i was doubting i knew anything about fishing rods today and tied on the old standby lure to a 6' production rod i had laying around and found i could cast it as far as i can on my custom 7'6"rod. i'm now thinking i'm at the max distance for this lure and can shorten my rod for it and make it closer to balanced and lighter feeling in my hand.. it's a texas rigged soft plastic that can't be whipped too hard or it will get funky on the hook and foul in the grass. it weighs 9g and is very un aerodynamic. what are your opinions on this? did i botch that 7'6" build or need to learn how to cast better or does this make sense? the 6' is 6-10# and the 7'6" is 4-10# both are fast action.

The line ratings for the blanks means nothing. What are the lure weight ranges for each?

Provided you can move it at the same speed, the longer rod should cast farther. But your casting weight may load the shorter rod better than the longer one. You may not be comparing apples to apples.

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Leigh,

Are you using spinning gear or casting gear?

How does the casting distance compare between the two rods if you tie on a chunk of lead that loads both blanks pretty well?

Do you need to cast this lure further than you are presently able? If so, have you tried a dab of super glue at the head of the plastic to keep it from sliding down the hook?

I use casting gear most of the time, and I find that lures that don't fly well fly a little better if you give them a little longer line on the cast. Rather than stopping the 6-10" away from the tip that I will with most lures, I'll leave 12-15". The extra length, I believe leaves a little more slack in the line as the lure passes the tip, and allows some of the oscillations in the tip to dampen before the line is being pulled off of the spool.

Joe

6' 1/8 to 5/16 and the 7'6" is 1/8 to 3/8.

spinning gear and the distances are withing 5' ish. i too leave two to three feet out of the tip

My guess is that the lure you're tossing isn't heavy enough to fully load the 7'6" rod. If it did, it would cast further on that rod. The 7'6" rod would appear, from those specs, to be just a tad more powerful.

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the distance i'm getting is more than adequate for what i'm doing. sight fishing. i can only see the fish so far away and the 7'6" has proven to be more than functional. but i would like to use a shorter rod so i guess i'm trying to get a better handle on the relationship between power,length and lure weight.

Don't forget that some plugs, for aerodynamic reasons, can only be cast so far. I know that small plastic swimmers in the Bomber/Rapala/Rebel mold fit in this category: I don't think you could get a Bomber more than 65 yards out if you shot it out of a cannon.

I'm a surf guy, and I've always chuckled when I see guys configure a rig for maximum distance, using an expensive, 13-foot, high-modulus graphite blank, and then use it to toss lures that cast like a potato chip. Your situation might be analogous to this.

If you want to compare casting distances more fairly, use a teardrop shaped metal lure, like a Crippled Herring or Hopkins. This will tell you how far each rod is really capable of casting. A plug with lousy aerodynamics probably won't.

i notice on the 7'6" i can cast a 1/4 oz hard bait a long way further than this jig. it has just been the go to jig for me and i was interested in making a rod specifically for it. all things being equal a shorter rod would be more pleasant to cast. however i thought a longer rod should cast it farther but i am finding alot of the things i previously thought might not be true.

so now i tied it onto a 5'6 1/16 to 3/16 and i'm getting about the same results. is lure weight and loading the rod going to make more of a difference than length of rod?

as per Chris's suggestion i found a tear drop shaped lead weight equal to the jig and lost it in the trees past my test casting area on the first cast. thank you Tom, Joe and Chris. i'm fighting the wind. this begs a new question. when i set up a rod to cast that jig should i use the tear drop weight for the test cast or the jig?

- When i set up a rod to cast that jig should i use the tear drop weight for the test cast or the jig?

My vote is no: if you're going to be using a very specific lure with a rod that will be cast, I would use it for test casting. If you're going to be using a variety of stuff, then I think using an aerodynamic lure is a good idea.

Let me give you an example. Bombers, because they're murder on striped bass, are extremely popular in the New Jersey surf. They cast extremely poorly, but their fish-catching ability more than makes up for that. Any seaside bait shop in Jersey will have 12,345 Bomber lures for sale on their wall.

So let's say that I wanted to build a dedicated Bomber rod. If the only thing I'm ever going to cast with the rod is a Bomber, why would I test cast with something else?

So say I do some test casting with a Bomber, and I find that I get maximum casting distance with a 7-1/2 foot rod. To put the same thing another way: let's say that when I use an 8-, 9-, or 10-foot rod, I don't cast the thing any farther than I do with a 7.5-foot rod. If the rod is never going to cast anything else, then there's no reason to use a rod longer than 7.5 feet: all that you'll get from the extra length are bad things: extra weight and giving away leverage to the fish.

But if you're going to be using a variety of lures with the rod, then you have to figure out a compromise; you'll have to figure out a length that provides the best all-around performance for the range you're going to use. While I fish Bombers a good bit, I build my rods to accommodate a broader range of lures. While a 9-foot rod doesn't cast Bombers any farther than an 8-foot rod does, the 9-footer does allow me to generate extra tip speed on stuff like bucktails and tins, and it's because of this I think that a 9-footer is a better tool for the range of fishing I do.

I hope this helps.

yeah that helps a lot
i typically fish two rods on the flats and one always has that jig on it. the other is the 7'6" i can't count the number of reds i lost trying to put down the poling pole and pick up the fishing rod but when you look back at where he was. he's gone. read a post by Tom about a 6'6" rod he can cast 150' and it got me thinking about a show i saw with Flip Palot with a rod in his back pocket on the poling platform. now the 7'6 isnt sittin in my pocket very well. i made a clippy thing to snap the poling pole into that goes on my waist and tried to make a rod holder that went on the same belt to do that trick but again the rods were flopping all over the place. tried a rod holder at my feet pointing it straight up but i am alway fumbling around trying to find it. if i could come up with a 6' that will give me the distance i'm getting anyway and still have the backbone to set the hook and fight a good size red, i would be in hog heaven. the newer rods blanks are lighter and the reels are getting lighter and i think i might try a thicker belt. i feel confident i can do it but those super light blanks are pretty darn expensive. so i was seeking some good advice before dropping some big bank on my latest scheme. thank you very much for helping, all of you