Slow vs Fast Action

[urbanangler1990]

hello yall

 

ive noticed most steelies rods are med. to fast action, now im wondering what is the difference between a slow and a fast action rod, more specifically for steeleahd river fishing, perhaps on a 11'6 , 6-12 lb rod

 

any imput would be appreciated

[huntervasili]

Action is where the flex in the rod is... Slow means it will bend basically all the way down to the handle whereas fast flexes only at the very tip... Walleye rods generally are fast that way ya have some backbone and can see the strike/avoid loss of hook through head shake, steelie noodle rods are way slower so that you can use the lighter line and so the rod takes the force rather than the line

[jdmls]

I would say that rod max's out at about a 25lb chinook on its first fresh run, and even that it should be able to tackle !!! Its got more than enough back bone for any size steelhead !! trust me you'll be pleased...

[MJL]

I think the term "fast" has many definitions in the fishing industry and each company has their own version of what they define as "fast"

 

Some companies use the term "fast" to indicate that the rod mainly bends in the tip section when under load (a lot to do with taper design) - The opposite of course would be a slow action where the rod bends right down to the handle. Other companies rate "fast" as as a correlation to a set range of line breaking strength to a certain type of rod (Eg. My Raven IM9 float rod is considered fast with a line rating of 4-10lb yet I can still bend it down to the handle under a moderate load). Other companies (mainly those in the fly fishing industry) denote "fast" as the tip speed recovery rate or how fast the tip recovers back to a stationary position when it is pulled and released (often the number of modules of graphite are used - eg: 65+ million modules of graphite)...Often rod manufacturers have "progressive action blanks" and market them as fast action - Progressive action blanks usually bend further down the blank than fast action rods (sometimes all the way down to the handle), yet the tip speed recovery is fast due to the materials used in the construction.

 

In my experience, backbone is not always directly correlated to the type of action a blank has. A few of the "slow action" steelhead rods I own have quite a lot of reserve power when you get down to the butt section.