Rod Action Poll

[Zach Matthews]

Mike Fielder –

Your question is pretty hotly debated, mostly by reps for the competing tackle companies using plan A (thick walls, thin diameter) versus plan B (thin walls, thick diameter).

I don’t know that there is a consensus but if each side is being honest, they will usually hedge and grumble around the general idea that the thin wall, thick diameter blanks make for more responsive trout-sized rods, while the thick-wall, thin diameter blanks make for more powerful distance casting and fish-pulling rods.  It should be noted that the differences here are pretty minute; you could figure out which company is which by taking a micrometer to a fly shop but probably not with your eyeballs.

Breakage with fly rods isn’t the best way to measure, however.  In *theory* the thicker blank wall should be the more durable rod, because scoring of the carbon fiber (via clousering) is one of the principle ways to snap a tube of graphite.  However that theory very rarely gets put to the test, because something like 90% of rods are snapped by user error.  Putting the rod on the ground and stepping on it, sticking it in a ceiling fan, car window, car door, or simply “crossing the beams” while fishing in a drift boat are all waaaay higher up the list of breakage causes than simply fighting a fish.  (I personally snapped one of Jim Klug’s rods by being careless and casting across his territory in a boat with him in Brazil.)  

Even when a rod does break on a fish, that’s usually just the endgame from an earlier user error.  (I have demonstrated that a couple times with my striper rods in the last two years).

Sometimes certain series get released which have abnormally high breakage rates, such as the old GLX.  That oftentimes is due to the manufacturer really pushing the envelope on what the available resins can handle.  Generally speaking the stronger the resin the less carbon fiber you need and therefore the more responsive or “high performance” the rod will be.  But when manufacturers get ahead of the materials curve, try to make a blank wall too thin for a given diameter, then yes, breakage rates go up.  I know of two series more recent than the GLX that had short live spans due to this situation, from two different manufacturers.  On the plus side, at least it shows they are really trying.

Zach

[Gerard S]

I guess it depends on the type of fishing….saltwater, fast/stiff. Stream medium/limber.

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