I'm reading in sale flyers about rods and reviewing catalogs, what is considered a popping rod?

Technique specific blank with moderate action used by fishermen who suspend a bait under a cork for ripping along the surface to excite fish - plastic or live bait. For inshore speckled trout and redfish 842, 843, 844 can be used quite well.

These type definitions are all in the online glossary right here on this site. Just a reminder.

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I use a lot of popping blanks to build crank bait rods. They have more of a parabolic action, which makes them a little more forgiving with treble hooks. Also good for casting cranks long distances.

Steve is dead on the mark, I have a couple popping rods that I built as crankbaits rods (Rainshadow RX7 IP904 7'6") and they work better than any "crankbait" blank I've ever seen/used.

DR

I just built on my first 'popping' blank and I'll tell you what...I now know exactly what to suggest to speckled trout fishermen around here. Soft tip bending about a third of the way down the blank and decent backbone from there. This rod was the smaller of the two AmTak Matrix popping blanks (6-12# if I remember correctly). I may try their heavier popper soon if I get a customer I can talk into one. I doubt you'd rip even the smallest of trebles out of a specks mouth with one of these blanks.

Jay