I bring an Ugly stick to use when trolling for those big pike, and a 6 ft one piece Berkley Lighting spinning rod for jigging up dinner. Both fairly low cost and tough so I don't burn a lot of energy worrying about breaking a rod. Or when I watch it slowly sink to the bottom after getting it caught in a cast with my other rod, I don't feel nearly as terrible as I would if I'd spent $150 on the rod.