The 6 Best Fishing Rod and Reel of 2024 | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Owen James Burke

After new testing, we have a new top pick, the Ugly Stik Carbon Inshore Spinning Rod. The Ugly Stik Elite is our new runner-up, and our previous top pick, the Ugly Stik GX2, is now the budget pick.

You could easily spend thousands on a fishing rod that’s ultralightweight or designed for a specific species. However, most casual fishers—and even some experts—would be happier with something more versatile and less expensive.

We’ve spent hundreds of hours over the past decade testing spinning rods (and reels) for casual anglers on reasonable budgets, and right now our favorite all-around rod for most people is the Ugly Stik Carbon Inshore Spinning Rod. (Our new standalone guide to fishing reels is coming soon.)

It’s approachable enough for a novice to learn on, yet it performs well enough for a seasoned veteran to depend on. And it won’t give up its ghost without some considerable abuse.

Versatile enough to use on saltwater and fresh, this rod is as durable as a $100 fishing rod can be, and it comes with a great warranty. It’s only available as a one-piece rod, though, making it harder to store or travel with.

This rod offers a bit more finesse and forgoes some of the extra durability we recommend in our more saltwater-savvy top pick. It is, however, a little cheaper and potentially more travel-friendly.

Once known for its strength, durabilty, and versatility, this rod is still dependable and very affordable, even if no longer the leader it once was in those areas.

If you’re planning on fishing in the brine and giving your rod a little more of a run for its money, this is a sturdier but better balanced rod that will serve novices and inveterate anglers alike for many years. It is pricier, though, and has a short warranty.

If you’re fishing for small trout in small rivers and streams or panfish on ponds, this ultralight rod will provide the requisite stiffness and sensitivity.

If you’re heading into the surf, you’ll want a resilient but lightweight rod like this one so you don’t throw your arm out in a hurry.

You can spend a lot more than $100, but you don’t need to. Spend less, though, and your rod will hit the landfill before its time.

You want something light enough to fish with comfortably for hours but tough enough that a misplaced step won’t destroy it.

Fragile guides—the loops that your line runs through—are easy to break (ruining your rod) or damage (which can ruin your line).

Some rods carry only a year’s warranty, others—including three of our picks—are warrantied for seven years.

Versatile enough to use on saltwater and fresh, this rod is as durable as a $100 fishing rod can be, and it comes with a great warranty. It’s only available as a one-piece rod, though, making it harder to store or travel with.

The Ugly Stik Carbon Inshore Spinning Rod is the first rod that strikes us as being worth making the jump up to the $100 range from our previous pick, the GX2, and is thoroughly more pleasant to handle and cast for hours on end, in our experience.

This graphite rod has enough dexterity and backbone to suit most saltwater and freshwater purposes, and it can stand up to misuse. It comes with the bombproof Ugly Tuff stainless steel guides, and the most generous Ugly Stik warranty: seven years.

However, the range of available sizes is smaller than those of our runner-up and budget picks. If you’ll be fishing mostly in freshwater, you might consider a rod from Ugly Stik’s very similar, slightly cheaper Carbon range, which does offer a larger range of sizes. The Carbon Inshore comes only as a single-piece rod, which means you can’t break it down for storage or traveling.

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This rod offers a bit more finesse and forgoes some of the extra durability we recommend in our more saltwater-savvy top pick. It is, however, a little cheaper and potentially more travel-friendly.

If you can’t find the Carbon Inshore rod, the Ugly Stik Elite is a decent alternative. It has the same great guides and warranty as our top pick, costs less, and comes in a wider range of sizes.

It’s not as sturdy, however, nor is it as versatile. Being stiffer and lighter—the shaft is made of a graphite-fiberglass blend—it’s best suited for freshwater lure fishing, though you can use it in saltwater. Some of the sizes do come in two-piece versions.

Once known for its strength, durabilty, and versatility, this rod is still dependable and very affordable, even if no longer the leader it once was in those areas.

Our former top pick, the Ugly Stik GX2, has been outclassed by its newer Ugly Stik siblings (now our top and runner-up picks). Still, this graphite-fiberglass hybrid is a dependable workhorse, especially when casting heavier lures, though it may be too stiff for bait and bottom fishing.

