Further comments largely because my opinion is not aligned with Fleaflickr02's.

1. Warranties. The beauty of cheap rods is that they are imminently affordable, so you can be your own insurer. The costs of warranties are built into the price of rods that carry them. Fly rods never used to have warranties until they became so damn expensive that hardly anyone would buy the high end rods unless they had warranties, which naturally drove the already high prices up even further. I never make a rod purchasing decision based on whether it has a warranty or not. Obviously other people do. Just be aware that when you buy a warranted rod you are paying extra so that the warranty can be included. Warranties are not a freebee. I have several expensive bamboo fly rods. None of them came with warranties. No cane rod maker that I know of offers rod warranties. Graphite rods have warranties because they are made of relatively inexpensive materials and labor, yet are priced high. You'd think that if any rods would have warranties it would be bamboo rods that start at over $1,000 and go up, way up, from there.

2. Performance. There is a difference. Some cheap rods and some expensive rods cast like crap. However, in deference to price usually having some relation to value, most rods that cast like crap are very low end rods. Nonetheless, my prior statement that there are very few bad fly rods on the market today stands. There is so much competition for the sportsman's dollar that there just isn't much demand for crummy rods.

With reels, Fleaflickr02 is correct. Reel quality tends to be directly proportional to price. The important thing for a novice to know is that cheap crummy reels work really well, and most last a long time. I know. I use Hardys, which are expensive and over-priced for almost all my steelhead fishing because I like them, and they will last beyond my lifetime. However, I have caught plenty of steelhead on cheap trout fly reels with no problems. I've also had two cheap reels blow up when I hooked steelhead. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. But I've never had a cheap reel wear out or malfunction when trout fishing, and most of my trout reels are cheap. I can personally recommend the old Cortland Rimfly ($15 new in 1974) and the Berkley 556 graphite and plastic reels ($20 new in 1980). These reels are still in service and function as new. They can be found from time to time on Ebay. Those two reels have also landed steelhead and salmon, sometimes intentionally and sometimes coincidentally.

3. Aesthetics. Aesthetics are personal. When aesthetics matter to me I fish a bamboo rod. They are beautiful works of art and have a feel that plastic rods never duplicate. IMO there is no such thing as a beautiful graphite fly rod, altho it's true that expensive ones are generally finished nicer than cheap ones, but that's about as far as it goes.

Another reason I recommend that novices consider buying cheap rods and reels is that it's simply impossible for the novice to know in advance what their tastes will be as they gain experience in fly fishing. And as experience is gained, new preferences will emerge, and those will likely shift over time. The upshot is that anyone who stays with fly fishing for any length of time is going to end up with a closet full of rods anyway. The small price laid out for some gear to gain experience with will be irrelevant in 2 or 3 years and you begin branching out and looking to add some new gear to your repertoire.

Sg