Fishing rods

Fishing rod choices are many

The rafters in your garage are no doubt full of fishing rods, some old favourites, others relegated to tomato staking duty. Fishing rods have progressed from cane, bamboo, solid pultrusion fibreglass, then to hollow fibreglass and carbon. Rods come with many different tapers. Taper is where the rod bends. If the top third bends it's a fast taper, if the bend is over the whole rod it's parabolic. Most modern rods for dropping lures are made to be used with braid. They generally bend at just above half way, (moderate fast taper) giving some cushioning to the line/strike, and also give lots of resistance/lift on a fish. The angle at which we hold a rod has also evolved. While playing fish, rather than pointing the rod tip to one o'clock, we now point the tip to three o'clock, drop the end down while winding the reel, stop the tip at five to five-thirty, lift and repeat the action. This provides a more constant lift than pointing the tip to the stars. Point loading or "high sticking" (twelve to one o'clock) a modern carbon rod on a fish is a risky business, often resulting in a multi-piece rod.

Modern sport carbon rods are best fished with the butt under your armpit, and adopt the three to five-thirty action, this lifts fish faster and more effectively than the action of old. Longer rods (seven foot plus) are generally a fast taper, for surface lure fishing and soft-baiting. Where hook set is important, this is the best taper. The traditional retrieve action suits top water fishing, although you still need to watch high sticking. So why do rods bend in different places? By design. But then not all rods that bend have lift , not all tapers perform the way they should. For example, a fast taper rod that is too stiff is counter-productive for lure action. But thats a whole other column. We try where possible to only stock rods with Fuji quality components.