Keep in mind that this rod will break fairly easily, and casting and working a lure will be more of an effort than with our top pick, but you won’t do better on a budget, especially where the warranty is concerned. (It carries the same seven-year warranty as our other Ugly Stik picks.)

If you’re planning on fishing in the brine and giving your rod a little more of a run for its money, this is a sturdier but better balanced rod that will serve novices and inveterate anglers alike for many years. It is pricier, though, and has a short warranty.

Dial in the size and power right, and a Shimano Teramar will make for a fantastic all-around inshore rod for just about everything from jigging and popping to all forms of bait-fishing, though it really outshines the competition with lures within its recommended weight range.

The rod is equipped with very sturdy, well-positioned Fuji K-series Alconite guides and comfortable EVA foam handles.

Shimano breaks out this line of rods by region: We tested the NE, meant for fishing in the northeastern US, but you can choose from a wide range of sizes intended for southeastern waters, the Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico. However, none of them come in two-piece versions—so they’re harder to store and travel with—and Shimano provides just one-year warranties on its rods.

If you’re fishing for small trout in small rivers and streams or panfish on ponds, this ultralight rod will provide the requisite stiffness and sensitivity.

You can easily spend more on an ultralight setup for trout or panfish (sunfish and crappie), but the 5-foot-6-inch size of the Shimano Sensilite A that we tested was plenty lightweight and struck a balance that made casting (and catching) with light gear in tight quarters and fast water noticeably easier than with others.

It comes in a wider range of lengths than do most trout-specific rods, allowing you to choose the one that’d work best for where you tend to fish. The guides aren’t as sturdy as the ones on any of our other picks, though—step on one and you’ll break it. And Shimano’s warranty on the rod lasts just one year.

If you’re heading into the surf, you’ll want a resilient but lightweight rod like this one so you don’t throw your arm out in a hurry.

Though designed for use in surf and tidal rivers, the Tsunami Airwave Elite is not as beefy as most surf rods we’ve seen, and we found it light enough to use comfortably for hours.

It does have the same heavy-duty Fuji K-series Alconite guides as our upgrade pick—especially valuable in rough surf and around rocks—and it comes in a wide range of sizes.

The rods in all sizes disassemble into two pieces, but their ratio is 70/30, which is good for performance but not as convenient for travel as an even split would be. Tsunami, like Shimano, provides only a one-year warranty on its rods.

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I’m a United States Coast Guard–certified master captain, and I have been fishing since I could walk. I grew up working on charter boats in and around Long Island Sound, and reliable fishing gear has been paramount not only to my profession but also to my life.

Our primary recommendation is a perfectly serviceable, entry-level fishing rod for the entry-level and/or budget-minded dabbler, who may be a hapless sort of occasional angler, who’s never going to take apart their reel to clean it, probably forget to rinse it off more often than not, and almost certainly jam their rod tip in the doorway on their way in and out of the house on their half dozen or so annual outings.

But because there are so many different arenas in which to fish, we’re offering additional recommendations for trout streams and surf-casting.

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If you’re going to own only one fishing rod and reel, a spinning-rod-and-reel setup is the most versatile and the easiest to use.

Compared with a baitcasting or fly-fishing setup, for example, a spinning setup is more comfortable to use, less likely to tangle and cause headaches, and is usually easier to repair. It also requires less finesse to cast (and, generally speaking, catch fish). Think of it as the “automatic transmission” option.

In my 30-plus years of fishing, I’ve come to learn that when you’re shopping for fishing rods—as for any tool—paying a little attention to a few key features can be telling before you even pick up one. Here’s what I kept in mind when deciding which rods to test:

How much does the rod cost? At the $100 level, you’re going to get a spinning rod that can hit the waterfront as well as the bass pond and won’t give up its ghost before its time without some considerable abuse. You could easily spend $2,000 on a fishing rod if you’d like something ultralightweight or designed for a specific species you’re targeting, but our pick will get the job done almost as well (if not just as well) most of the time. Maybe someday you will want to make a big investment in your fishing gear, but it’s no place to start. Similarly, you could go cheaper, but then you’re looking at an exponentially shorter lifespan.

Does it come in multiple sizes and strengths? Most, though not all, fishing rods come in a variety of lengths, “powers” (what size fish it can handle), and stiffness or “action,” which ranges from slow (that is, soft and sensitive) to fast (stiff and maneuverable). Which you should choose will depend on where you plan to fish and what you plan to fish for. The important thing here is that you have enough options.

