A few weeks ago, I fished a tournament where conditions were extremely tough and finesse fishing with light line was the only way to get bit. This reminded me how important rod selection can be.

I was drop-shotting with 6-pound test line with a G-Loomis IMX medium action spinning rod. Trouble was, bass could feel the rod tip pressure when they took the bait, and would drop it immediately. What I needed was a rod with a lighter tip, allowing me to detect the bite before the bass detected me.

This experience inspired me to test rods for the amount of pressure generated when the rod tip was moved. I also wanted to verify casting distances to see the effect of the different rod actions. Lastly I wanted to check the power that could be generated from a hook set. I conducted the tests using a medium rod and a light rod.

What Do Fish Feel?
The idea of the first test is to determine how much pressure the fish feels as it swims away with the bait. Using a small scale, I measured the pressure exerted on the tip in grams when each spinning rod tip was showing 2, 4 and 6 inches of deflection. The first rod up was a G-Loomis SJR 782S, which is a 61?2-foot, medium fast spinning rod. At 2 inches of deflection, the 782 was showing 39 grams of pressure. At 4 inches of deflection, the pressure nearly doubled to 70 grams, and at 6 inches of deflection the pressure went to 98 grams.

The second rod up in the test was a G-Loomis SHR 821S, which is a 6-foot, 10-inch Mag-light extra fast action rod. At 2 inches of deflection, the 821 was showing 20 grams of pressure, at 4 inches of deflection the pressure doubled to 42 grams and at 6 inches of deflection, pressure went to 58 grams.

The second set of numbers seemed to be what I was looking for during the tough bite. The lighter rod exerted between 40 and 48 percent less pressure from the rod tip, and I feel that would have given me an extra moment for the fish to take the bait and a better chance for me to set the hook.
But what was I giving up? In the next test, I checked how far each would rod cast.

Casting Distance
For the casting test, I used a Shimano Saros 1000F spinning reel, spooled with 6-pound test Maxima Ultra Green monofilament, and tied on a 1?16 oz. rig with a 5-inch Robo worm. I laid out cones marked out in 5 foot distances in my local park and started the cast off, using the average of 20 casts with each rod.

The first test was with the G-Loomis SHR 821S Mag-light rod, with an average distance of 87 feet. I switched the set up over to the G-Loomis SJR 782S and started round two. The 782 averaged 89 feet. So it seemed that the casting distances were similar, but on average 2 feet less with the light action rod.

The next test was to check out the hook setting pressure of the two rods.

Hooking
the Fish
To test hook setting power, I switched to a standard fishing scale to determine how many ounces of pressure I could generate with 20 feet of 6-pound test monofilament line.

I put the G-Loomis SJR 782S medium action rod to the test first. With a foot of deflection in the rod tip, I was able to generate 6 oz. of pressure; at 2 feet of deflection, the pressure increased to 10 oz.; and at 3 feet of deflection, the rod exerted 15 oz. of pressure.

I then switched everything back over to the G-Loomis SHR 821S Mag-light rod and conducted the same test. At a foot of deflection, the pressure was only 1 oz.; but at 2 feet, the rod generated 7 oz. of pressure; and at 3 feet, the rod exerted 14 oz. of pressure, almost tying with the medium rod. Once the Mag-light rod loaded up, the pressure was significant.

Light is Right
Of course, none of these tests account for line stretch, and with monofilament, this is a factor. However, I felt that this G-Loomis SHR 821S Mag-light rod was the rod I would need to get me through a tough bite, giving me a split second more to set the hook, yet offering enough backbone to get the hook into fish. In certain situations, the action of the rod needs to match the bite. This is a lesson I learned one tournament too late … but just wait until next time.