Fishing Rods?

[Khong]

ok i think you guys answered my rod questions now a little about reels... how do you match a reel to a rod? obviously I know the difference between a casting rod and a spinning rod and reels that go on them but say i have a casting rod, and I do, that is 7'0 medium/fast 10-17lb test recommended what kind of baitcasting reel should be matched to it... are there specs for reels that are supposed to go hand in hand with your rod?

If you want a good reel and don't want to grieve about it later on I should have bought this and that.

Go with these choice:

1) Shimano Curado 200e

2) Abu Revo STX

3) Quantum Smoke

These 3 are by far the best for it's price. You would never ever regret buying one of them.

[Raul]

Did anyone know the two rods from st. croix (triumph and premier) are the exact same rod just different name. The difference is one is made in U.S. and the other is made in mexico thats it. they are the exact same blank and hardware. Not suprising the one from the U.S. is more expensive by like $50. Man when is this country gonna stop... You know what I mean!!!

$7.25 / Hr ---> US minimum wage

$0.50 - $0.55 / Hr ---> Mexico minimum wage.

[Kevin Wilder]

Actually my rant does because earlier in the thread people were suggesting that I get a St. Croix premier rod and I was informing all those who suggested it that the same rod can be purchased cheaper. My complaint has no polictical agenda, purely economics so ease up there buddy!

I dont know what you mean, but I dont think your political musings have anything to do with fishing rod selection.

NGaHB

[tomustang]

$7.25 / Hr ---> US minimum wage

$0.50 - $0.55 / Hr ---> Mexico minimum wage.

Also, they are not the exact same

[Kevin Wilder]

ok... are you going to back that up at all? I just heard this all from the bass pro from a local shop here.

Also, they are not the exact same

[Kevin Wilder]

wow... I really appreciate the time you took in writing all that... looks like it took quite a while.

Here are some good tips on rod:

A lot of people get mistaken by power for action. Action is what you want for different type of fishing style. Power is were you want to fish it at. Length is how far or accurate you want your lure to land.

Action: There are a couple of action type. Extra Fast, Fast, Moderate Fast, Moderate, Moderate Slow, and Slow. If you're fishing for Bass you don't need anything below Moderate.

Here is what I recommend on action:

1) Use a Fast action rod for Finest, Frog, or anything that is weedless rigged "Somewhat like Texas rig." Why? You need the stiffness of the rod to set the hook so it can pierce the bass mouth. If your rod isn't stiff, it will not have enough Action strength to pierce.

2) Use a Moderate Fast action for non-weedless swimbait without treble hook and Spinnerbait. Why? This rod is a bit less stiffer then a fast action rod and it will not tear out when you set the hook. Spinner bait and non-weedless swimbait have expose hook. This exposure will set the hook better then a weedless or Texas rig without too much action strength for tearing.

3) Use a Moderate action for Cranking. Why? All crankbait have treble hook. You don't hardly need to set the hook because there is no way a bass will not be set if it gulps it. Why the moderate action? The bend of a moderate action rod keeps the line tight so it doesn't give much play for the treble hook to be release when the bass tries to shake it off.

Here comes power comes into play:

As for action, power also has a couple too. Ultra-Light, Light, Medium-Light, Medium, Medium-Heavy, Heavy, and Ultra-Heavy. For Bass fishing we're only going to use Medium to Heavy.

Here is what I recommend on power:

Someone stated that use a MH or Medium Heavy if you are weary. Yes, that is true, but sometimes if your casting for 3-4hour you would get tired.

1) Use a Medium rod if you're going to cast a lot such as crankbait, spinnerbait, swimbait, and spoon. Why Medium and not anything lighter? I wouldn't go lighter unless you're willing to risk losing your rod, lure, and fish if you catch anything big by mistake. You just never know when you catch a 6 to 9lb and wish you could have bought a heavier rod. Usually a medium would be enough power to handle anything what i'm saying when casting the mention lure above unless you are casting huge lure's then you'll switch to a more heavier rod. Then again, when you cast huge lures you would hardly reel it fast in except walking it back or slow retrieving it thus making you cast a lot less.