Will the rod itself perform well but also stand up to use? Most rods at the entry level are made from fiberglass, graphite, or a hybrid of the two. Graphite rods—or graphite-heavy hybrids—tend to be lighter and stiffer (“fast action”) but also more brittle, so you wouldn’t want to hand one to a 3-year-old. Fiberglass rods—and fiberglass-heavy hybrids—are heavier but more flexible (“slower action”) and more durable.

For a beginner, and especially one on a budget, a combination of graphite (predominantly throughout the blank, or stick part of the rod) and fiberglass (incorporated into the tip) offers a versatile package: It gives you enough stiffness to adequately manipulate a lure, while maintaining enough sensitivity for detecting small bites.

How sturdy are the guides? Another important specification you’ll want to consider is the material that makes up the guides—the loops that lead, or guide, the line from the reel to the tip of the fishing rod. Lower-end fishing rods, as well as many higher-end ones, usually feature guides made of either thin stainless steel or aluminum oxide (ceramic) frames holding cheap ceramic O-ring inserts (rings designed to protect fishing line as it whizzes in and out) that chip or corrode, and eventually fail. A bad step or fall can often trash a guide beyond functionality.

Additionally, the more pieces that make up the guide, the more potential it has to fall apart. A design with more pieces means more jointing and fastening, which usually requires glue. Since fishing rods are often exposed to sun, salt, sand, dirt, fish parts, and general wear and tear, glue is simply less than ideal, as is plastic, in novice (and less-careful) hands; a single piece of relatively rustproof metal is incomparably sturdier.

On rods in the $200 ballpark, as opposed to the $100-and-below range, you start seeing guides made of Alconite, a lightweight but sturdy ceramic; these are lighter than those made of aluminum oxide and tend to handle modern braid fishing line a bit better. They’re beyond the budget and requirements of most casual anglers, and most anglers won’t even notice the difference—I find that I don’t care one way or the other unless I’m dealing with larger fish in the surf.

How accurately are the guides placed? In any rod costing less than about $250, guide placement is done by machine, which means they’re not terribly consistent. Guide placement becomes more essential in distributing strain throughout the rod when you’re making extraordinarily long casts and fighting larger species, which is not something the average angler will put their gear through. If you do happen to be fishing big game, you’ll be wise to step up in price range, or find a good deal at a garage sale. Still, we kept an eye on this.

What is the warranty? Warranties for spinning rods can vary widely, even among brands under the same corporate umbrella. Penn, Shakespeare, and Ugly Stik are all owned by Pure Fishing, but Ugly Stik’s warranty is far better than what the other two brands offer.

Is the rod one piece, or does it break down into two or three pieces? A one-piece rod offers better stiffness and more control—fewer pieces make for fewer problems with durability and performance, although portability suffers. However, not all rods, nor all sizes of rods, come in both single-piece and multiple-piece options. For this reason, we didn’t weigh this aspect heavily in our recommendations.

What style and material is the grip? Grips are a matter of personal choice and availability. (Here, too, the rod you like, in the length and weight you need, may not come in multiple grip options, so we don’t stress grip options as much below.) If you do have a choice, I’d suggest a vinyl-wrapped handle, which won’t degrade as quickly as more common and cheaper EVA foam or cork. That said, cork offers a more traditional feel that’s hard to ignore, and if that suits you, go for it. (Pro tip: When the cork starts to crumble, simply buy some heat-shrink wrap and shore it up yourself.)

Then came the testing. I fished with lures with all of the gear, and I set everything from small minnows and crabs to 1.5-pound live baits from my skiff, catching bluefish and striped bass up to 30 pounds, with heavier, more bait-friendly setups.

I also tested the gear on smaller bottom fish, including flounder, sea bass, snapper, and tautog, as well as red drum and spotted sea trout in Charleston, South Carolina. I spent several days fishing freshwater streams and rivers for trout and smaller salmon, and a number of days fishing private ponds and lakes for largemouth bass.

I also made a point to beat these rods up in certain ways, including but not limited to neglecting to wash them after muddy and bloody saltwater outings and weaving them in and out of my cramped fishing locker in our Brooklyn basement. Our walls and stairways bear those tales, and I suspect I’ll be charged with repainting as soon as this assignment is filed.

