How I Stopped Replacing My Fishing Combo Every Year

Every spring for the last several years, I found myself standing in the same sporting goods aisle, picking out another cheap spinning combo. The price was right, and the rod felt fine in the store. By August, the reel would start to slip, the guides would rust, and the rod would feel like a wet noodle. I'd toss it in the garage and start over the next season.

I'm Russ Kirchner, 58, and I've been fishing the Yuba River and Rollins Lake out of Grass Valley, California, for longer than I care to count. I spent 31 years as a county road-maintenance foreman, and after I retired, I told myself I was done with gear that quit on me. My wife Denise heard that and just said, 'Then buy something that lasts.'

That's when I found the KastKing Centron combo. It cost a little more than the cheap ones, but not outrageous. I read the reviews, turned it over in my hands, and decided to give it a full season. That was a year ago. I still have it, and I haven't once thought about replacing it. I was done with cheap gear.

I fish from a 14-foot aluminum boat with a small outboard, and I also wade the banks of the Yuba when the water drops. Most of my trips are short, a Friday afternoon to Sunday night, car camping in the Tahoe National Forest with the Tacoma. The Centron has been on every one of those trips, bouncing in the bed of the truck, leaning against the boat seat, getting rained on and sun-baked.

The reel has never slipped on me, the drag still works like it did out of the box, and the rod keeps its backbone. I've caught trout to 18 inches and bass to about 4 pounds on it, and it handled all of it without complaint. That's more than I can say for any of the three combos that came before it. I've also caught a few catfish off the bank at Rollins, and the combo handled those fine too.

The old combos I had before this one each had their own way of failing. One lost its drag after a month. Another had a reel that would freeze up when it got wet. The third snapped its rod tip on a snag. I got used to the idea that a combo was a yearly expense, like oil changes for the truck.

The reel has never slipped once, and the rod still feels the way it did the day I bought it.

I remember one afternoon on Rollins Lake, a big bass hit my spinnerbait and took off under the boat. The drag on the KastKing Centron sang the way a good drag should, and I brought it in without any of the panic I used to feel with the cheap reels. That moment is when I knew I wasn't going back.

The guides on this rod are smooth and they've held up. On my old combos, the guides would corrode after a few trips, and I'd end up with frayed line and lost fish. Not here. I rinse the combo with fresh water after every trip, which I do with any rod, but I don't have to scrub rust off the guides anymore.

I've also used it for trout on the Yuba, rigged with a light jig and a small hook. The rod is sensitive enough to feel the bottom, but it has enough power to set the hook on a decent fish. It's not a specialty rod, but it doesn't need to be. It does everything I ask of it.

If you're thinking about upgrading, I'd say do it. I put the KastKing Centron through a full year of river and lake fishing, camping trips, and truck-bed rides, and it's still going strong. My only complaint is that I wish I'd bought it sooner.

I've taken the Centron on a few overnight trips into the Tahoe National Forest, where I set up camp and fish the streams near camp. The combo sits in the truck bed, and it's survived the bumpy forest roads without any issues. I don't baby it, and it doesn't need to be babied. That's the kind of reliability I was after.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were sitting across from me right now, I'd tell you this: you don't need a fancy setup to enjoy fishing. But you do need gear that doesn't fall apart after a season. The KastKing Centron is built to last, and it's reasonably priced. It's not the fanciest rod on the water, but it's honest, and it works. If you're tired of replacing your combo every year, this is the one I'd start with. And if you want the full details, I wrote a separate review, and I've also got a how-to on rigging a spinning combo for river trout that might help. You don't have to take my word for it, but after a year of hard use, I know what works.