Rod Types & Actions

< back to all technical articles

The basic Rod Types seen on the West Coast are:

Fly Rods
Casting Rods - Freshwater and light Saltwater for bait and lures.
Spinning Rods - Freshwater and light Saltwater for bait and lures.
Steelhead Rods - Spinning or Casting used for Bait or Lures.
Saltwater Boat Rods - Spinning or Casting used for Bait or Lures.
Big Game Rods - Regulation; Stand up or Chair.
Surf Rods - Spinning or Casting.

There are probably many other types of rods available that are designed for a regional type of market such as we have here on the left coast, but most of them can be broken down into subgroups of the above seven.

Rod Actions are easily described as how a rod bends or flexes in relation to its overall length.
Slow Action - Flexes thru the upper 3/4 of the blank.
Moderate / Medium Action - Flexes thru the the upper 2/3 to 1/2 of the blank.
Fast Action - Flexes thru the upper 1/2 to 1/3 of the blank.
Extra Fast Action - Flexes thru the upper !/3 to 1/4 of the blank.

Please note that all of these locations of bending are approximate, and subject to the judgment of the person classifying it. Many blanks or rods will be judged as being one type of action by the manufacturer, yet other people looking at the same blank will call it as another type. Until there are standards set for such things that everybody uses, we will have many variations in descriptions of rod actions.

Below is a simple, exaggerated illustration of rod actions.
Slow Action, Moderate Action, Fast Action, X-Fast action

Rod Powers are typically used to describe the lure or line weight of a rod in relation to a rod from the same manufacturer and of the same type as the selected rod. As an example a "1" rating on a spinning rod might designate an Ultralight Power that is able to cast 1/16 to 3/16 oz. lures using 2 to 4 pound line. The same "1" rating in a Steelhead "Hot Shot" blank might be called a Mag - Medium action and rated for 3/8 to 4 oz. lures using 10 to 20 pound line. So, you can see that these designations only mean something when referring to blanks of the same type and of the same manufacturer. The normally used designations of powers for most rods other than Fly and Saltwater Boat rods are as follows; Ultra Light, Light, Medium Light, Mag Light, Medium, Medium Heavy, Heavy and Extra Heavy. Individual manufacturers may use many other designations besides these.

Fly Rods use a rating system that was adopted by the AMERICAN FISHING TACKLE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION (AFTMA) now called the AMERICAN SPORTFISHING ASSOCIATION (ASA). This system uses a series of numbers that represent the optimum line weight for a particular rod. The line weight referred to is the weight of the first 30 feet of a fly line, not including the leader. The reason for this is that most flies have so little weight, that what you are actually casting is the fly line itself. The numbers used at this time range from #1 on up to #15. Line sizes are chosen for the size and cast ability of the fly being used, not necessarily the size of the fish that you are fishing for.

Saltwater Boat Rods typically use a line rating such as "10 - 25 pound" or "30 to 80 pound". These numbers represent the range of fishing lines that can be used on these particular rods. The normal optimum line for any particular rating is going to be in the approximate center of the range. On the "10 - 25#" example, most popular would be lines in the 15 to 20# range. On the "30 - 80#" example, most popular would be lines in the 50 to 60# range. Again these are the optimum line weights, but that is not to say you could not use 80# on the 30 to 80 rod, but I would suggest against going much heavier than that as you might overstress the rod. In the opposite direction going much less than the recommended line puts you in the position of breaking the line without much difficulty.