Rod builders often mention species-specific rods. Is this meant to identify the size of the expected catch or are there rod-building materials and techniques specific to individual species of fish?

Phil ..... you went down this path back in February ........ [www.rodbuilding.org]

Little more than a sales gimmick.

There is nothing more irritating than to have a rod in my hands fishing for bass and see some label on it for trout or salmon or walleye. Seriously?

Time to remove it!

No such thing as a species specific rod. Next?

David: I was still waiting for an answer . . . but I think Kent has provided it. I am going to renounce my claim to building the world's only guppy rod.

As to specie specific rods I get a mental picture of the size of the quarry. If someone mentions a crappie rod I can eliminate a 12ft rod with a 6500 series spinning reel and concentrate in the 6 to 8 ft range and 1000 or 2000 series reels. Specie specific gives me an idea in which arena to work in.

As to materials I don't believe there is any relevance or correlation to species.

As for techniques each species have their habits and the more we learn about the specie the better chances for success.

Phil, of all people, you should know that this craft contains a goodly bit of claptrap..lol. It,s another way to describe the rods power.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2022 12:42PM by ben belote.

Why not help people who are not as knowledgeable or experienced make an informed decision? Doesn't seem like some grand conspiracy to me.

If one uses the objective measurements of a rod/blank it will be adequately described. Length, weight, CCS ERN or IP, CCS Action Angle, material, and if you want to go a couple further steps recommended lure weights and true natural frequency.

Jeff Saxby Wrote:
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> Why not help people who are not as knowledgeable
> or experienced make an informed decision? Doesn't
> seem like some grand conspiracy to me.

That's the intent. Obviously, if they can quickly steer an angler to a rod that will work well for a particular type of fishing, it will seal the deal for many fishermen. And... it helps the manufacturer to sell more rods.

There are certain rods that are considered technique specific. Rich Forhan completed a complete series on 12 of these over the past year in RodMaker. It doesn't mean you can't fish a certain bait for a certain fish species on anything else, but some blanks work better for some baits and some techniques each of which may be specific for certain types of fish.

................

Jeff, it's not a grand conspiracy at all. If you've built a rod to fish for bass with, you've built a bass rod, and so on. As Tom pointed out, there are certain rods that are considered species specific rods. A drop shot rod would be a good example. A drop shot is a popular technique for fishing for bass, but I use my drop shot rods to fish for pan fish. They make excellent perch rods. Is a drop shot rod a bass rod, or a perch rod?

There is a lot of crossover in rod attributes that make them good for multiple species. I don't really know, but I would imagine a tuna rod would be a good shark rod.

I said it at the end of the thread I linked earlier ..... fishing rods are specific to only one species. Humans

I'm trying to imagine 10,000 "walleye" rods sent to Florida retailers.

Another issue is not just species specific labeling on rods, but also technique specific labels also appear on rods. I have a rod that says "crankbait" rod, but for me it is an awesome swimbait rod. I never use it for crankbaits.

So while such labels can help promote sales, it can also hurt sales.

Since Florida does not have walleye, I guess those rods have to stay out of Florida! Probably not, they will just put another label on them like "bass" instead.

I view this as little more than a sales gimmick that I have never taken seriously and always ignored or just removed all together. But to each their own!

If such labels are put on rods to help "educate" fishermen who are not well informed, those same labels can also be used to pass a rod on by for one with the desired label if it exists. Since this practice is done by such a small percentage of rod makers, it is easier to find rods without such labels than it is to find one with the desired label.

I would prefer if such labels were never put on rods and we simply go with a measurement scale instead that we can match to the fish.

Such labels are never carved in stone. They are just suggestions more or less.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2022 08:06PM by Kent Griffith.

I'm quite interested in purchasing a genuine Ewanicki "Guppy" rod , I just need to know how soulful it is .

It seems to me that St Croix must find it profitable to offer a rod based on a SC3 6'8" MXF blank in multiple of species specific and non species specific models. You can get an Eyecon, Mojo Bass or Avid. More choices for the consumer, more sales for the manufacturer and retailer. Everybody wins.

Im strictly a hobby builder for myself , family and friends. I've never made one dime from rod building. I do it for the pleasure of it and the fact I can target my builds towards certain species. For instance I build crappie rods on salmon steelhead blanks. They are designed to vertical jig crappies out of wood or tree tops. They are not built to cast although you can poorly. They are what I would call souped up cane poles. Jay Hunt put me onto this back in 09.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Steve

As Jeff Saxby has pointed out, most rod companies build many different "species specific" rods off the same blank. And as Kent has pointed out, some rods may never reach certain areas because they are marketed for fish that don't inhabit those areas. However I wouldn't be surprised if certain walleye rods aren't sold in the southeast as sea trout (weakfish) rods.

Growing up in south Florida I was especially ignorant of the steelhead and salmon rods. That is a shame as I think hot shot blanks are well suited for a variety of tasks down here. I also think back bounce blanks can fill a lot of roles from swimbait, to bottom fishing to extra heavy fly rods for billfish.


P.S. David, a tuna rod can certainly be used for shark. Main difference is tuna fight very hard and way above their weight. Most sharks don't fight very hard at all.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

I am temporarily unable to build more guppy rods. My sole source of guppy rod grips has taken up flamenco dancing. I hope to be able to modify some goldfish rod grips into guppy rod grips . . .

So far this year I've built 2ea mangrove snapper rods, 2ea pacific king salmon rods, 8 sacalait rods, and 2ea yellowfin tuna popping rods. All of the others this year are just rods.

I can agree with the previous postings.
However, I can also agree to disagree.

i.e. by looking at rod blanks that are labeled with a specific name of fish - can often be helpful to help the completely uninitiated select an appropriate blank.

Also, many rod manufacturers place a particular use label for a given blank that again, helps the uninitiated better select a rod fora given purpose.

Of course, any rod can by used for any purpose including scratching ones back, but labels can certainly help the new builder start in the right direction.

I know that years ago, when first starting to build rods, I was very happy to have labels associated with given rods.

Having said that - years later - I will often have a dozen or more rods in my boat at any given time. Again - I simply select from the rod complement to best catch the particular fish species using a specific technique that I have acquired over the years.

Not so true when I was a rookie years ago.

I think back to the years when I was growing up and get getting out to fish now and then. I had one 6'6" medium power moderate action and I caught fish of all species on that rod that I always kept in the trunk of my car. In later years, things changed.

For the better? Perhaps. For the passion of building rods - absolutely. In the last years, I have certainly caught a lot of fish of all species on the rods that I built. Some fish were caught on the correctly labeled rod. But, a lot of other fish were hooked and landed by incorrectly labeled for for the given fish species and application listed for that rod blank. But, the rod didn't care,it just did the job that was asked of it and helped to put the fish in the boat for release or consumption - depending on the fish and the day.

Phil , do you have any tadpole specific builds ? I could definitely use a tadpole /small frog combo type rod . Something that will quickly land large t poles and then allow me to quickly flip it over and use the frog that the t pole turns into to bass fish. I'm considering this just until your rod grip supplier eventually gives up flamenco dancing and gets back to offering guppy specific grips . Not a fan of modified goldfish grips for guppy specific builds. Keep me posted

I really can't believe I am saying this, but I am also not naive enough to believe that it doesn't take place, but species specific rods are more of a marketing ploy, than they are actually species specific. If anything, the long crappie rod mentioned above is a technique specific rod. I believe the technique is called "doodle socking"?

Even technique specific rods aren't always technique specific. As mentioned earlier, blanks labeled as crankbait blanks make awesome chatterbait rods, as well as buzzbait rods.