continued. . .
A quick glance can also give you some idea about the rod's quality.
"Look down the blank at the guides and make sure they are all lined up," Rook says. "If you look down it like you are looking down the site of a rifle, you should be able to see right through all of your guides and see light all the way out."
The Arkansas pro also suggests checking the rod wrappings.
"Those guides are wrapped on with thread and epoxied over the top of them so you want to inspect that," he says. "Even the best companies make a few mistakes and have guides out of place. Quality control can only catch so much."
A quality rod contains plenty of guides to increase sensitivity and prevent the line from scrapping against the rod blank.
"Most of the major manufacturers put a lot of guides on them now," Rook says. "I don't know any that don't have a good number of guides on them unless you are looking at a $19 rod."
Bass fishing superstar Rick Clunn suggests you should try wrenching down a reel on a seat to see how well it tightens down on the rod before buying it.
The Missouri pro prefers a rod with a traditional handle since he depends more on line watching than sensitivity to detect strikes. He suggests anglers should buy rods with sophisticated blank-through handles only if they fish jigs and worms in deep water where increased sensitivity is a must to feel bites.
Manufacturers place IM graphite numbers to rate the weight of a rod, but these ratings have little meaning to the pros.
"That gets blown out of proportion," Rook suggests. "You can hold a rod and feel the balance and the lightness of it and really be able to tell the quality of the rod. If a rod feels heavy in your hand or unbalanced it is probably not a good rod. I wouldn't put a lot of attention to the IM graphite rating."
The ultimate assessment of your rod will come on the water. Clunn can tell some tendencies about a rod when he's casting or working familiar lures, but a 5-pound bass will test the rod's performance.
"A quality fish will tell me if a rod is right," Clunn says. "I'll see the rod break down or perform in certain areas where it is bendingg or flexing, and I'll find out how well I am able to control the fish."
Budget Considerations
A good fishing rod usually costs a little more just like any other product on the market.
"You get what you pay for," Rook says. "The more you spend on a rod the better quality rod you are going to get."
