Written Guides
A guide here explains something the rest of the site assumes you already know. The 27 entries on the species, technique, tackle and rod pages answer what to use and why; these answer the questions underneath them, starting with how to read the ratings printed on your own rod.
One Guide, So Far
Reading Your Rod's Own Label
Where a rod's ratings are printed and what each line of the panel means. What to do when two of them disagree, and how to work out a rating that has worn off.
The label is readable once you know where to look and what each line is claiming, and nobody should have to guess their own rod.
Look a Word Up
Every term on this site, one sentence each
The words printed on rods and line packages, the names for hooks, and the words for water. Each is defined in a sentence, with a caution, and points at the page that treats it fully.
What a Guide Has to Do That a Species Page Cannot
Everything else on this site is generated from a fact table — a species, a method, a bait, a rod shape, and the relationships between them. That covers what to use and why. It does not cover the questions that sit underneath the table: what the word printed above a handle is, what a line class is measuring, what a leader is actually for.
Those are guides. Anything that could be a paragraph on an existing page will be a paragraph on that page instead, which is why the list above is short and will stay short. A guide also never recommends a rod or a bait: the matching engine decides those, every page presents the same answer, and a guide arguing with it would put the site in disagreement with itself.
Where the Recommendations Live
3 Species
What each fish does to gear: what its mouth asks of a hook, what its fight and cover ask of a line, and the methods that reach it.
6 Techniques
The layer that decides a rod. Each one carries the power, action and length it asks for, and the reason those are the answer.
6 Rod Profiles
Every shape with its casting window and line rating, and what each one throws well, badly, or not at all.
12 Baits and Rigs
What each one does in the water, the conditions it fails in, and the rod characteristics that pair with it.