Versatile enough to use on saltwater and fresh, this rod is as durable as a $100 fishing rod can be, and it comes with a great warranty. It’s only available as a one-piece rod, though, making it harder to store or travel with.

If you’re planning to get only one rod that can handle most fishing applications and you don’t want to spend a fortune, get an Ugly Stik Carbon Inshore Spinning Rod.

It balances performance with durability. The Carbon Inshore series is Ugly Stik’s first foray up into the $100 market (frankly, it took the brand long enough). This series ditches Ugly Stik’s signature graphite-and-fiberglass hybrid composition for a relatively lightweight 24-ton-grade graphite (a crystalline carbon not to be confused with pricier and sturdier carbon fiber). The material offers a bit more dexterity than your average (and cheaper) graphite composition but without giving up the backbone to offer faster action for maneuvering lures—which can’t be said of the more bait-centric Ugly Stik Bigwater or the pricier Penn Battalion II. In addition, during our tests, the rod withstood everything from crowded subway rides to hostile encounters with door jams.

The guides are seriously rugged. The Carbon Inshore comes fitted with Ugly Stik’s proprietary Ugly Tuff one-piece stainless steel line guides, which can literally be smashed with a rock and still maintain serviceability. During testing, I accidentally planted my foot directly on the guide of a rod that I’d left in the bottom of my boat—as one does—but it was unscathed. Cheap, flimsy aluminum-oxide guides (such as the ones on the Shimano Scimitar) are the industry standard at this price, so it’s nice to see Pure Fishing, the maker of the Ugly Stik, take durability so seriously.

The warranty is great. Just in case anything does go wrong, all you need to submit to take advantage of the Ugly Stik’s class-leading seven-year warranty is photographic evidence of the damage, your receipt, and $10 to cover shipping. That’s far better than the one-year warranty coverage from Shimano, Penn, and Shakespeare.

One quick shopping note: Make sure you’re buying the spinning rod, not the casting version of the same rod from the same manufacturer. They’re easy to confuse, and our chosen reel (look for that guide, coming soon) won’t fit the casting version.

It comes in a small range of sizes. The Carbon Inshore comes in only two lengths, 6.5 feet and 7 feet, and three powers, medium-light, medium, and medium-heavy—fewer than our runner-up and budget picks. Some versions come with cork foregrips and vinyl rear handles; others come with vinyl throughout. However, its sibling, the plain old Carbon series of spinning rods (meant for lightweight freshwater use) comes in a wider range of lengths and powers. If you’re not planning on using your rod in saltwater, look at that series as well.

It comes only as a single-piece rod. We prefer such a design in terms of performance, but it does make the rod harder to store and transport.

It is heavier than more high-performance graphite rods. Those usually run about 5 ounces for a medium-heavy 6-foot-6 or 7-foot rod; the medium-action 7-footer Carbon Inshore we tested weighed about 6.1 ounces on our scale, and some people might find that tiring. Still, it’s an improvement on all previous saltwater-ready Ugly Stiks, and unless you’re casting for several hours on end, it won’t make much difference to you.

The guide placement can be off. The guides on this, like most of our picks, are placed by machine, but the placement on this rod was exceptionally poor, with a couple of offset guides within the midsection. It’s not something novices and even most experienced anglers will notice, but it’s not to be ignored, either.

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This rod offers a bit more finesse and forgoes some of the extra durability we recommend in our more saltwater-savvy top pick. It is, however, a little cheaper and potentially more travel-friendly.

If our top pick is unavailable or you know you want something stiffer for doing more lure fishing, particularly in freshwater, the Ugly Stik Elite series is a good bet.

It has the same great guides as our top pick—and the same warranty. The Ugly Stik Elite now comes with the same ultra-durable Ugly Tuff guides found on the Carbon Inshore series. And the warranty is the same seven years.

It’s lighter and stiffer than our top pick. The blank is a graphite-fiberglass hybrid with a higher proportion of graphite to fiberglass than most other hybrids we tested. With a medium 6-foot-6 setup coming in at about 5.6 ounces, it weighs less than our top pick, which makes it suited to lighter applications, particularly in freshwater (granted, it will still hold its own in the brine with proper care). The rod is stiffer too, which makes the Elite ideal for manipulating lures and giving them “action” (a fishing term for making lures dance or hobble like wounded prey).

