Northwest Fishing Reports

So I haven't been doing any fishing for about 10 years now. My schedule and family life made getting away almost impossible. I was mainly an Eastern Washington basser back then, but have since sold my Bullet XD21 and all my bass gear long ago. I'm looking to get back into something less intense, cheaper, and more accessible now that I have moved to Snohomish county like pond/lake trouting or catting from the bank.

I know the value of good equipment, but my days of a locker full of $300 GLoomis gear is long past. I'm looking for some good moderately priced spinning gear. I also like to support the little guys when it comes to rods (I already have a nice set of Pflueger President reels on the way) so I'm not looking for Shakespeare/Shimano/Diawa rods. I have been looking at the Damiki Angel EX 2 pc, Denali Jadewood, and Powell Diesel rods. All these come in at the $80-100 range. Does anyone have any experience with this gear?

http://denalistore.com/jadewoodrods.aspx
http://www.damiki.com/damikicatalogue/catalogue12.html page 32
http://powellco.com/catalog/cat/?id=66

this may be an old post, but the powells are really underated, and ive used a damiki once, cant remember the model since it was a friends, it was a cheap one i think, and it was pretty good, not a loomis, but not an ugly stik for sure haha, denali, i havent even heard of them lol

Yeah I have since bought the Damiki and the Denali. The Damiki is my go to trout rod and is in the trunk 24/7, and the Denali is a really nice finesse/drop shot bass rod.