Hey everyone,

  I have been reading a lot about balancing your rod.  How does this help?  I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but I want to see if balancing my rod will actually help me in my casting and fishing.  I usually only throw soft plastics or crank baits.  I usually cast side arm or underhanded.  Will balancing my rod help me reduce fatigue or something?  In other words, what are the benefits?

Thanks for any help!

Vic

vicdotcom,

Here is some reading for you  Balancing Your Fishing Rods

Tight Lines!!!

You balance the rod to perform a better task for a specific application changing the center of gravity by adding weight, butt heavy, tip heavy, neutral; it 's the application of a simple principle, the principle of the lever where the reel seat acts like a pivot point.

The short answer is a balanced rod will get you some benefits for plastics and jig fishing, and does nothing for crankbaiting. I did one rod just like Reelmech's article; found the right weight and epoxied it in place. I bought kits to add weights to all my other plastic/jig rods. For plastics fishing, the rod seems to float in your hand, and the result is an apparent increase in sensitivity, and a slight, but real, decrease in wrist fatigue. For me, the down side was I couldn't hit the broad side of barn with it. My accuracy with a neutrally balanced rod was for #$%.

I've sinced removed the weights from all my rods, except the one that was epoxied in. I guess I've been fishing with tip-heavy rods for so long, that I like them that way.

I'd suggest taping some weight to your plastic/jig rods to try it out before buying kits or glueing in any weights.

Cheers,

GK

i balance all my rods.to me it makes casting less strenuous.i had a sore elbow one year and could not cast at all.i balanced my rods and the elbow got better.ever since then i have them all balanced.

:-/ I balanced all my BPS rods and well the performance was  "shaky" to say the least. I found that after I balanced a few rods during casting it actually made the rod tip shake as the line was going out. Kind of like "Boinggggggggg". I ended up removing all the weights. I just wish I could understand how it is that those pro's "whip" those baitcasters and don't end up with a Birds Nest?? Wish I could perform like that with my baitcasters :-[ I have only been using BC's for about two years now.

 I just wish I could understand how it is that those pro's "whip" those baitcasters and don't end up with a Birds Nest?? Wish I could perform like that with my baitcasters :-[ I have only been using BC's for about two years now.

You may have 2 years using BCs but that has little to do with how much you practice, 10-15 min of practice everyday, it 's all you need to learn how to control the beast.

Thanks for the advise Raul....pretty helpful tip And now after reading the Baitcaster 101 write up, the question is what lb ratings are my reels and where do I find that info now that I can't locate the owners manuals? Also, the Centrifical Brake pins, pretty confused on those. Where is the actual On and Off? Magnetic is pretty straight forward..... Oh well