gsp