Although not a budget setup, I feel that the Japanese style jigging rods are vastly superior to anything I have tried that was manufactured here in NA.
A couple years ago I purchased a Shimano Trevala xh jigging rod. The rod was really light for its class, and had a fairly sensitive tip. Definitely a step up from the traditional "pool cue" rods, I was pretty impressed. This rod was designed for "butterfly jigging", which requires a sensitive tip to impart action on the jig as well as to provide the fisher with lots of "feel", a strong backbone to bring bigger fish to the boat, and has to be really light to not drain the fishers energy while jigging. Butterfly jigging is fairly intensive compared to our style of jigging, so the light weight makes a huge difference if you are out fishing all day. One thing I did notice with this rod is that it didn't have as much backbone as one would think. The rod was rated for 80-200lb line, I think Shimano was really optimistic with that. My rod is topped with a pfleuger contender lever drag reel with 50lb braid. This reel doesn't have much drag at all, yet I have had the braid cut into the grip numerous times. Definitely not a 80-200lb rod. Also, some people claim that this rod has a parabolic action, which is incorrect. For those that don't know, a parabolic action rod bends all the way through past the grip. There is a definite "shutoff" point on the Trevala, where the bend in the rod stops. To some these may not be a big deal, but after fishing a true parabolic rod, I dislike the "shutoff" point on the Trevala. A parabolic action allows you to put ALL the pressure on the fish, so you get a lot more power out of your rod.
Last year I purchased a Jigging Master Power Spell 150g rod. The 150g denotes the optimized jig weight for the rod to impart the correct action on the jig. This is not so important for BC style jigging, and I've fished 300+g jigs on this rod with good success. This rod, though pricey ($400 retail), just absolutely smashes the Trevala out of the water. I don't even want to touch a Trevala after fishing with this rod. This rod makes the Trevala seem like a pool cue! I am definitely upgrading all my jigging rods in the future to JM Power Spells, or Synit rods with acid wrapped eyes (this is another conversation though). The rod is extremely light, with a super sensitive tip, yet the parabolic action gives it huge lifting power! Makes the fights way more enjoyable. Here is a video of a JM PS 200 in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-JPYWX-ltM
The 150g is too light for big halibut, but its perfect for Ling and chickens! If I was to build up a rod for bigger hali (which I am) I would look into the 250g rod weight. As far as reels go, I believe the lighter the better. I currently have an avet sx on the PS 150g rod, but the lack of an anti-reverse makes it a little annoying to jig with. My next rods are either going to get Alutecnos, Jigging Master, Accurate, or something in that class. Light and small, but with a decent amount of drag to go with it.
Here is a thread I created when I was considering ordering the PS rod:
http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/showthread.php?15317-Ultra-light-jigging-setup
And here is the "after" thread:
http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/showthread.php?15883-New-jigging-setup
Just some food for thought.