And it’s cheaper. The Elite is usually about $30 less than our top pick at any given point.

It comes in more sizes. The Elite is available in a wider range of lengths and powers than the Carbon Inshore. (For the most all-around versatility, we’d still recommend a medium rod in the 6-foot-6 or 7-foot range.) Some of its length and power configurations come in one piece only and others in two pieces only, but with a few you do have a choice.

It’s not as versatile as our top pick. As a stiffer rod, the Elite isn’t as well-suited to bait fishing. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing if that’s what you know you want, but it’s worth noting if you’re a first-timer trying to start small and general. Functionally, the Elite sits between the smoother-flexing Carbon Inshore and the stiffer GX2, though it doesn’t have the softer fiberglass tip of the GX2. Instead, it offers less “play” or give and leans more into finesse, which is great for lightweight lures but can hinder other applications such as retrieval of heavier subsurface lures or setting a baited hook with a heavy sinker, where some flex is advantageous.

Nor is it as resilient. The rod’s high percentage of graphite saves weight but makes the rod relatively delicate, so plan to fish it with a little more care, and not with young children.

The grip isn’t great. The Elite has a cheap cork grip, which is prone to flaking, instead of an EVA (foam) grip, like our budget pick. Our top pick has either a rubber grip or a combination of rubber and a higher-quality cork.

Once known for its strength, durabilty, and versatility, this rod is still dependable and very affordable, even if no longer the leader it once was in those areas.

Our previous all-around recommendation from back when the world of fishing rods had a lot less to offer and decent gear was generally much more expensive, the Ugly Stik GX2, a graphite-fiberglass hybrid, is still a perfectly viable rod.

It’s half the price of our top pick. If you really want to pinch your pennies, this rod is probably your best option.

Yet it has those great guides. You’ll still get those virtually indestructible one-piece stainless steel Ugly Tuff guides found on pricier Ugly Stik models.

It also carries that great warranty. In our testing, the Shimano Scimitar was a close second to this rod, and it’s much lighter (if less durable), but its warranty is only one year. The combination of Ugly Stik’s seven-year warranty and the stronger guides make the GX2 the better choice.

Like the Elite, it comes in more sizes. The GX2 is available in a wider range of lengths and powers than the Carbon Inshore. Some of its length and power configurations come in one piece only, others in two pieces only, but in a few, you have a choice.

It’s brittle. Our top pick is decidedly both lighter and stronger than the GX2 and will withstand much more use and misuse—something we can only expect of novice and casual anglers (this one included).

It’s undeniably clunkier than our top pick and our runner-up. Just know this rod will be a little on the heavier side (though that won’t matter much when dealing with light and medium-light models) and is comparatively stiff through most of the blank until you get to the fiberglass-infused tip. Frankly, you won’t have any more trouble catching fish on this rod than you would on any other, but you may find casting tiresome, and working lures may feel a bit more cumbersome with such a clunky tool (particularly on heavier models).

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If you’re planning on fishing in the brine and giving your rod a little more of a run for its money, this is a sturdier but better balanced rod that will serve novices and inveterate anglers alike for many years. It is pricier, though, and has a short warranty.

Based on our testing and research, the Shimano Teramar NE is where durability, versatility, and featherweight design intersect best.

It’s a definitive performance upgrade. The rod blank is tapered much more carefully than those of our other picks, with power throughout and a gradual, even flex into the tip where it suddenly offers the sensitivity of a bait rod. I fished for and caught everything from small, notoriously cunning tautog to striped bass over 30 pounds on heavy lures and live baits, and had no complaints throughout. It bears a ton of backbone for heavier-duty casting of artificial lures and hook-setting, but it has just enough play in the tip to function as a bait rod, too.

And that includes the guides. I took note of the sturdiness of the guides (Fuji K-series Alconite—new to this line), which simply don’t budge, and made sure to give them extra trouble. As with all of our other recommendations—and most rods within a reasonable price range for most people—these guides are machine-wrapped, but the quality control is well above par. It’s equal, if not superlative, to all else within this price range, in fact, and we haven’t seen anything out of alignment from Shimano.

The EVA foam handles are easy on the hands. For foam, they’re surprisingly impervious to anything and everything shy of a high-quality, fresh-out-of-the-package steel hook. We do wish the handles came with a shrink-wrap for better durability, but that’s an easy (and cheap) enough modification for anyone to handle.

