General Tips on Choosing a Spoon or Soft Bait Rod
The selection of spoon and soft bait rods is immense. They come in various lengths, different actions, and there's a suitable one for every budget. But the most important factor in choosing a rod is personal preference. Not every rod suits every angler, no matter how expensive it is.
What questions should be considered when making a choice?
Probably the most important question is, what action should the rod have?
In the UL sector, we deal with spoon rods with parabolic or semi-parabolic action. For those who have no idea, the action refers to how the rod bends.
A semi-parabolic action means that the rod only bends in the upper third. This is also called tip action in expert circles. The recovery speed (which indicates how quickly the rod returns to its original shape) of these rods would fall into the Fast / Extra Fast category. These rods usually have a harder backbone, which is advantageous when fishing for large trout (4-8 kilograms). Larger fish can thus be better controlled by inexperienced anglers.
The parabolic action is characterized by a semicircular bend of the rod. The recovery speed of these rods would fall into the Moderate / Moderate Slow category. These rods cushion almost every escape attempt of the fish. However, fish control with these rods is somewhat limited. Rods with a parabolic action, however, clearly offer more fun.
For soft bait rods, models with a so-called solid tip are usually used. The solid tip is a solid carbon tip that is integrated into the rod. This ensures that the rod tip becomes ultra-sensitive. Bite detection is improved, and fish hardly feel any resistance when biting. Thanks to this solid tip, most soft bait rods have a tip action.
The next question is, how long should the rod be?
Most spoon rods are between 180cm -200cm. Depending on the area of use, this can also be adjusted. For example, if I fish a lot in streams with overhanging trees, the rod can gladly be only 160cm long.
For soft bait rods, lengths over 200cm are also often used. Due to the less compact shape of soft baits, more casting distance is achieved here through the length and the resulting greater leverage.
All other factors such as ringing, handle (cork or Duplon) are rather determined by personal preference and budget.
