When speaking of a rod's power, Med Lt, Med, Med Hvy, etc. How much do these terms relate to the size of fish you are catching? Or is it only for the size of lure the rod is rated for?

Those are subjective terms and don't really tell you anything about a rod's power. But within that classification, they relate to actual rod power, not just lure casting weight. Again, however, a "medium" power popping rod is not going to have the same power as a "medium" power Back Bouncing rod.

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So true. Years ago when Gary Loomis was with LCI he came to Houston and brought some rod blanks as demos for a local show. I was able to buy one and built it as a popping rod for one of my fishing pardners. Recently my friend wanted another rod similar to his old one. I made him a new popping rod but my friend said that he couid get a better hook set on redfish with his old one. To make a long story short, I realized that the first rod was built on a live bait blank and does not have a fast tip as most popping blanks do nowadays. I recently ordered an MHX live bait blank from Mudhole and I'll see if it will work out better for my friend.

The power ratings will drive you crazy. Take a "Medium" power freshwater bass blank, and compare it to a "medium" surf blank, and you'll see that these two blanks, both labeled "medium," don't even belong in the same ZIP code.

The ratings are somewhat useful when you are at least a bit familiar with one or more blanks in a particular series. If there are six blanks in Widget Industries' Bass series, and they're rated from light to xx-heavy, you'll get a general idea of the relative merits of these six blanks: the heavy will have more power than the medium; the medium more than the light; the extra-heavy more than the heavy, etc. But this usefulness evaporates if you try to compare blanks in one series to blanks in another.

This is one thing that the common cents system does well. It provides an objective measurement of how much mass it takes to deflect a blank a certain amount -- this is a much more accurate, and reliable, way of describing a blank's power than words like "magnum heavy" or "light." If it takes 150 pennies to deflect the bass blank, and 450 to deflect the surf blank, then you'll get a very good idea of the inherent strength in each of these. This is a much better way than trying to do it descriptively, with words.

I've got to agree it is very difficult to tell what's what these days.
It seems to me about (5) years ago (and I'll talk about bass casting rods)
there was less variation. A medium action blank was in the 8 - 12 lb. line range.
Now depending on what blank it is medium is 10 - 17 lb. line and med/heavy in
the 12 - 20 lb. range.

I have the same dilema as Kevin - do you just go by line and lure rating?
I'm not very familiar with CCS and where to go for info on blanks.
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CCS "intrinsic power" is the best way I have found to define blank power. PacBay will be using it as the "power rating" for future blank models. The only difference between fly and gear blank definitions will be that CCS intrinsic power (or ERN for fly blanks) will be measured in grams rather than cents. This is because it is easier to use 1200 grams of lead to create a CCS deflection on a MagBass blank than it is to use 476 pennies.
Until manufacturers use a standardized method of measuring power, such as CCS intrinsic power, there will continue to be confusion about this issue in the marketplace.

-The Batson TEAM
BatsonEnterprises.com

Well said. The thing is, many manufacturers actually prefer that consumers not be able to compare blanks across the board, from one manufacturer to another.

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This is true. However, I think adopting some more objective measurements would not necessarily eliminate everyone's ability to market product.
Take car companies for example. They don't just say slow, fast, really fast when describing the power of a vehicle's engine. They will typically use horsepower (a somewhat objective measurement) coupled with some flashy adjectives (like 350 hard-charging horsepower) to create a sense of objectivity in addition to warm fuzzy feelings about their product. When marketing a vehicle similar to the competition's, an auto company may also focus on the other benefits like warranty, raw material strength, etc, all of which could apply to rod blanks as well.
I think the real sticking point in getting everyone onto the same measurement system for rod blanks will be consumers gaining a frame of reference for one particular system of measurement (i.e. adoption of the metric system).

-The Batson TEAM
BatsonEnterprises.com