Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 14 June 2025
I’m thinking about the actual weight of the rod and not the number scribbled over the handle. The number above the handle we know is kind of recommendation/guideline to help us select a rod. If the weight of the rod was very important we could determine which rod is the best one just by putting it on the scale.
As consumers we tend to love numbers. Sometimes more is better sometimes less is better. We love numbers even if they don’t tell us anything. But we love things that ar quantifiable. Then we can sit and compare numbers and draw conclusions of which product is the best. A lighter rod must be better. More ballbearings in the reel must be better, fly fishers aren’t as guilty of this fallacy as the spin fishermen. And if ballbearings were very important Danielsson reel wouldn’t just be great, the original series would be the best fly reel of them all.
If quantifiable numbers was the way to determine which object is the best one how would things work out for a number of premium 6 weights? It isn’t uncommon for 6 weights to be available with half wells grip and full wells grip with fighting butt. So if we put these rods on the scale then the rods without fighting butt be the absolute best, especially since the ones with fighting butt has a heavier and sturdier reel seat also. Thinking of that makes it a bit harder to advocate for total weight as a meaningful number. Or you could take out the hacksaw and make all your rods with fighting butt a bit better. Sand down the cork while you are at it and it will become even better.
I would dare to say, as a generalisation, that almost the whole weight difference between two rods comes from different configuration in the butt section. When the rods are of equal power/stiffness. If I remember correctly I can tell which of my rods that has the same number scribbled above the handle by weighing the top three sections of them.
It would be great though if we could put our rods on the scale and tell which rod is the best one. But there are a lot of other things to consider before the weight since it says very little about how the rod will perform.
Cheers, Rickard
PoD: What you should be doing with your rods instead of putting them on the scale.