I no longer spine my rods. They work as well or better than when I did. I really can't tell any difference.

I tend to agree with Tom's statements on keeping the cast, sinker, lure ,line and rod- from tip to butt on a single plane will lead to the greatest accuracy- the straighter the stick (rod) the easier it makes the task of keeping everything on plane.

I've been particiapting in long distance casting for a couple of years now, We use 13-14 foot heavy duty surt type rods and cast sinker weights from 100 grams to 175 grams (about 4-6 oz)

One thing that is highly noticeable in video footage is what happens when a caster hits the rod too early or too late in the cast. If he hits it early the the sinker will be "inside" the rod tip or plane, if he hits it late it will be "outside" the plane. The result is the sinker winds up being pulled so that it tries to get back in plane, but will cross the rod tip at the point of release almost in direct proportion to the amount of inside or outside angle that was caused by the mistiming of the cast. The result on video is that you will be able to see the tip wobbling noticeably in a side to side (actually elliptical) pattern- that tip wobble not only rods distance- but a cast that was hit off plane is likely to go far left or right of the target and wind up out of bounds- thus disqualifying the cast from counting.

When trying to hit max distance and being required to keep the cast inside a set perimeter (accuracy)- a crooked stick is the last thing a caster would want to worry about.

BTW- for those that are interested- Tommy Farmer set a new US record this past weekend at the first casting tournament of the year -throwing a 150 gram (5 1/4 oz) sinker 829.3 feet !