Can someone please explain whether power is useful or not and how? It seems like every different type of blanks has a different scale. Even on the same species target it seems. Like a bass rod for spinner baits vs worms. And even more so, of course, when looking at different uses. Like a ML I have for 20-40 lbs line and a M I have for 8-14 lbs line. One for light near shore, the other for bass.

So I have pretty much been disregarding the power rating and going strictly off line, lure, and action ratings. Is there something I'm missing?

The trouble is that companies don't use any sort of standardized power rating, and some use terms rather than quantifiable numbers such as those used in the CCS as Effective Rod Number (ERN).

So if you found one company listing a "4-power" blank, it might not and probably would not be the same as a "4-power" blank from another company. When terms such as "Medium" or "Medium Heavy" are used, who knows what those mean - it would like using the terms "Short" and "Long" to describe rod length. All you can be sure of, is that they are relative to within that particular company's model line. Well, some of the time anyway. Many companies shuffle power ratings around in their own line up, with a 4-power bass rod being more powerful than a 4-power walleye or popping rod.

I think what you're doing currently is about the best you can do, other than sticking with blanks that do carry the CCS power ratings. Those will be relative across the board but only a handful of companies are using them.

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Thanks for clearing it up Tom. I'll just keep doing what I have been.

Randy,
If you want to compare power - try to stay with one manufacturer.

If you use only one manufacturer, a rod that is marked light - and another rod that is marked medium will have the different powers and they will track correctly.

But as Mr. Kirkman mentioned - different manufacturers and all bets are off.

Be safe

It would be nice if they all could GET onto the Same Page

Bill - willierods.com

The nice thing to do would be to adopt an industry standard for power. Have a number that goes from 0-1000. Then, using what ever method is chosen for power, stamp the power on the rod.

Be safe

As still pretty new to rod building I have found from pulling on blanks at the ICRBE and factory rods that even line and lure ratings are subjective. I pulled on a 30-60lb mojo cat rod the other day and it sure did not feel like it has 2x more power than my x comp 733 18-30lb blank that I am going to build up soon.The problem is many folks use a much higher lb braid than the mono rating and you don't know if the manufacture is taking that into account of the rating. A # power rating like Roger suggested would be great or recommended fighting drag.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2016 12:54PM by David Miller.

We don't need a new system with ratings from 1-1000 or a drag rating or anything else new. We already have a very good system in the CCS and a few manufacturers have begun using it. To change to something else would put us further from having every manufacturer on board with an objective rating system rather than nearer.

Michael,
Yes, the CCS system is in place.

Will the system work with rods that are in the 100-200 lb class?

I have no idea if it works with 100-200 pound rods, but it works with everything that most of us deal with.

I would think, with no experience involved, that if a 100-200 pound rod can be flexed to 1/3 its length, CCS would work. Not sure how we attach the weights, but any system that deals with rods that heavy will have to have pretty heavy equipment to test it. I'm pretty sure you can't put 5 pounds on it and extrapolate and expect good results. I also don't think I want to be close to the equipment as the test is run.

I''m not sure what your point is. Is it that we should do a new 1000 point system so it will work with everything from a light fly rod to a 200 pound rod?

My point is only that in our efforts in getting the manufacturers to use an objective system (for at least most of our blanks/rods) it is better to have them adopt a system that exists, some of them already using it, and that most everyone in the rod industry understand rather than inventing some new system. I believe that would put us back in our efforts rather than forward.