You can dial in your choice by region. The Teramar NE we tested is specifically designed for fishing in the Northeastern US—there are several series within the Teramar line catering to different regions, including the Southeast, West Coast, and the Gulf of Mexico. Naturally, you’ll most likely want to select the line of rods designed for where you’ll fish, but the series covers everything from medium-light-duty ventures to the largest of inshore fish.

The warranty is lacking. Shimano covers its rods for only one year—compare that with seven years for our Ugly Stik picks.

This rod’s power rating system may not match other systems. The rod we tested was somewhat heavier (at 8.4 ounces) than other medium-heavy-rated rods, but the Teramar NE’s medium-heavy rating is slightly more robust than medium-heavy ratings elsewhere. So, choose carefully based upon your angling approach; generally, look to the medium-weight model if you plan to fish lighter-weight soft-plastic lures, or the medium-heavy model if you’re going to toss heavier lures (or bait).

No two-piece options are available. This may be a problem if you don’t have room to store a full-length rod.

If you’re fishing for small trout in small rivers and streams or panfish on ponds, this ultralight rod will provide the requisite stiffness and sensitivity.

We tried many smaller, lighter-weight rods suited to trout streams and panfish ponds, and while we liked them all, the Shimano Sensilite A is the one we’d recommend.

It strikes the right balance between stiffness and give. The Sensalite A was stiff enough with fast enough action to land tiny, light (down to 1/32-ounce) lures in tight pockets while leaving enough give in the tip should a trout strike in fast water (when you’ll want some play so the line doesn’t break or the hook doesn’t tear out).

It’s available in a wide variety of lengths. A 5-foot-6-inch rod will allow you to fish tiny creeks with overhanging trees, for example, while an 8-footer will allow you to make longer casts and cover more water in larger rivers and lakes. Most trout- and panfish-specific series don’t come in such a range of sizes.

The guides aren’t very sturdy. The aluminum-oxide guides are light-duty and require some minding (don’t step on them or it’s game over).

Nor is the cork grip. The full cork grip may not hold up as well as we’d like on this rod, but trout-fishing (and to some extent panfishing) rods often see less hostility than others, and with a little care and basic attention it should hold up. (Again, heat-shrink or vinyl wrap when the time comes is a great move to extend the life of a cheap rod handle.)

The warranty is only one year.

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If you’re heading into the surf, you’ll want a resilient but lightweight rod like this one so you don’t throw your arm out in a hurry.

We tried a handful of the most popular surf rods on the market, and the Tsunami Airwave Elite performed impressively well, casting 1.5-to-4-ounce plugs and jigs in heavily rushing tidal rivers and surf for many hours on end.

It’s comfortable to use. While some might find the foregrip to be a little on the thin side—especially for a surf rod where a lot of people expect something beefier—the rubberized shrink-wrapped grip offers an assuring handle. And the relatively thin grips help keep this graphite rod light: The 10-foot-6-inch model we tested is 12 ounces.

Its guides are suitably tougher. When fishing in the surf, you’ll want a heavier-duty guide than you might get away with elsewhere. Fuji K-series guides with Alconite O-ring inserts are fitted to this rod, which is often a treatment for slightly pricier rods (they’re also found on our upgrade pick), and are much appreciated in the surf or rocks where guides tend to receive a little more wear and tear from one thing or another.

It comes in a wide-enough range of sizes and weights. Nine feet is probably the best all-around length for most anglers. However, if you plan to cast extra-long distances (in that case, you’d want to go up to about 10-foot-6) or into narrower channels (consider dropping down to something in the 8-foot range), the Airwave Elite offers enough options.

It’s a two-piece rod but unevenly so. This rod breaks down into two pieces as a 70/30 split, meaning the top part makes up 70% of the length of the rod, and the bottom piece makes up 30%. Though connoisseurs tend to prefer the 70/30 split for performance’s sake, the uneven pieces make transportation a little trickier.

The warranty is only one year.

