by Bruce Middleton, February 06, 2006

Choosing among all the rod types to find what you really need…


Buying a new rod is about as complicates as buying a new computer. There are so many choices, Graphite, Boron, Fiberglass, composites. Then there are medium, medium heavy and so on, 6 foot 7-foot 4-inch. 7-foot 6-inch, pistol grip, Tennessee handle and it goes on and on in this endless list of choices and options, and all you wanted was a new rod to go bass fishing with. Well the market is specialize, like it or not and so are rods. You can make some compromises and find a rod that will cover most situations reasonably well but for sure, not all. Take a look at the next paragraph. It’s a copy of recommended lengths and weights of rods for different kinds of fishing lures.

The following graph is just a guideline and not set in stone.

Lure rod length rod strength line poundage

Buzz 7 foot medium 14 to 20 pounds
Crank 7 foot medium 14 to 20 pounds
Jig 7 foot med hvy 14 to 20 pounds
Spinner 6 1/2ft med hvy 14 to 20 pounds
Top wtr 6 foot medium 10 to 14 pounds
Drop shot 7 foot light 6 to 8 pounds
Jerk bait 7 foot medium 14 to 20 pounds
Carolina 7 foot med hvy 14 to 20 pounds
Texas 6 1/2ft med hvy 14 to 20 pounds

You can see right away that finding a generic rod just isn’t realistic. You have to decide on what the rod is going to be used for and then dedicate it to that use. Now a 7-foot medium heavy rod can be used for jigs, Carolina rigs and maybe even spinner baits. and a 7-foot medium action rod can be used for buzz baits crank baits, jerk baits and maybe top water lures or even spinner baits in a pinch. So they can be somewhat varied in their usage but you can see right away that 5 rods would cover all your needs quite well. If you were to follow this chart as a guide to buying all your rods, then after the 5 rods were gathered you would every thing you ever wanted from that section of the catalog. Sadly, no. They’re specialty rods I and few other bass angles use along other rods for back-ups and rods with graphite or boron tips for more or less flex for longer casting or more backbone for pitching and flipping. I even have a little tiny kiddies rod that’s 3 feet long I use for sling shooting baits under dock. Works like charm too, no one else can come close to getting a worm under some of the docks I work with that little rod.

Ok, so here we go, down into the deep dark unlit cave of rods to shine a light around and see what we can learn. The average fishing rod consists of 8 parts. 1- the reel seat or grip, 2 &3- the rod blank, in two pieces for most poles, 4- a set of ferrules to join them with, 5- the rear handle, 6- the fore grip, 7- the guides, 8- the string, glue, paint and lacquer used to finish the product.

Staring with the reel seat or grip, this is where the reel attaches to the rod. There are two types of grip, the trigger grip and the straight grip. The trigger grip has a small trigger shaped piece of plastic opposite of where the reel is mounted. This type of grip is best used for bait caster reels. The straight reel seat or grip has nothing sticking out anywhere. It just has a place for the reel to go into. This type of grip or seat is best for spinning reels. When you look at a catalog of rods keep this in mind as you choose the rod you want.

The next obvious thing you notice about the different rods is the lengths of the butt end of the rod. Usually the longer the rod is the longer the rod butt end is. Some of the rod butt ends are tapered and some are straight. Some are very short. These are called a pistol grip. And some are very long. The long butt ends are built to be held under your forearm so the weight of the rod pushes up on the bottom of the forearm. This makes the rod much more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. It also makes casting long distances easier because you can use both hands to cast with instead of just one. Pro bass anglers and other pro angles suffer a myriad of arm and elbow disorders from years of casting and hard cranking. These new long handles rods have extended their careers and given them a lot less pain to deal with. Now while we may not do as much casting as a pro, it does add up and we all do eventually get older. Long handled rods will help you now and in the years to come when your medicine cabinet looks like a pharmaceutical outlet like mine does right now.

