IN THIS LESSON

Rod Action, Length, and Power

Fishing rods may all look very similar to the common person but as an angler it is crucial to know the difference. There is a specially designed rod for just about every kind of fishing, from panfishing with an ultralight to reeling in a 50 inch muskellunge with a heavy rod.

What’s the difference?

If you are just getting into fishing, all fishing rods are not the same. Every rod has a different ACTION, POWER, and LENGTH. All of these take part in how the rod bends. Each of your setups (rod-reel-line) needs to be balanced, if not something WILL BREAK. If your rod is too heavy with 6lb test line, you will snap the line every time before your rod bends. Vice versa if you have and ultra light rod with 80lb test you’ll snap your rod in half before the line breaks.

How it Should Work

The main purpose of the rod isn’t just to fling the line out and cast. The most important purpose is a shock absorber for when the fish is fighting. There always needs to be something to absorb the shock, whether its a lighter rod that bends easier or a long stretchy monofilament leader, and in worse case scenarios, a loose drag.

What does action Mean?

The action of a rod is determined by how the very end of the rod bend under pressure. Fast rods bend very little while slow rods bend the tip easily.

What does this have to do with fishing you may ask? It has to do with how FAST or SLOW you are retrieving your lure/bait after you cast. We will dive deeper into that in a later chapter.

What does Power Mean?

The power of a rod is determined by how hard it is to bend the rod to its action. So the heavier the target species usually means a heavier power. Most panfish are caught on light or ultralight. Bass, walleye, and smaller catfish can be caught with anything from Medium-light to Medium-Heavy. The Heavy and Extra Heavy rods are typically reserved for BIG fish like giant flathead catfish, muskellunge, and salmon. They come in a few different options:

  • Ultralight

  • Light

  • Medium-light

  • Medium

  • Medium-heavy

  • Heavy

  • Extra-heavy

The length of a rod plays into its power and action. The longer the rod is the thicker and heavier it has to be in order to maintain the same power and action as a shorter rod. Imagine holding two sticks in your hand that are the same thickness, except one is 9ft long and the other is 5ft feet long. This would be like holding a 9ft fly rod vs a 5ft ultralight. The fly rods length gives it more power to cast light lures/baits because of the way it bends, on the other hand though it doesn’t assist much in tiring out the fish. Rod length is not critical to your fishing experience but there are some Advanced Fishing Strategies that require very long rods.

Why Does the length matter?

Reels:

Fishing reels have become very advanced in the last twenty-some years. Heck, they even make ones that reel in on their own!! When it comes down to it the basic angler just needs a simple reel. Let’s go over the most common types of reels and how they are different.

Spinning Reels:

A step above the closed face reel you get your kids at walmart, the spinning reel is the building block for most anglers. This spool, part that holds the line, spins on the same axis as the fishing line. The bail, the bar that surrounds the spool, keeps the line tightly wound on the spool until you flip or open the bail to cast your line out. The spool on spinning reels moves up and down as you reel in to keep your line as flat as possible on the spool. This prevents your line from spilling over the spool while reeling in and making a mess. The drag adjustment on spinning reels is usually located on top of the spool but on some models it can also be found on the bottom of the reel. Adjust by turning the knob clockwise or counter clockwise. Spinning Reels are great for being ambidextrous, you can switch the handle to either side depending on what you prefer.

casting Reels:

As with most anglers, I have a love/hate relationship with casting reels. They are the go to reel for most bass fishermen because of the accuracy of casting. But let me say now, accuracy with a casting reel takes a lot of practice and patience. The spool on a casting reel spins perpendicular to the line axis, this makes casting very smooth as the line rolls right out. Casting reels have an adjustment knob on the for resistance on the spool when the bail is open. Set it too light and you will have a massive bird nest on your hands, set it too tight and your lure/bait will only go about 5ft. The drag adjustment on casting reels is on the reel handle. Adjust by turning the spokes one way or the other. If you are left-handed like myself than you have two options when it comes to casting reels, learn to do it right-handed or, custom order a left-handed reel as casting reels are not ambidextrous.

CHECK YOUR ROD

Most rods can not handle either type of reel. There are specific rods for spinning and casting, both available in the same power, action, and length usually. Heavy casting rods are usually considered trolling rods.