As you become more experienced and spend more days/week on the water, you realize besides your skill and intuition, your rod and reel is one of the main tools you will use to bring that big fish in. Hopefully one day you will nail a trophy, or at least your personal best.

You start to realize that without the appropriate tools, if you're out there in the middle of the night, you may one night lose the fish of a lifetime.

So you start to upgrade your gear, a little at a time, as you can afford it. Some guys upgrade to a more modern conventional reel to make sure they won't lose a big one. Others gravitate toward the spinners and the higher end ZB or VS reels.

Still others realize that either because of the wet environment and rough conditions, a 2 rod piece gradually becomes a liabilty, unless you're willing to epoxy the pieces together.