For that money, why not buy a rod with a better warranty? TFO Finesse comes to mind, Redington isn't a bad choice either. I don't have any experience with Cabelas or Cortland rods, so I can't help with comparisons.
-Ethan

 

For that money, why not buy a rod with a better warranty?

That's an interesting comment; please explain how the warranties offered by the others are superior to the Cabela's . . . I'm interested in hearing.

Back on topic, I test-cast an LST, and it seemed like a very nice casting rod, and a good value.

 

I do not know about these rods, but Cabela's stuff in general is poor from my experiences and some others I know. I hear TFO has phenominal customer service and warranting, and great rods from what most people say.

 

I've got a couple LST's. 3,4,5 wt. They are nice rods with a smooth action and cast well. When I got mine they were on sale at about $80 or so. That was a year or more ago. Watch this spring for their March sale and see if they're listed. I give my recommedation. But the real question is do they catch more fish?

 

I got one of these in december on sale in texas. I live in ak and plan to use it for float tubing for trout up here. It is the 9'9" 5 wt, very similar to sage slt or loomis streamdance in action. Can't beat it for less than 200. I believe it may be a st. croix blank. 25 year unconditional warranty and a shipping only replacement fee is pretty awesome, esp. with the economy as it is. This rod is very light in the rod weights outside of the spey ones. Whatever weight you are gonna get, you really don't have think too hard.

 

I've owned a 9' 8 wt LST for 3 years now along with two TFO 8 wts. I probably spend about 25 days chasing steelhead with them a year and would definitely recommend the LST. I'll pull that rod out before the others and the warranty can't be beat. I've broken it twice (my fault) and you just walk in Cabela's and they hand you a new one. Sweet.

 

geez! how many rods do you guys break? I think the warranty thing is way, way overblown regardless of which brand you pick. I can see some concern if you are talking about a $500+
rod (you'd never catch me spending the cost of a fishing trip on equipment anyway since i value experiences over possessions at this point in life), but for a $200- rod who cares about a warranty that covers more than some defect which will be evident at first use. I use rods hard and I've only broken 6 in the last 35 years and that includes those my kids did in for me. Thinking back, all 6 of those were due to my or my kids abuse of the pole except one i fell on crossing the russian in alaska and one i slammed in a car door at the kenai. The others were all broken from doing things I knew better than to do. Two while horsing fish while thinking that I shouldn't do this and two from not watching the kids close enough. If you're breaking enough rods to use those warranties on a regular basis maybe you need to examine your habits more closely.

 

Warranties are awfully important whether you pay $100 or $500 for that rod. Last time I checked if i bought anything and if it broke they'll hand you a new one--no matter how it broke--that beat the hell out of forking out the money again. I used to never break a rod and then over the last 5 years or so I've broken 4 or 5 with most of them just stupid situations. Last month my son broke his TFO on a back cast. Caught a bush and when he forward cast it snapped the rod. Hell, he hardly ever gets out as he's in college. No car door, no nasty spill. Since it's a TFO I get to send the rod and $25 to TExas and hope they take good care of him. When it broke I wondered why I bought him a TFO instead of a LST from Cabela's. he'd have had it back in the time it took to walk to the fly fishing department. If you're not worried about the warranty then you've got more money than sense. Obviously you've got to buy a quality rod and my experience with the LST is that it's a very good piece of equipment. I've put 15 steelhead on the bank from 6 lbs to 18 lb's in the last two months with mine. I've caught fisn on the rio sink tip and floating line swinging flies and several nymph fishing. It's handled each line very well. I do wish the reel seat was better looking but for the money it's a great buy.

 

Richard I believe the LST has a time limited warranty, not life, or life of original owner. I can't remember but their warranties range from one to 20 years or something like that, with the higher end rods having the longer time warranty. Unless something has changed recently

 

Exactly. Cabela's offers a 25 year warranty. So does Orvis. On a practical note, who's going to still have their LST rod at the end of 25 years, or even be able to find their warranty information in their files? 25 years is nearly the equivalent of a lifetime warranty . . . I feel differently than what was noted by others, there are many other reasons why a person should or shouldn't buy this rod, and warranty shouldn't be one of those reasons.

 

My boyfriend works at Cabela's, If you bring in your broken LST, regardless of why it broke, you will walk out with a new one. If it says Cabelas they will stand behind it.