Benifits of Balancing a Rod?

[vicdotcom]

Hey everyone,

  I have been reading a lot about balancing your rod.  How does this help?  I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but I want to see if balancing my rod will actually help me in my casting and fishing.  I usually only throw soft plastics or crank baits.  I usually cast side arm or underhanded.  Will balancing my rod help me reduce fatigue or something?  In other words, what are the benefits?

Thanks for any help!

Vic

[Guest DavidGreen]

vicdotcom,

Here is some reading for you  Balancing Your Fishing Rods

Tight Lines!!!

[Raul]

You balance the rod to perform a better task for a specific application changing the center of gravity by adding weight, butt heavy, tip heavy, neutral; it 's the application of a simple principle, the principle of the lever where the reel seat acts like a pivot point.

[.ghoti.]

The short answer is a balanced rod will get you some benefits for plastics and jig fishing, and does nothing for crankbaiting. I did one rod just like Reelmech's article; found the right weight and epoxied it in place. I bought kits to add weights to all my other plastic/jig rods. For plastics fishing, the rod seems to float in your hand, and the result is an apparent increase in sensitivity, and a slight, but real, decrease in wrist fatigue. For me, the down side was I couldn't hit the broad side of barn with it. My accuracy with a neutrally balanced rod was for #$%.

I've sinced removed the weights from all my rods, except the one that was epoxied in. I guess I've been fishing with tip-heavy rods for so long, that I like them that way.

I'd suggest taping some weight to your plastic/jig rods to try it out before buying kits or glueing in any weights.

Cheers,

GK

[dodgeguy]

i balance all my rods.to me it makes casting less strenuous.i had a sore elbow one year and could not cast at all.i balanced my rods and the elbow got better.ever since then i have them all balanced.

[nebass]

:-/ I balanced all my BPS rods and well the performance was  "shaky" to say the least. I found that after I balanced a few rods during casting it actually made the rod tip shake as the line was going out. Kind of like "Boinggggggggg". I ended up removing all the weights. I just wish I could understand how it is that those pro's "whip" those baitcasters and don't end up with a Birds Nest?? Wish I could perform like that with my baitcasters :-[ I have only been using BC's for about two years now.

[Raul]

 I just wish I could understand how it is that those pro's "whip" those baitcasters and don't end up with a Birds Nest?? Wish I could perform like that with my baitcasters :-[ I have only been using BC's for about two years now.

You may have 2 years using BCs but that has little to do with how much you practice, 10-15 min of practice everyday, it 's all you need to learn how to control the beast.

[nebass]

Thanks for the advise Raul....pretty helpful tip And now after reading the Baitcaster 101 write up, the question is what lb ratings are my reels and where do I find that info now that I can't locate the owners manuals? Also, the Centrifical Brake pins, pretty confused on those. Where is the actual On and Off? Magnetic is pretty straight forward..... Oh well