If you plan on using artificial lures rather than bait, and have more room in your budget: Consider a lighter-weight rod offering more finesse, such as St. Croix’s Triumph series. It’s the basis for a setup that will enable you to cast and work lures all day long. This rod is also a great choice for bottom-fishing, particularly with lighter-weight baits (and crab-baited jigs) for inshore species like flounder, sea bass, sheepshead, and tautog. We like its smooth transition from sensitive tip to sturdy backbone, the meticulous placement of the guides, and the array of sizes and weight classes (from a 5-foot ultralight model to a 7-foot-six medium-heavy one). However, it’s not quite as durable as our main pick. While this rod can handle plenty of abuse, a misplaced step will break it or bend and snap off a guide.

If your fishing exploits will be limited to “set-it-and-forget-it” bait-slinging: Look at the Ugly Stik Bigwater. Where a lure-specific rod is stiffer and alerts the angler (and in some ways the fish) to even the slightest bit of tension change, bait rods like the Bigwater are much softer, indicating a subtle strike to the angler while offering enough play that, at least for a split second longer, the fish won’t detect that there might be something wrong with this too-good-to-be-true offering. Such rods are decidedly clunkier than those geared toward lure-casting. They’re also less stiff, making for much less accurate casting. But this is exactly what you want when you’re fishing bait off a dock, or off the back of your boat in the bay. It’s notably durable, even for an Ugly Stik, and comes with the same seven-year warranty as our Ugly Stik picks.

If the Tsunami Airwave Elite is unavailable: The other surf rod we liked is the Penn Carnage III Spinning Surf Rod. The Carnage III is almost identical to the Airwave Elite: They have the same guides, though different O-ring inserts, and a comparable graphite blank material. The Carnage III is a two-piece rod, split 50/50, which makes storage and travel much more convenient, and its grips have pronounced finger grooves, which some people might also prefer. However, it’s pricier than the Airwave Elite. Also, those O-ring inserts are made of SiC (silicon carbide), which may have an edge over Alconite in terms of performance but are less durable. (Even though Penn is owned by the same parent company as Ugly Stik, its warranty is just one year.)

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The length and the power of the rod you should choose depend on the species you’re targeting, the type of lure you’re using, and where you’ll be fishing.

The rod’s power rating will be one of the following: ultra-light (UL), for panfish and small trout; medium (M), for lighter bait and moderate lure fishing for fish up to about 10 pounds; medium-heavy (MH), for heavy and deep lure and bait fishing for fish in the 1- to 25-pound range; and heavy (H), for anything beyond that.

You also need to consider your lures and where you’ll be using them. For example, if you’re going to fish from a boat or, say, a river inlet, you’ll want a shorter or longer rod, respectively. Whether you’re using bait (live or cut) or artificial lures is going to have a big impact on your considerations, too.

If you’re using bait, you’ll likely need something much more robust to handle the weight of not only the bait (which could range anywhere from a small worm to a whole, live, one-pound fish), but the weight you might add to position it on or along the bottom. In short, you’ll want a rod that can handle casting and holding several ounces or more. You’ll also want a softer rod tip for bait fishing, as this will help alert you to a fish before it realizes something unnatural about your offering and spits the hook.

Conversely, if you’re using artificial lures, you may find yourself casting something as light as a 1/16-ounce soft-plastic crustacean imposter. Then again, you may be throwing heavy-duty metal spoons or fiberglass plugs that weigh every bit as much as the aforementioned bait rig. In most cases with artificial angling methods, you’ll want a stiffer tip if not backbone as well.

After doorways and clumsy hands, grit, grime, and particularly salt are your fishing rod’s primary enemies—even with gear specifically designed for use in the ocean.

Rods don’t require quite as much attention as reels, especially with the single-piece construction of the Ugly Tuff guides. A bit of scrubbing with a light brush will go a long way, but a healthy dousing of freshwater, especially on the guides and the reel seat followed by a generous air-drying will more than suffice and keep you in business.

Neglect your rod and its guides and you’ll see delaminating and rust in short order. While delamination will start out as a cosmetic issue, it will expose the rod to UV rays in the long term, and in the case of the guides, it will initiate the rust. Rust on your guides creates a coarse pathway for your line, which, in critical moments, is likely to fray and cut if it meets jagged metal or dirty ceramic inserts.

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The amount of tackle (hooks, lines, sinkers, floats, and so forth) you’ll be carrying will vary depending on what kind of fishing you’re doing. But to keep things flexible and give yourself room to grow and try out different environments, we recommend investing in a simple yet multipurpose tackle bag.

