im still holding out for Honedge, outside of starters does Ash really catch the super sexy pokemon, or the rare pokemon. I'll give you Gible, and Lapras but can you tell me another.
It depends on how you define "rare" - compared to Honedge, many of Ash's pokemon are rarer than it. In Kanto, Tauros is pretty rare and Ash got 30 of them! In games where it appears in Viridian Forest, Pidgeotto is rare there, yet Ash caught his there (ok, they're more common late game but still!)
You could consider Snorlax "rare" as there usually aren't many of them readily available within any game - games where it appears in the wild itself its usually an interaction pokemon and games where it is only available by catching Munchlax and evolving it, Munchlax is pretty rare. Heracross is relatively rare. Torkoal is rarer than the other fire types in fiery path (Numel & Slugma) and depending on versions both Aipom and Gligar can be considered relatively rare.
Also, for the record, Ash caught a shiny Noctowl. If that isn't rare I don't know what is!
And, ok, so Ash doesn't always capture the absolute best pokemon in each region, but he does well enough. Not only that, there is also the fact that being good in the games does not necessarily equate to being good in the anime, and some of Ash's pokemon are pretty top tier within the anime's own universe. Setting aside the starters and Pikachu, there's Snorlax, Heracross, Tauros, Glalie, Gliscor, Kingler, Leavanny, Krookodile, Palpitoad, Staraptor, Donphan, Noctowl and Swellow, all of whom vie for positions in the ranking of Ash's top 12 pokemon.
Also, it isn't going to be long before Ash has a Talonflame, which is widely regarded as one of the best (if not the best) bird pokemon out there.