Thought this may make an interesting topic

What dose evllybloody prefer ?????????????

I'll add my preferences later din din nearry ready

Now sort of things to post are 1 or 2 piece, graphite/glass/composite etc

1 piece garphite is my favirorite

that depends on the intended use, what do u have in mind J.G.

This post has been edited by poly: Mar 9 2008, 12:26 AM

for light fishing my carbon rods are the bee's knees for my heavier stuff I like the composites. I still own quite a few solid fibreglass rods also my grandfather gave to me these things are unbreakable but a tad heavy...

I dont have anything in mind poly

It's up to you guys to tell what are your favourites what you use them for more or less what mully has done.

Think it would be interesting to see what gear people do use & if someone wants to pop Q's on why certain rods a better/worse etc pretty sure the Q's can be answered

Jumpy, Shimano is the only brand to buy, all the rest are rubbish. I should know Rex Hunt told me so
Oh I miss read the question you were not asking about brands

I prefer 1 piece rods as 99% of my fishing is boat based.
All my rods are fibreglass. I fish baits and they are cheaper. That said I want to build a few light carbon stick in the 1-3kg range.
If I needed heavier rods I would say I would look at composite or glass.

o.k. i will give it a go
3kg graphite for general lure and sp casting
6to 10kg composite for trolling the bay
and i have a nice 2 peace i keep in the car so i can sneak down to the lake for a cast or 2 during lunch

if i may give a tip, on the base cork grip of the rods i use all the time i add electoral shrink rap to help protect them when pull out of rod holders

This post has been edited by poly: Mar 9 2008, 01:10 AM

I fish from the rocks and so I use fiber glass. Very light in action and weight. 2 piece 12 foot.

When fishing with Majed on his boat I use 5.5 foot to 7 foot rods fibre glass.

only reason i pick garphite is because there not too dear ( well most of them ) and there perfect for the fishing i do inside hacking

Shimano & Daiwa dont manufacture rods Blind Freddy contraray to what anybody tells you.

They commision there quality rods out to a few co's in malaysia & those factories are hush hush.

As far as their cheaper rods go ??

Well China/Taiwon or from where ever they can get the best price

Who does the rod blank then?

Jumpy, I shattered, I won't believe anything Rex tells me now.
That also means Starlo has been telling porkies with his Shimano Starlo sticks.
Though you posted somewhere the major suppliers of rods and Shimano, Diawa, etc were not there. Different colours and brands and probably from the same factory. Really at the end of the day it does not matter what brand is on the rod if it has a good action, components and is priced right. I am not one to pay for marketing if I don't have to.

Off topic but funny, someone told me this idiot did a Rexxy and kissed a Leather Jacket before putting it back. Fish took a chunk of his lip off.

Depends Christos !

In the case of Daiwa's & Shimano's quality blanks ??

Well I dont know for certain but a very good guess is the Daiwa /Shimano team has alot of imput into their design

The Cheaper rods ???

Well I dont think they give a sh*t to be honest it's all about being competitive on the market so to answer your Q ??

Who ever is selling the cheapest.

Most of the graphite is made in Taiwon for most of the rod building factories then it either goes to China for the cheaper rods or Malaysia for your more quality blanks destination of graphite will determine quality of blank.

Good example is some of my rods I have various types cheaper Viva Graphites which are pretty good considering the money you pay for them now these rods are made cheaply winch's guides are a dead give away & no different to the same price range Daiwa's/Shimano's in fact the Viva are better value cause you're not paying for the name & who knows they may even come out of the same factory cause Viva dont build rods no different to the rest of the Reel Manufacturer's

Then there's my Browning Rods ! completly diffent class of rods, Supirior Blanks to the viva All have the Fuji guides/winch's etc but again they are much much dearer, you get what you pay for, these rods come from one off the higher class rod building factories & are quality.

Now all those Blanks you've seen me building up in the rod building threads ??

Well they're all whats called A RAP blacnk full graphite & those who've been out in my boats will vouch what a nice rod they are & one of the reasons I thought this thread would make for good reading.

I wanted to see how many are still using the old glass rods & how many have been converted to a nice ghaphite rods.

In my books there's no comparisment once you've used a graphite rod you'll never pick up a glass rod again & I'm not just refering to spin rods either I'm using graphite for all my bait rods as well

I always like to use graphite or graphite composites. As for certain brands making better products, it is true to an extent. Some barands put more research, input and quality into their products. High end Strudwicks, high end Shimano's and Black Diamonds are what I use, as with some of the high end Penns.

For me, Black Diamond Rods are right up there with the best, as with Millerrods and the high end Shimano's and Daiwa's. You get what you pay for.

I dont really care about the brand anymore...
i look at the quality first then the price tag...
i also rely on the tackle shop owners advice, he tells me what he thinks is the best in my budjet and most of the time its not the most expensive item...

It does come down to price and to buy a rod that is not going to last is not something that we as fishing person want. The last trip to Foster I purchased a $25.00 rod and reel knowing that this might not last but it was for a boat and so we needed one.

The knob on the reel handle came off after the second day.

The rod is still ok. We shall see how long it last.

It's called marketing Freddy with no i's

Co's like Shimano use high profile anglers to sell their goods no different to the squidgy's using stalo's/bushy's name to market them

some how i think Freddie knows that j.g.

tomy i take what the sales man tells me with a grain of salt, as a lot of them will try to sell u the outfit that will make them the most money, of course not all sales people are like that thank heavens.

Either do I Tom & over the years I've owned some pretty expensive tackle & still do, more so refering to my gamefishing gear.

I'm not one for running with the crowd & have to own this , that or the other just because an artickle in a magazine shows a whopper fish taken on that brand of tackle.



You can generally gauge quality by the hardware on a rod guides/winch's etc

For example you wont find Fuji on a crappy blank & it's the 1st thing to look for , quality can also be determined by the rods finish

Then you have your rods using a celebrity to sell their gear good example are the Miller Rods released by Shimano.

Now there is no way Ian Miller would put his name to crap , he dosen't build those rods in Q but he would've had alot to do with the designing.



Yes that is also a good start point & the key there is **rod to suit the budget**

You're only a Yung Fulla but in time & if you do enough fushing you'll get to decide for yourself which are the more appropriate blank for your style of fushing

Yer... Fuji components is one of the things i look for especcialy in the lighter rods....




Jump i normalley know what KG blank i need and what its going to be for so i walk in there and tell him what i think i need then ask hes opinion, he may give me 5 selections i ask what hed be buying and most of the time its the same rod i think.