Ok, we talked about lures, how about rods? Most of my life I've just used whatever Walmart had and they've mostly worked fine. I am considering getting a little better one. I'm looking for something in between top of the line, and bargain basement. Just a good, decent rod.

I am looking for an ultralight in about the 6' range, give or take. It'll be an all-around rod, used for everything from brim and crappie, to bass, to occasional channel cats. I have dedicated catfish rods for bigger catfish. I also have long rods for crappie/brim but this particular rod would just be a general purpose "I'm not sure WHAT I am fishing for" rod. LOL.

Any suggestions as to brand?

Ugly Sticks all the way! :-)

Shimano is a good options but look and see if don't know if the have one like that.

2x

X2 on ugly sticks.

Goodwill

ugly sticks also. never let you down and a fine rod also. I also bought some St Croix rods for Crappie and Blue gills, I like them but not as durable as US.

Ok. One of my catfish rods is an Ugly Stick. I never even knew they made smaller, lighter rods too. So, looking at their website, it appears my options are a 1 piece 5' rod, or a 2 piece 6'6" rod.

Any reasons one would be better than the other?

So you dum self won’t break
We all tend to participate in the practice of redefining new stuff in vintage…

I personally like a longer UL.
6.5 - 7 .
Gander Mountain had some Gude series UL rods and
Excellent reals that matched them.
They were closing out that manufacturer and going to someone else.
I bought every reel on the shelf.
Still top notch for me.

Agreed. One piece of you can find it.

All my rods are Ugly Sticks, been using them forever.

From heavy action baitcasters to light action crappie rods.

And all my reels are Pfluegers.

I like consistency. LOL

I run Penn reels.

Another vote for Ugly Sticks as an all purpose rod. There are several different lines of Ugly Stick. Offshore, Lite, Carbon, etc. They will have at least one of something that tickles your fancy.

Now if you want a really nice one I got a couple daiwa presso ultralight 4pc pack rods. They are really nice and lots of fun keep in the truck rods.

https://www.scheels.com/p/043178212...__RNHYsyLW0KDKyY2iyTzfOYSWxoC16YQAvD_BwE

Pflueger President rod and reel spinning combo is decent

I'm partial to Shimano spinners. Older Ambassaduers are hard to beat for baitcasters.

That is pretty cool. Now I may need 2 new rods, LOL.

I have a bunch of the Scheels professional guide series rods for various species fishing. I do have an ugly stick for my cat rod. That rod is inexpensive and just plain works on big cats.
Jim

Grew up with ordinary, (cheap), fiberglass rods, never thought to upgrade..they worked then, and will work now....
Last rod I bought was at the Penn sportsmen show, guy had a couple barrels of rod ,reel combos, actually decent quality...for 10 bucks I couldn't resist, lol