Help with fishing pole purchase

All star classic 6' 6" top water

Budget for rod and reel??

Just getting back into it? Have academy gift certificates? H20 spinning reel and h20 rod. Cheap good stuff. Upgrade later if you want. If you break it, bring it back and exchange it. Wrap 150 yards of 30# braid on it and call it a day. Get yourself 1 large Plano box and fill it with jig heads, lead heads, spoons, spinner baits, some gulp swimming mullets (white and chartreuse) and beetle grubs.

Might pick up a popping cork or two and some vudu shrimp.

I use allstars for saltwater. I'm not big on the combos. I use penn spinning reels. And my go to bait is a vudu shrimp. I saw h2o copied the vudu pretty good and at a much better price. Buy a few different colors and use them with or without a cork. Also, stock up on some swim baits, different colors and sizes. A good variety is nice because you never know what they'll be hitting. If the vudu isn't catching them, my next favorite is a sparkle beetle. Split tail, clear, sparkles in it, red dot on one side(not sure if the actual name is sparkle beetle). And if you're going after reds, have a few gold spoons. I keep a few silver too.

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Dr. Morgus

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6'6-7' MH rod. Pick from one of the ones mentioned above^^^

Pick up a couple different size jigheads, gold spoons, popping corks, and a couple different soft plastics.

I bring three rods when I fish. One has a gold spoon, another has a jighead with a soft plastic (usually TTF killer flats minnow or matrix shad), and the last has a popping cork with a GULP! shrimp on it.
If I'm not getting any bites on those then the fish aren't there