View Full Version : 6.5' vs 7' rods
sully
04-16-2002, 11:05 AM
In the past year I have noticed alot more anglers using 7' rods. I was wondering what the benefit and difference was between thye two?
thanks
David Anderson
04-16-2002, 11:12 AM
Interesting question. I have a Loomis 7.5 and a St. Croix 7', both 1 pc rods. The length help in livebait presentations as well as gives you that extra length for pulling long snells. One disadvantage is the extra length will put a more pressure on you arm while pulling your rigs.
There's a mechanical advantage when fishing livebait rigs, in that the rod is a bit softer in the tip usually, easier for a fish to bend a little without feeling it. Also there's a lot of slack line to pick up when lindy rigging, compared to jigging, and a longer rod helps you get all that slack pulled out, and get a good hookset. More leverage.
Eyez
i think there are a couple answers to this. most of my friends use the longer rod because they have, in the lighter models, the ability to have a softer tip for detection of light bites for lindy rigging along with the added sweep distance on the hook set. the trend seems to be going to ultra fast tips and strong backbones on rods. st croix and loomis figured this out first and their success is well documented. the other reason is that boats are getting so wide it takes 7 ft to get out over the side if you are a tiller person. i just ordered a 7ft 6in st croix for the above reasons.
dave and eyez.....looks like we were all typing at the same time.
how's that for response time eh? :)