Tim Kelly
The trouble with rod
recommendations and styles is
that everyone’s experience is
different. Years ago when I used
to do a lot of big lure fishing for
pike I remember people saying
that St Croix musky rods were
massively under rated. That
puzzled me as the ones I had
were about right at what they
did. Sure, you could cast a lot
more weight with them, but
they worked best roughly
within the recommended range
of casting weights. I think
people were used to horrible old
salmon spinning rods and their
through actions and thought
that a rod should be bending a
lot to be casting properly. Now
that I fish far more for perch
and zander, as well as small and
largemouth bass when I get the
chance, the rods are lighter and
the techniques generally
require far more finesse.
When you get into fishing
with more finesse there’s more
to be gained from a better rod
blank than when you’re fishing
chuck and wind type tactics. I
have gradually bought more
expensive rod blanks over the
years, and each step up the price
scale has given a noticeableIt’s a two-way conversation
FEEDBACK...
Rod blank attributes and capabilities can be a hotly
debated subject amongst lure anglers. The favoured
speed of taper, degree of backbone or the softness of
the tip is often dictated by the application or chosen
discipline, but can also simply be a case of personal
preference. There is often a trade-off between the bite
indication, lure control, hook setting qualities and indeed
forgiveness when playing hard-fighting fish and few rods
tick all of the boxes. For this feature I have invited five
accomplished LAS members to share their thoughts on
the topic and no doubt enlighten us with their experience.
increase in feel. What you gain
with expensive blanks is the
recovery time of the blank; the
time it takes for the loaded rod
to spring back to straight after
the load is released. That is
singularly the most important
aspect of a high end blank,
regardless of the specific taper
or power of the rod and directly
effects how much you feel.
I used St Croix “Avid” blanks
happily until I bought my first
“SC1V” blank and where I was
fishing and getting caught up
in the bottom fairly regularly,
with the more sensitive blank
I seemed able to tell when the
lure was going into the snag
and could frequently do
something about it before it got
stuck. Since getting an “SCV”
series blank the increase in
sensitivity is even better,
though not as big a difference
as between the “Premier”
series and the “Avid” or the
“Avid” and the “SC1V”, which
are far more pronounced steps.
Of course you don’t need an
expensive blank to catch fish
and you can do the same job
with a much cheaper rod, but I
absolutely get more pleasure,
more feedback and probably fisha bit more efficiently with the
better quality rods. As you may
have deduced, I tend to make my
own rods from blanks as I don’t
like the standard build of many
rods. It’s something else to
consider that you can make a
blank fish and feel quite
differently by the components
you use to build the rod. Small
light guides give the rod blank
every opportunity to perform
at its best where larger heavier
guides dampen the blank
appreciably. But that’s all a
whole difference conversation.James Dobie
Since getting into vertical
jigging in a big way, my rod
blank choice has changed
massively due to gaining more
experience, so much so thatI’m on my third new rod since
October, and this is from a
technical point of view, not
just being a tackle tart! From
reading and speaking to
anglers, I’ve always been told
extra-fast, or stiff blanks are the
way to go. Interestingly, this is
not always the case.
Look at the attached photo of
the tangled lure, unfortunately
this was a regular occurrence
for me, using an extra fast blank
with 25 or 30g of weight. Having
moved away from traditional
jigheads in favour of a two
stinger combination, this was
happening repeatedly, not only
to me but to boat partners
fishing similarly for zander,
using a sharp ‘snap’ to impart
action into the lures. Note, it
would also occur with standardPART 1
Two very different rod
actions, one clearly
has backbone up to the
last 18 inches the other
a more ‘through’ curve
or ‘slower’ taper