The forearm grip is the piece that goes on in front of the reel. Some rods use them and some don’t. They add stiffness to the rod blank and add to the backbone of the rod if called for.
Ferrules are ferrules, they are just tubes that fit into each other so you can join two sections of a rod together. Nothing complicated there.
The eyes on a rod are of utmost importance and they are a major expense when it comes to how expensive a rod costs. If you have a great rod but cheap eyes, all you have is a mediocre rod. Eyes make a rod. Big eyes are best and the material they are made of matters. The less friction the line has as it passes past the eyes the farther you cast. The less friction you have on the line from the eyes while fighting a fish the less chance you have of damaging the line and loosing that fish. The two most important eyes on a rod are the first and the last eyes. The first eyes should be big, especially on a spinning rod, so that loops of line from the reel pass easily through the eye and don’t get tangles. The tip eye is important because that is where the most stress is put on the line when you fight a fish. The eye has to as smooth as possible. High quality eyes are a must.

The rod blank can be made of many compounds. Fiberglass, carbon fiber, boron laminate, graphite and other materials but these are the most common. Fiberglass is the least expensive material to use but it has the most sensitive tip as a plus. It’s rugged and tough and can take abuse that would break other material. Fiberglass is a good material. Carbon cloth blanks with carbon filaments wrapped around it for strength is a very light material. It’s strong and has great backbone properties although it can be made in any strength. High-grade cross-oriented laminated graphite is one of the finest materials for rod building. While somewhat expensive, it can be processed into any strength the manufactures needs. While not quite as rugged as fiberglass it comes extremely close. Graphite is considered to be the top of the line material for rods by 9 out of 10 anglers. Other exotic materials like boron and LTA (lighter than air) are out there in the market place they are hard to find and the prices are just as high, although LTA is now quite reasonable. A lot of these makers are small family owned shops that are difficult to find unless you stumble across an article or TV show that mentions them.

The wrapping string, the patterns they weave, the glue that binds it all together and the lacquer to finish it all of and give the fished product that new show room shine finish the job. And there you go a brand new rod.

Now all you have to do is decide how you’re going to use it and pick out the best one and send away for it. Remember too that you get what you for. A $49 rod is not going to perform like a $99 rod. Always buy the very best that you can afford. Although I will make one concession here, there is one rod maker out there who makes some of the finest rods in the world but the charge $100 just for their name to be put on the blank and then the prices goes up from there. I will never pay for a name no matter how good the product is and you shouldn’t either.

The mechanics of casting, this is the one main thing that separates great or professional fishermen from weekend warriors. That difference is consistency of accuracy. Few weekend anglers can cast time and time again into the same spot with little or no splash, the size of a plate. They can’t cast under docks, under tree limbs, between a boat and a dock and right beside a windfall or a stump with a single cast no matter what the distance may be.
Using a bait caster or a spinning reel and then putting that reel on an assortment of lengths and actions of rods combined with different sizes, types and weights of baits and lures and the amateur is hopelessly inaccurate. But to a pro it makes no difference at all. He may be throwing a buzz bait and miss a strike and immediately pick up a different rod and reel with a worm on it and cast it to the very spot where the strike occurred. The change from one rod and type of stiffness, length and lure weight to another is a smooth and effortless as if he was using the same rod. This takes practice and lots of it.
It’s a lot like golf. If you can use a wedge, 9,7,4 iron and a 3 wood you will play a fair game of golf but you will never play par, in order to do that you have to be comfortable with ever club in the bag.

Just changing from a search mode using crank baits or a spinner bait to flipping and pitching take some getting used to by many beginners. And accuracy in flipping and pitching should be 100% dead on but many angles are fortunate to hit the mark 50% of the time. This is practice-oriented flaw.

Just knowing what rod is best to use under a given set of circumstances is not enough. You have to be able to use it with accuracy and you have to be able to switch from one rod to another smoothly. Every rod is different and those differences show up in how they cast a lure. A short stiff flipping rod is a terrible casting rod. It will throw the lure to the left and behind you and it will only go a short ways. Fiberglass rods are flexible and forgiving but you don’t use one with a crank bait in the weeds because when you snap the rod to jerk it free of the weeds the tip gives too much and the lure doesn’t come free. For this type of fishing you have to use a carbon fiber rod. Long rods let you cast farther but short rods are more sensitive. Long poles let you reach into places instead of casting to them. There are so many choices and you have to good at all of them.
So there you go, a brief explanation of rods and what you need to know when looking to buy one. Enjoy!


Bruce Middleton
bpmiddleton@peoplepc.com