Rod Techniques

by Gary Roach

The past few years one my favorite projects was designing a line of rods that would be built with just my specifications. What made this so much fun was I got to spend even more time on the water than I normally would (and I spend a lot of time on the water) and test rods. What I discovered was there can be no one-rod-fits-all. You really have to design a rod for a specific purpose if you want to catch more fish. It’s about having the right tool for the job.

The bottom line is you should pick your rod on how you plan to fish. I’m going to give you some example of what I mean so you can see why it is so important to have the right rod. First, I'm going to talk about my Series rods.

Suppose you want to chase some walleyes on the shallow sand flats during the early season. You know the walleyes are spread out and you need to cover some ground. You’ll be using a Roach Rig with a half-ounce sinker and a minnow. The right rod for this is the MWS621MS medium-weight spinning rod. This rod has a soft tip but plenty of backbone. You’ll find that when a walleye grabs the bait this rod will load up on the tip with the least amount of resistance, then allow you to get a solid hook set. It’s not a trolling rod, it’s a great rod for Roach Rigging and is perfect for early-season flats fishing for walleyes.

Now let’s say on that same trip you want to head back into some bays for crappies. The best rod for that would be the MWS601ULS ultralight spinning rod. With these rods the entire blank has a soft feel and will not only aid in casting small lures on light line, but you get some good fight and forgiveness when you hook a panfish. Using a medium weight rod for panfish, even one with a soft tip, doesn’t provide the rod bend you need to keep pressure on that panfish. A heavier rod with panfish means more fish lost because they can get that hook loose when the pressure is off.

I really love to troll so I spent a lot of time testing my trolling rods. Because I like a longer trolling rod I made sure they were all telescopic. That way you can store them in the rod locker. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been out on a fishing trip, realized I needed to switch to a trolling presentation and didn’t have the rods to do it because they were home in my garage. There was no way to store them in the boat because they were too long. With my rods, that’s not a problem because they are telescoping rods and will shorten to fit into any rod locker.

The reason I like a longer trolling rod is because you need to have the benefit of a solid backbone on the rod to take up the shock of the trolling boards bouncing in the waves, and you want the forgiveness of the long flexible tip to make sure the lure or hook doesn’t work free when you’re reeling in the fish. So many times I hear anglers telling me they lose a lot more fish when they’re trolling. The reason is they’re not using rods that are designed for that technique and the fish are able to get some slack in the line and spit the hook or there is too much pressure on them and the lure or hook just works loose.

For those that want a rod that’s going to get a heavy workout, a rod that will put them a notch above the average weekend angler, a rod that has all the components that set it apart from the rest, then you will want to take a close look at my Superpro rods. I really put a lot of thought, a lot of time, and a lot of effort coming up with the qualities that redefine a premium rod.

Consider that traditional blanks made of high modulus graphite yield a lightweight, but stiff rod. In addition, the higher the modulus of the graphite, the more brittle it becomes. My challenge was to deliver a softer tip that wouldn't yank the bait from the mouth of the fish. In order to accomplish this, the tip needed to have some flexibility that is not found in using a single high modulus strain. By building the blank with two different types of graphite, we can achieve the desired action without compromising on either weight or performance. So I took an advanced carbon fiber blank constructed from two different types of graphite; a high modulus strain wound around a more flexible inner core to provide a powerful base and a softer tip. I got a lot of help from the engineers about the technical stuff, but the end result is my idea worked.

To this rod I added a touch pad. The result is you no longer need to try to feel a small piece of the rod shaft itself, but instead the most sensitive part of your thumb is now receiving the vibration. The thumb pad also provides more surface area for you to contact, which results in a finer feeling of what is going on at the tip.

Because of my heart and soul going into these Superpro rods I stand behind each and every rod we produce with a limited lifetime warranty. You don’t see those much anymore these days.

I believe that the rod is the one piece of equipment that will make or break whether you have a tremendously successful day on the water or one that is mediocre when it could have been outstanding. Too many anglers are out there using marginal rods and paying the price for it. What I wanted to do was let anglers get the best rod built without paying a high price at the store so they could cash in on a great day on the water each and every time they went out. But I will admit I had a great time making it happen.