2) Use a Medium Heavy rod if you are weary. Also use it if you tend to cast bigger and heavier lures. This rod power is probably the best for jigging. Sometimes you need the extra power if you jigged in a heavier cover to bring out the fish.

3) Use a Heavy rod if you are pitching jig/worms into thick heavy cover. Heavy rod are excellent for frog fishing too. A heavy rod is were you need the power to pull out the bass from thick grass, moss, or whatever it's bind too. It's great to set the hook on a weedless lure as the bass pulls it into the cover so you don't snap the rod.

I've talked about Action and Power, but there is also length. There isn't much to length on rod except what I mention before. A longer rod gives more distance but lesser accuracy. A shorter rod gives more accuracy but lesser distance when casting. Longer rod are use more for pitching too, where as shorter rod are use more for casting. Sometimes length plays preference to a person and his like. Most people often buy 6'6" to 7'2" for casting and 7'2" to 7'11" for pitching. I've seen people use heavy rod that are 7'11" just to cast huge lures too. These are known for heavyweight bass fishing.

And last and not all, we have rod balance. If you're new and don't know what it is, it a weight that you put at the end of your rod to balance you're rod. Hardly everyone uses it. I would only recommend you to use it if you are putting a heavy lure on your rod and you notice the balance isn't correct anymore on your rod. What I mean by this is when your rod tip feels heavy and you end up trying to balance your rod with your wrist. In time it will cause your wrist to sore if you cast a lot. Use a weight balance and your wrist won't be so strain.

[Kevin Wilder]

anyone agree a fiberglass rod should be used for topwater? I heard this from a pro on on-demand tv that was giving bass fishing lessons... I don't remember why he said to use fiberglass. I think it was something like it has less sensitivity which helps from setting the hook too early because people tend to do that when topwater fishing.

[Raul]

anyone agree a fiberglass rod should be used for topwater?

I don´t agree a fiberglass rod SHOULD be used for topwater, actually I don´t agree with anything where SHOULD is used and if it were like the gospels ( articles of faith ). We go back again to what I and many have said here: you can have it as simple or as complicated as you want and your wallet allows you to.

There used to be a time long ago back then during the age of the dinosaurs when I was young where if it was fiberglass it was like a rubber band and if it was graphite it was like a broom stick, nowdays it´s not that way anymore, technology, advances in materials, design and development of components are light years away from what it was, that gap between fiberglass and graphite has closed so much that it´s very difficult to differentiate between one and another when it comes to performance and what is "best" for this or that.

I´m not going to say it´s not cool to own several setups, this for this bait/technique, that for that bait/technique, it´s great to have a bunch of stuff on the deck and grabbing the setup & bait you want without having to cut and retie. The more stuff you have to more complicated it gets, you got so much from where to choose that you spend your time trying to figure out what will be best than you spend doing what brought you to the water in the first place and that is fishing, spend your time fishing ! It´s better to have one ( or a couple ), refine until you master it, in mexican Spanish we have a word to define adaptation to diffrent needs without having the absolute best tool for the job, that word is "maña".

Fishing with baits with trebles on them requires a more forgiving rod to dissipate the energy during the fight, transference of load to the rod instead of having it on the hooks where the fish can use the load to it´s advantage and unbotton the hooks, fiberglass is ( theoretically ) more forgiving than graphite, at least it used to be that way, but what if you don´t have a fiberglass rod ? does that mean you can´t use it to fish baits with trebbles ? no, it means that if you don´t have it you have to make adjustments, you can´t adjust the stifness of the rod, but you can adjust the tightness of your drag, the "maña" is to loosen your drag so when the fish pulls the energy is dissipated on the drag, the fish pulls ---> the drag slips.