In comparison with the tackle boxes of old—whose fold-out compartments resembled hardware storage more than outdoors equipment—a well-constructed tackle bag with individual compartments, carabiner loops, and a supportive shoulder strap will lessen the load of hiking to remote spots or bringing necessities with you while wading into a river.

The YETI Panga 28L Waterproof Backpack is about the most durable, expedition-ready fishing bag you’ll find, and it’s what I take when I’m going to be slinging it across boat decks and rocks and carrying my finer reels. When wading mountain streams, I like Simms’ Dry Creek Z Sling in case I happen to take a plunge with precious (and considerably more delicate) gear on me—not to mention my wallet, phone, keys, et cetera.

If you’re fishing in saltwater, you will want a small, watertight box (like the Plano Waterproof Stowaway or Plano Guide Series Field Box) and a dry bag. My everyday go-to dry bag on my more casual excursions for the past two seasons has been Rux’s 25-liter Waterproof Bag—it’s a lightweight tote with redundant forms of closure and a 420D-nylon-coated fabric. It holds several large waterproof tackle boxes and folds tightly enough when not fully stuffed. (We also list it as a good option for camping trips in our guide to roll-top dry bags.)

And while we’re on the minutiae of caring for gear, even the finest lures and hooks will degrade quickly with salt. Set aside any of the lures you use during an outing and make sure to hit them with fresh water and let them dry before replacing them in your tackle box.

We found the Penn Battalion II Inshore series to be somewhat lightweight for its action and recommended line weight. The Penn Squadron III Inshore series offered finesse but not much in the way of durability, and the cork was abysmally cheap.

The rods in the Shimano Talavera Inshore are extremely well-balanced—both in weight and in guide placement—but they’re much more expensive than similar options, and all Shimano rods come with only a one-year warranty.

On the higher end, we tested the St. Croix Seage, the Dark Matter Psychedelic Inshore, and the Fenwick World Class, all of which we enjoyed fishing, but we didn’t find the same affordability-durability (or warranty) ratio as we did in our top pick, which is better-suited for more casual anglers.

On the more budget-friendly front, we tested both the Shimano Scimitar and Bass Pro Shops Graphite Series spinning rods. They were perfectly functional, but shortcomings were apparent in the rod blank and/or guides’ construction—both are likely to meet a swift demise at the simplest misstep.

We continued testing our previous choice for a bait and boat rod, the Ugly Stik Tiger series, but the freshly updated Bigwater series had pulled ahead by leaps and bounds, making for a much better all-around option while also becoming a little more suitable as an artificial caster (in a pinch).

We also tested several other surf rods, including the ever-popular St. Croix Seage, which was as sturdy as could be but on the heavy side.

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This year, we’ll be trying out the Daiwa Proteus, Tsunami Carbon Shield II, and the St. Croix Mojo as per our expert sources’ recommendations.

We’re also currently testing travel rods, including the Dark Matter Bonefish Plus Travel Rod and the Toadfish Travel Spinning Rod. So far, we can safely recommend both, with the differences being that the Dark Matter is a slightly tougher rod, while the Toadfish is uniquely modular with two alternative midsections and tips (for altering between lighter- and heavier-duty tasks), and it’s considerably more affordable.

This article was edited by Christine Ryan.

Thank you to Captains Colin and Ryan Kelly, of Room to Move Charters, and Captain Luke Pope-Corbett, of Charleston Kayak Company.

Full disclosure: It’s not easy to find professional anglers not somehow sponsored or otherwise connected with a brand. McMurray has a partnership with Daiwa; Knie is a field tester currently for Pure Fishing (a conglomerate that includes Penn, Ugly Stik, Fenwick, Van Staal, and Hardy, among others), and a former tester for Daiwa and Shimano. (He is not sponsored, however.) Anglers Journal sells advertising to any number of fishing brands, but it is neither owned by nor tied to any industry interests. Hawk is completely independent.

John McMurray, charter-boat captain, phone interview, January 6, 2024

“Crazy” Alberto Knie, founder and CEO Tactical Anglers, phone interview, January 16, 2024

John Skinner, angling author, YouTube vlogger, product researcher, designer, and tester, in-person interview, January 11, 2024

Charlie Levine, editor-in-chief, Anglers Journal, in-person interview, January 12, 2024

Alan Hawk, independent reel reviewer, email interview

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