Help me with a new budget minded rod please

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Checked on Gander Mountain. Can't seem to find any option to view or purchase products. Looks like they may be done with sales and working on their transition to Gander Outdoors. I did vote on their new logo.

A new rod may be put off for a while. Apparently, "Outrunning all the idiots" is not an acceptable excuse for going 15 over the limit. I know a couple folks who owe me a favor, but if they can't deliver it's going to cost me quite a bit.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

I missed out. Was in a bait store and happened to be standing next to someone being offered a sort of inside deal on a Lew's Speed Stick TP1. $50.
I spoke up, "Hey, can I get one of dem dere rods for fiddy bucks too?"

"Sure! Wait... where'd the other one go?"

There were two when I walked in. I'd already looked at the price tags, $89. Apparently one was snatched up within the 15 minutes I'd been browsing.

I have shopped around quite a bit, even carried my reel into several stores to mount it on different rods and feel the balance. I believe Lew's is what I'm going to go with. I haven't been able to get my hands on all the rods mentioned here of course, but I've handled quite a few that were even way out of my price range, and I really like that one. Now I just need to pay that speeding ticket or hope it can get disappeared, and keep an eye out for another steal like that.

[fishandkamp]

If you do not find a deal like that one there are some decent options.  Dicks carries a line of Quantum rods called Escalades.  I fish with a lot of much more expensive rods but I do fish with two of these Escalades.
One of my two is a 7 foot MH fast that rates for lures weighing between 1/4 and 1 1/2 ounces.

I personally fish bigger plastics, deep running cranks and carolina rigs on it.  I believe I could fish a lot more baits with it if I needed to.  I normally have a dozen rods in my rod locked, so I use it for the baits I mentioned.  I also fish with  6'6" Medium spinning rod.  Both fish well and they normally sell for $99. They are almost always on sale for $49.99.  Take a look and see if they would fit your needs. There are several more models as well. These are IM8 rods.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

We have a Dick's at the mall, I just rarely go to the mall so I forgot about them. Tomorrow I plan to go to Home Depot, literally right next to the mall, to get some of the material I'll need to get started on a new pirogue. I'll swing in and check them out.

[West6550]

Dicks has some great deals sometimes. Check the clearance rack, normaly around here they are always, buy 2 get 1 on anything red tagged for clearance. Bought some hooks several times like that.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

I never got a chance to check them out, they were closed when I got to Home Depot, and I wasn't able to wait around for them to open.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

So I made it in to Dick's today. Had just started browsing and noticed an employee out of the corner of my eye. Asked her if they had any good sales going on, told her I really like the Lew's speed stick, and that I was thinking about getting the Lew's American Hero combo for my Lady...
Then I wondered why she was completely ignoring me...