Hey Darell, To answer your question in short I really like my Redington Path 2 when I was first starting out. I think I paid something like $150.

But really without knowing what type of fish or water you are going to be fishing in its hard to really recommend a fly rod. Hope this helps somewhat.

Chatterbaits are a staple of mine these days. It took me a really long time to gain any confidence in them though. A couple summers ago, I think it was 2017, I decided that any time I normally would throw a spnnerbait that I would use a chatterbait in lou of.

This forced me to commit to the bait even without confidence. What I found was that I loved fishing these around really leafy trees that were partially submerged and grass. They didnt work out around the dead and down stuff so much. I’ll stick to my crankbaits in those scenarios.