Rod Profiles, and What Each One Can Actually Cast
A rod is a shape, not a brand. Two numbers decide almost everything about it: the weight window printed above the handle, and the line it is built to fight on. Everything else on this site is downstream of those two.
The table runs from 1/16-3/8 oz at the top to 32-200 oz at the bottom, because weight is the rating that rules a rod out first. A rod cannot bend properly against a weight it was not built for, whatever else is right about it. Power and action are the next two columns, and they answer different questions. Power is how much fish and cover the lower half of the rod can move. Action is where it bends, and therefore what hook it suits.
Read the windows against each other, not down the page. Two rods whose windows overlap are a pair to choose between; two whose windows do not touch are the case for owning both. That comparison is the one thing a single profile page cannot show you.
What It Casts, What It Fights On, and What It Is For
| Profile | Casts | Line | Power / action | Serves | Reaches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6'9" medium-light, fast action spinningspinning · 6'9" | 1/16-3/8 oz | 4-10 lb | medium-lightfast action | 1jighead and soft plastic | 2largemouth bass and redfish |
| 7'0" medium, fast action spinningspinning · 7'0" | 1/8-5/8 oz | 6-14 lb | mediumfast action | 3jighead and soft plastic, walking a topwater plug and popping cork | 2largemouth bass and redfish |
| 7'0" medium-heavy, fast action castingcasting · 7'0" | 1/4-1 1/4 oz | 12-20 lb | medium-heavyfast action | 3texas rig, jighead and soft plastic and walking a topwater plug | 2largemouth bass and redfish |
| 7'0" medium, moderate action castingcasting · 7'0" | 3/8-7/8 oz | 10-17 lb | mediummoderate action | 1crankbait fishing | 1largemouth bass |
| 7'6" medium-heavy, fast action spinningspinning · 7'6" | 3/8-1 1/2 oz | 10-25 lb | medium-heavyfast action | 3popping cork, jighead and soft plastic and walking a topwater plug | 2largemouth bass and redfish |
| 5'6" extra-heavy, moderate action stand-upstand-up · 5'6" | 32-200 oz | 80-200 lb | extra-heavymoderate action | 1deep drop | 1swordfish |
A Rod Serving One Method Is Not a Worse Rod
The “serves” column counts methods, and it is easy to read as a score. It is not one. A rod built for a single job is built more exactly for it. The profile at the bottom of this table is the only thing on the site that will lift a fish off the floor of the ocean. What the column tells you is how often a rod will be the answer, not how good it is when it is.
If you are buying one rod, the useful reading is the widest window that still covers what you actually fish. If you are buying a second, the useful reading is the window furthest from the one you own.
Once It Is Down to Two
The same six profiles, two at a time, with everything they agree on collapsed to a sentence so that what separates them is what is left on the page. Useful once the table above has narrowed it to two; the profile pages remain the fuller read.
The Same Question, Asked One Bait Category at a Time
The same profiles as the table above, turned ninety degrees: bait categories across the top, and a works, marginal or wrong in every cell straight out of the matching engine.