When I was working, I attended three days of sensitivity training and I still can’t feel a bite.

what?  feeling a bite and interpreting a bite are different things.  mutually exclusive of each other.

 

take for example.  a doctor.  she/he pushes into your abdomen and feels your liver.  if i was a fat person (fiberglass rod - i dont want to name names, but kinda a unattractive-stick) or a skinny person (carbon rod, with badass spiral wrap, and metal touches where your fingers rest) - the doc can still feel my liver and tell me if it is swollen or not.  that comes with training and education.  there is no debate, the doc would rather feel the liver in a skinny person..it has to be easier.  

 

same same.   my Megabass in my wife's unexperieced hands doesnt mean the transmission of the bite didnt get to her hand (and then brain).  she just didnt interpret the bite.  but it was there.  

What about individual sensitivity?

 

At some point, that has to be a factor. You would have to argue that a 20-something year old's hands would have a more active nervous system and therefore would have better sensation than a 50+ year old's hands?

Tactile sensation loss exists. Maybe we should be investing in fish oil instead of better rods

i think even numb hands is independent of a rod's sensitivity.  the rod is what it is.  

@garroyo130 not really 😉

 

Some people are born with it, some people never ever get it!

 

When prepping wood or metal for painting I can feel imperfections with my fingers tips that others I've worked can't. There's plenty of crafts that require "sensitive" hands.

 

You can however increase your feel with a quality rod & night fishing.

The best way to describe what sensitivity means to me, when it comes to a fishing rod anyway, is the ability to "hear" what's happening at the other end of the line.  It's like hearing with your fingers instead of your ears.  

 

It's hard to explain, but with a sensitive rod, my brain wants to interpret the vibrations as a sound.  Whereas with a less sensitive rod, my brain wants to interpret them as some kind of resistance or movement.   A more sensitive rod just feels crisper.  

 

And yeah, usually the higher end rods will be more sensitive.  But not always.  

I'm a line watcher 👀 , I see it before I feel it....... except when the wind is blowing.

 

On slow falling baits that almost always get engulfed before reaching the bottom, you can physically see your line suddenly race.

I also use braid exclusively which does add an element of sensitivity.