Just wondering what everyone sees as more popular for freshwater spinning rods in the 5-1/2 to 7 foot range. Most two pc. feel like one pc. these days, but it seems manufacturers offer more one pc. models.

Would like to hear any thoughts on this one.

Thanks,
Marc

Generally, fishermen prefer one-piece rods provided they have the room to transport them and are not planning on traveling by plane. Not that one is necessarily better than another, but the market drives what the makers offer.

.........

Our customers want 2-pc in the lighter sticks, and 1-pc in the heavier (as in striper rods). 6-1/2 to 7', with the occasional 6' thrown in. I don't know why.

Wanna see a 5-1/2', 2-pc spinner "bluegill" rod that weighs just at 2oz and pulled a 4lb gar off a 40' shelf in Lake Cumberland? Come by the booth at the show.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2007 12:12AM by Russ Pollack.

It's hard for me to move a customer to a 2 piece rod (here in the walleye world).

I can't seem to tell much difference personally and do tell them that. They still pretty much want one piece rods here in the lengths you've mentioned.

Putter
Williston, ND

Today's multi-piece rods perform just as well as their one piece counterparts. It's a matter of preference and ease of transport. However, some people are so stuck with the "1 piece is better" line of thinking that even when a decent 2 piece would serve best, they go 1 piece and the rod gets battered just trying to take it from A to B. Even 1 piece rods cut and ferruled to make multi-piece rods perform well if a good job was done. I have seen 2 piece MH bass rods that hold up fine to "Bubba" strikes with heavy braid, and my current stick is a SJ6400 GL2 that has enough fibreglass sleeving on it to make a whole new rod (don't ask). Casts well, flexes true, and has taken fish to 10lbs.

Putter hit it on the head - anytime sensitivity is desired, the customer wants a 1 piece rod. I have no problem with 2 piece rods, but one piece are the norm. I think custom builders should push 2 pc rods to save us all on shipping :-) LOL!

Thanks Putter, Ted, and Rich. You guys hit all the points I was thinking about. Not only are two pc rods easier to ship and transport, but most of the work of a custom rod - decorative wraps and custom turned grips - is in the bottom half of the rod. For warranty/repair, it's a lot easier to rebuild a tip section than whole rod when someone snaps the tip off !!!

Marc

Amen to that!! Seeing your work reduced to more than its original pieces is one thing, but it hurts even more stripping and trashing your labour just to fix it.

Wait a cotton picking minute. Two piece rods are definitely easier to transport but they do have disadvantages as well. Modern ferrules are dramatically better than older ferrules but they still add a little to the weight of a rod, reducing the sensitivity, and they still result in a stiffer, though small with modern ferrules, section in the rod. And this stiffer area results in what is called stress concentration which is a build up of stress just in front of the ferrule. Nothing is for free.

In my area, West Virginia, it depends on whether their fishing from a bout or walking the banks. Bouters want onepiece ( usually tournament Bass fishermen ), Bank fishermen want 2 piece ( easier to carry and transport in a car ). Marc Crouse do you agree? I know you have different clientelle than I.

Bill in WV

I favour the ease of transport. I am one of those bank fisherman who sometimes walks miles in one session, and transport varies (bus, car, bike). So for me I'll trade a little less sensitivity for convenience. The key point, Emory, is the word "modern". The technology nowadays is being used to minimize the addition of extra weight, stiffness and loss of sensitivity. You're very right in stating nothing is for free. It's all about a compromise.

Emory - I agree, I was joking on the 2pc thing. I much prefer a 1 piece rod myself, but I definitely see applications where the convenience of a 2pc or more rod is a great selling point. I have interest from a guy on the 3-4 piece Batson spin blanks to make a pack spin rod for camping in the boundary waters wilderness area in northern Minnesota. Lotsa rods, lotsa applications :-)

Anybody know of a good 2pc (or 3pc) Muskie blank? I'm looking at doing some flyin Canadian fishing and want to throw a few select "big" baits and large Pike and Muskies. I'm not sure if I can finagle my 7' Muskie rods onto a float plane.

I don't think that it makes much difference as far as sensitivity my problems have usually been with casting spinners. Usually once through the day it never fails that the front half of the rod goes flying off along with the lure during a cast. I have never lost the top half but it is annoying when it does happen. Mark

Steve,
I have flown with 7 1/2' one piece rods on float planes and longer will fit.. Just use a piece of PVC... I used to put a bunch of rods in one for the trip with no problems. I will qualify how I did this however. The float plane services that I used over the years are used to trying to stuff virtually anything into a plane. The are more freight oriented carriers and they usually did not service lodges on these routes. The lodge bound planes may have other rules because the contracts with the carriers can be pretty specific about how much and what kind of gear a "tourist" can bring. You may be showing up with the supply run in a 172 Cessna and the rods would have to be loaded first or last and run down between the seats. I was usually in nothing smaller than a Beaver riding with kids, dogs, groceries, hydraulic cylinders, chainsaws... you get the picture. Did you know that 4-wheeler ATV'S can fit in a Otter? Its kind of a tight squeeze and they have to be say under 350 cc's maybe a little bigger. I took the two piece rods on the helicopters, but they have to be short. An typical 8 1/2' steelhead rod is almost to long to fit even in two pieces.

Steve Wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anybody know of a good 2pc (or 3pc) Muskie blank?
> I'm looking at doing some flyin Canadian fishing
> and want to throw a few select "big" baits and
> large Pike and Muskies. I'm not sure if I can
> finagle my 7' Muskie rods onto a float plane.

St Croix has a couple in their SCII lineup.

Steve - I found some 3-pc rods that would be perfect for what you're trying to do, in Andy Dear's barrels last year. I'll have the blanks with me at the show. I don't know if Andy will have them again this year but at least you can see what I've got. I haven't had a chance to build anything on them yet, so stop by our table.

Emory, I'm going to argue a bit. One of the primary problems I see on our coast, especially with plugging sticks, is that the ferrules give up during a season's use and the guy will often find himself throwing his tip section along with the Gotcha plug. But that's not the same as a "stiff spot". On the other hand, especially on custom blanks, we've generally found that the "stiff spot" is so minimal as to not even impact the action when we test our guide layout. It flows through the ferrule area very nicely, even on extra-fast blanks. As to sensitivity and weight differences, the better blanks seem to minimize the impact on these dynamics too - most of our customers can't actually tell the difference if they close their eyes. But we never argue the points - we build 'em like they want 'em.

I've solved part of the transport problem by working with 6'6 sticks for myself, but some of our best stuff has been 2pc.


Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2007 12:31AM by Russ Pollack.

Russ,
I will agree that the added weight and loss in sensitivity is not significant with the better blanks. And I also agree that with the better ferrules there is only a slight stiffening of the blank but I have never seen a blank that did not have some stiffening through the ferrule. How much stiffening you can detect sometimes depends upon how and how much you deflect the blank. But even a slight stiffening will result in the stress concentration in front of the ferrule. Evidence of this is that rods that are over stressed but not high sticked or have not been hit on something will usually break a few inches in front of the ferrule.