Tell Me All About Rods

[BigMoneyGrip]

I'm wanting to know all about rods. I understand about the different "powers" of rods and I think I understand about "tips". Some manufactures only specify the power of the rod while others specify the power and tip. Why the difference? I also hear some people talking about the taper of a rod. Is this the same as the power?

Can one lave a low power with a xfast tip?

Can one have a heavy power and a soft tip?

I'm confused and just curious. Can you help?

Thanks,

Scott.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Scott,

It's hard to do justice to this topic in a forum post but I'll try. The real problem is taht there are no industry standards for rod specs. It's all subjective on the part of the manufacturer. Getting the vocabulary down is a good first step. Check out this if you haven't: http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/rod-actions-power.html. Power and Action are independent of one another. And Action and tip stiffness are independent of one another. A slower action is not the same as a soft tip. Taper is a term of its own and is a description of the relation of the tip to butt diameters over the length. The taper is one design element used to get the desired power/action combination desired. Any of the combinations you mentioned are possible up to a point. A "Fast taper" would have a larger diameter butt that tapers quickle to a relatively fine tip. This is conducive to a fast action but just how fast depends on other design elements.

[BigMoneyGrip]

So, would " backbone" be the same as the power? Just trying to figure out the slang terms.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Backbone is relative to power but not exactly the same thing. A rod described as having "a good backbone" would be your example of a softer tip but still heavy power. Basically a rod that would load and cast a relatively light bait but still allow you to fight a fish out of cover. This is what the term means to me and how I apply it in desiging and specing out a custom rod. Others may use the term differently.

[Harva]

Not sure if this is the correct thread for this question .... Was at BPS last night, looking at rods. Was comparing the Johnny Morris signature rod with the CarbonLite rod. Salesman mentioned that the Carbonlite was made up of carbon fibers as opposed to the graphite found in the JM signature rod. Any thoughts on durability or 'brittleness' of the carbon based rods? The Carbonlite felt even lighter than the JM Signature rod, but I had no information on actual weights.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Graphite and carbon fiber are the same thing. The cabonlite may be a higher modulus graphite which reduces weight/stiffness. Any modern high modulus graphite rod blank has a level of brittleness as a trade-off for the reduced weight. If they are handled with a reasonable level of care they should hold up fine. Be aware of boat cleats and flopping jigs or weights that can dent or ding the surface. These compromised damaged spots are what lead to failures. As a rule avoid any motion with any rod that flexes the tip beyond 90* to the butt. This not only puts undue stress on the blank, you are losing a mechanical advantage over the fish.

[BigMoneyGrip]

I understand that there is a difference between power and action. What I don't understand is why some companies only list the power and not the action. Is the power more important?

And what does the line rating have to do? One of my rods is rated for 10~17 lbs, yet I have 65 lbs braid on it. What gives?

Thanks for your help.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

To me, power and action are both important. The action can be easily seen by flexing the rod. The power is invisible until you put a real load on the rod. That may explain why a particular manufacturer would label that way. In theory, line rating is the test strength of line that will fail before the blank over loads. A properly set drag will protect the rod and reel as well as the line so I pay less attention to line ratings. How you use the rod greatly affects how much load it can handle. For instance, if you point the tip toward the fish and pull them in you can exert all the force you want on the braid because the rod has been taken out of the equation. Lure weight ratings are a better judge of how a rod will perform. It gives you an idea of how big a bait is needed to load the rod to cast properly.

[BigMoneyGrip]

DVT, thanks for your time, I appreciate it.

[baluga]

Here's a very good article about choosing rods from our good friend Fishingelbow

http://pages.infinit...shing/rods1.htm