Hi Folks,

 

I have both newer and older rods here.  I think the oldest bass rod is a fiberglass job from the '70s; it's a Lew's Tournament Grade.

 

It's a nice rod, and it's labeled as "medium heavy, fast action."

 

Now, it's pretty whippy.  It's not what I'd consider fast action.  Medium, maybe, or medium-fast, but not fast.

 

In the early '90s I picked up a Daiwa MH Fast action graphite.  It's pretty stiff but not so stiff as these ones I'm seeing now.

 

I was given a couple rods by Dad.  One was a Berkely Lightening Rod from several years back.  It's 7' and pretty stiff, but lists as a MH Fast action.

 

I bought a BPS 5'6" MH Fast Action to go with the 5500c3 I ordered from them.  That thing was STIFF and reminded me of the graphite we used in mechanical pencils.  The first one broke.  The replacement arrived and is just fine.

 

When that first BPS broke, I bought a Berkely Cherrywood HD as a stopgap.  It, too, lists as being MH Fast Action, but feels more like my '90s Daiwa.  It is advertised as being a hybrid rod, an it puts me in mind of a mixture of the old Lew's rod combined with the '90s Daiwa, but with a nod towards the Daiwa. 

 

Sometime in here, I picked up a modern 6'6" Daiwa MEDIUM rod with a fast action.  Know what?  This bloody thing is about a MH fast action according to my frame of reference!!!

 

Argh!

 

I doubt there's an industry standard, but can someone clear this up?  I've noticed a trend toward these "medium" rods for bass fishing and am starting to wonder if this is because the general definition of what constitutes a MH/F rod has shifted.

 

Help?

 

Thank you,

 

Josh

The first thing to remember with rod power and action is there has never been any standards.

Each rod manufacturer rate their product as they feel like to sell the product.

Fenwhick rods back in the 70's started to use a numerical rod power rating using dead weight that bottomed out the rods lifting power in pounds; 1power was 1 pound, 5 power was 5 lbs the rod could lift safely. Fenwhick was a west coast rod maker that also introduced graphite rods, HMG or high modulus graphite.

3, 4, 5 and 6 power rods with fast bending action, rods that bent from the tip to about 1/3rd the rods length became the most popular bass fishing rods for worms and jigs. Fiber glass rods rods that were medium action that bent more parabolic or evenly from the tip to the first rod guide near the reel seat remained popular in the same power ratings for deep diving lures back in the 70's.

Today's rods that are west coast origins like G. Loomis, Lamiglas, Dobyn's ( originally Lamiglas) Fenwhick still use power by numbers. Most other rods makers use power by guess where 2 to 2 1/2 = medium-light, 3 medium, 3 1/2 to 4 = medium heavy, 5 to 6 heavy with moderate, fast, extra fast actions that are based on marketing feature for specific application or lure use.

Today's rod blanks have 2 basic constructions; scrim or scrimless fiber lay. Thin light weight wall construction, light weight single foot low profile guides, light weight reel seats. The fibers are graphite or glass graphite bends with improved resins.

The bottom line is today's rods are lighter weight, the majority of the blanks made off shore, some made in the USA and some assembled in the USA from off shore components.

Tom

Fenwick also made incredibly sensitive Boron rods.

Fenwick also made incredibly sensitive Boron rods.

The original Phenix rods came out with boron in the early 80's and became the rod for west coast tournament anglers for about 10 years before Loomis and Lamiglas became the top choices.

Tom

Josh, as you're seeing first hand there are no industry standards. As a matter of fact many won't even publish physical weight. Action is just where the rod bends initially. Power describes the resistance to bending or stiffness. Even though terms like fast and slow are used to describe action, a rods speed is it's recovery rate or frequency. Your "whippy " rod is slow or low frequency. A modern graphite rod will be "faster" having a higher frequency. The corresponding higher stiffness to weight ratio is where the improved sensitivity comes from. Your older rods are certainly fishable but will serve best in technique specific applications.

Thanks, guys, I'm having to look up some terms here so I'm slow to respond!

 

Josh

Josh, as you're seeing first hand there are no industry standards. As a matter of fact many won't even publish physical weight. Action is just where the rod bends initially. Power describes the resistance to bending or stiffness. Even though terms like fast and slow are used to describe action, a rods speed is it's recovery rate or frequency. Your "whippy " rod is slow or low frequency. A modern graphite rod will be "faster" having a higher frequency. The corresponding higher stiffness to weight ratio is where the improved sensitivity comes from. Your older rods are certainly fishable but will serve best in technique specific applications.

 

Mike, the fiberglass Lew's isn't even fished anymore.  It is Dad's and though I can use it, I don't want to.  That thing is sensitive for fiberglass!

 

I'm finding I like rods a step or two down in stiffness from the most modern high-graphite rods.  The first BPS rod I had snapped when it shouldn't have, and though the new one feels a lot better, making me think that there was something wrong with the other one, it still feels... interesting.

 

I think I might actually prefer these hybrid rods if the Cherrywood is any indication.  If that's the case, I might modify my future order a bit from what we discussed.  Let me do some more research and I'll PM you.

 

Regards,

 

Josh