Ugly Stik turned 50 this year, and the brand marked the anniversary with a spinning combo priced to match: $50 for the rod and the reel together. That number lands between the two poles most fishing gear gets sold at, well above the cheap rod we all had as boys down at the creek and well below the rig a tournament guy hauls to the ramp. Ugly Stik sent me one of their 50th Anniversary combos, and I am impressed by how much quality they packed into fifty dollars.
What Do You Call Your "Guys Trips"?
Fifty dollars gets you a rod and a reel together. Here is what that buys.
- The rod is a 6'6" medium two-piece and the reel is a size 35, which is the most useful pairing a new angler can own.
- Ugly Stik's standalone rods start at $59.95. The anniversary combo costs $50 and includes the reel.
- Ugly Stik warranties a rod for 10 years and a standard reel for one year, and that gap is worth understanding before you buy any combo.
- The clear tip is not a styling choice. It is solid fiberglass, and it sits exactly where a rod is most likely to snap.
- Shakespeare has been building fishing tackle since 1897, and the construction behind the Ugly Stik was patented in 1976.
- This Is A $50 Combo That Fits Between an Entry-Level Rod and a Tournament Rig
- How Shakespeare Built the Ugly Stik in 1976
- The Clear Tip on an Ugly Stik Is Their Signature Feature
- What To Look For If You Are Buying Your First Rod
- So Yeah, Every Guy Needs A Good Truck Rod To Keep In Reserve - and this Ugly Stik 50 is a Pretty Darn Good One!
I have always had the pleasure of using whatever gear the guide or the captain provided, and it has spoiled me a bit. A captain gives you a rod that is already rigged and matched to whatever is running that week, and you fish. That is how I ended up on a Lake Erie walleye charter out of Port Clinton without needing to bring a thing, and a trip like that is the guys trip version of fishing: you plan it, you book it, you go. A charter is no help on a Saturday when a buddy calls with four free hours and nothing lined up.
This Is A $50 Combo That Fits Between an Entry-Level Rod and a Tournament Rig
The middle ground is where most guys fish. You are on a dock at a rental cabin, down by the river on the weekend, fishing with the guys, chasing the spring walleye run on the Maumee, or on the back of somebody's boat twice a summer. It doesn't make sense to invest thousands of dollars in professional gear in that case - all it takes is a rod that casts straight, survives a ride in the back of the truck bed, and does not embarrass you by falling apart when a decent-sized fish shows up.
Ugly Stik's own catalog shows where fifty dollars lands. Their standalone rods run $59.95 to $149.95, so the 50th Anniversary Spinning Combo gets you a rod and a reel for less than the cheapest rod by itself, that's pretty cool. The 50th Anniversary combo is out nationwide, at retailers including Walmart as well as on Ugly Stik's own site.
How Shakespeare Built the Ugly Stik in 1976
Ugly Stik is American, and the company behind it is older than the rod by nearly eighty years. Shakespeare was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1897 by William Shakespeare Jr., who had already invented the level-wind reel on a jeweler's lathe, cutting the grooves that let line spool back evenly instead of piling up in one spot. Shakespeare later put its rod operation in Columbia, South Carolina and moved the headquarters there in 1970, which makes the Ugly Stik a South Carolina invention rather than a Michigan one.
The rod itself arrived in 1976. Two Shakespeare engineers, James Lindler and Michael Romanyszyn, filed the patent behind its construction that April. Graphite filaments are wound in a tight helix to form an inner core, then sleeved in a much thicker outer shell of fiberglass running lengthwise down the blank. Graphite supplies stiffness and saves weight. Fiberglass supplies toughness and crush resistance, which is what a rod needs when it gets shut in a car door or stepped on in a boat.
That construction is why Ugly Stik's full lineup has grown far past the original into Carbon walleye, crappie and surf rods, Tiger sticks, catfish rods and inshore models across a range of price points, without the formula underneath ever changing much.
The Clear Tip on an Ugly Stik Is Their Signature Feature
The clear section at the end of the blank is the most recognizable thing about the brand. It is solid fiberglass. Ugly Stik leaves the graphite and the pigment out of that section, and clear is what fiberglass looks like when you do.
The tip is also where a rod dies. It takes the most bend and snaps the most often, so Ugly Stik builds it out of the material that bends farthest before it breaks. Graphite is stiffer and lighter, and it is also the thing that lets go first when a rod gets loaded up hard.
That is why the clear tip is worth more than it looks. You can see the material doing the work, which means you can see what you are buying, and on a rod at this price that is rarer than it should be.
What To Look For If You Are Buying Your First Rod
For a first rod or a spare, these five things decide it.
- Spinning, not baitcasting - a spinning reel hangs under the rod and has no learning curve. A baitcaster is a better tool in expert hands and a bird's nest of tangled line in everyone else's. Buy one later if you get serious.
- 6'6" and medium power - power is how much force it takes to bend the rod, and medium is the middle setting that throws light enough for panfish and still has the backbone for bass and walleye. At 6'6" it is short enough to cast off a crowded pier without hooking the guy next to you.
- Two pieces beats one - a one-piece rod is marginally more sensitive and a nuisance to store. A two-piece 6'6" rod comes apart into halves just over three feet long, which fit in a trunk, a back seat, or behind a bench seat.
- Judge the reel, not the rod - this is where cheap combos get exposed. You want ball bearings rather than plastic bushings, an instant anti-reverse so the handle does not slop backward when you set the hook, and a metal spool. The size 35 reel on this combo has three bearings, the anti-reverse clutch, and a machined aluminum spool.
- Check the guides - the rings the line runs through are where budget rods fail, because the ceramic insert pops out and the line saws into the bare frame. Ugly Stik's one-piece stainless guides have no insert to lose.
Then read the warranty, which is the most honest spec sheet a manufacturer publishes. Ugly Stik covers a rod for 10 years and a standard reel for one year. The rod will outlive the reel bolted to it, and the reel is the part that eventually gets replaced. On a $50 combo, that is a reasonable trade.
So Yeah, Every Guy Needs A Good Truck Rod To Keep In Reserve - and this Ugly Stik 50 is a Pretty Darn Good One!
Some guys call the spare in the vehicle a truck rod, and that is not a knock on it. A truck rod is the one you never planned a trip around, the rod that turns twenty unplanned minutes at a boat launch into fishing instead of standing there watching other people fish.
The 50th Anniversary combo is built for that job. It is tough enough to live in the back of your truck or standing up in your garage and it's cheap enough that you can keep it as a spare incase a buddy shows up without his own gear. That's about as good as you can get these days and I can't wait to take it out fishing sometime soon!