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I'm about to take my chemistry final and my brain is fried from all the cramming i've been doing. Anyways, I recently went with Cameron to fish after a cold front passed through. It was very much like bass fishing as we spent much of our time pitching our soft plastics to structure. In this case, our presentation was vertical and very different from what i'm used to. Cameron started out bass fishing before being taken in by salt fishing so he had a little more experience with this type of presentation. In any case, Cameron made a few casts and on his third one, leaned in and set the hook sharply up. It was so fast, that I heard an audible crack from the line slicing through the cold air. After Cameron fought for a while, the fish rolled to the surface and it was a beauty of a red. It was 27 inches and felt to be around 8+ pounds- a perfect tournament fish. We continued to work the structure when I finally felt something tapping my line. I gave a sharp hook set with my rod bending in response. I felt the fishing run and....nothing. The fish had come off. I was obviously frustrated by this. On days when the bite is soft and finicky, you probably won't get too many opportunities to catch fish so you have to take what you can get. This got me thinking though. I asked myself, "why did I miss that fish?" Bad luck aside, I was looking for a reason. Cameron made a comment about me switching over to a rod with more backbone. The light bulb went on in my head and luckily I brought one.
What is a rod with more "backbone?" From my understanding, a rod with more backbone does not bend as much. Also, it could be the rod is stronger towards the reel. Usually, it can be denoted by the action of rod with light being a very limber rod and heavy to being a stout rod. So why does this matter? It is all about physics. Yes, I want to make you think on this fine day. If you take out all the variables and just leave it to the basic physics of fishing, it should make sense. Instead of a rod, you have a wooden plank with string attached to it and a 3 pound rock is attached to the string. If you lift the wooden plank 2 inches, the rock in turn will rise two inches. Now switch back to your rod with line and a 3 pound rock attached. If you do the same thing with a light rod, the rock will only rise probably only an inch or less. Why? It is because of the bend in the rod. If you use a heavier action rod, the rock may rise an inch and a half. In effect, your rod is dissipating the energy that you create. This is a good thing though! If you were to have no bend in the rod, the energy would not be dissipated and there is only two ways for the energy to go. Either it travels down the line and to the fish popping the fish off from such a violent hook set, or to you which could cause strain in your arms.
To test this out, I switched over to my other rod and within a few casts, I had a hit. I gave it a sharp hook set and pulled up a catfish. Well, I can't have it all can I? Each rod has it's own situation to be used. If you are doing pitching like in my situation, a stouter rod is in order. I was just hoping people can appreciate what goes on when you catch your trophy fish.
What is a rod with more "backbone?" From my understanding, a rod with more backbone does not bend as much. Also, it could be the rod is stronger towards the reel. Usually, it can be denoted by the action of rod with light being a very limber rod and heavy to being a stout rod. So why does this matter? It is all about physics. Yes, I want to make you think on this fine day. If you take out all the variables and just leave it to the basic physics of fishing, it should make sense. Instead of a rod, you have a wooden plank with string attached to it and a 3 pound rock is attached to the string. If you lift the wooden plank 2 inches, the rock in turn will rise two inches. Now switch back to your rod with line and a 3 pound rock attached. If you do the same thing with a light rod, the rock will only rise probably only an inch or less. Why? It is because of the bend in the rod. If you use a heavier action rod, the rock may rise an inch and a half. In effect, your rod is dissipating the energy that you create. This is a good thing though! If you were to have no bend in the rod, the energy would not be dissipated and there is only two ways for the energy to go. Either it travels down the line and to the fish popping the fish off from such a violent hook set, or to you which could cause strain in your arms.
To test this out, I switched over to my other rod and within a few casts, I had a hit. I gave it a sharp hook set and pulled up a catfish. Well, I can't have it all can I? Each rod has it's own situation to be used. If you are doing pitching like in my situation, a stouter rod is in order. I was just hoping people can appreciate what goes on when you catch your trophy fish.
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