A wrote about the concept of fishing rod action in my fly fishing rod and reel adn I explore the topics here again I feel I need to explore this topic further.

Let's say you want to go fishing for Bass in Florida. Then you need a medium action fishing rod of say 6.5 feet for top water fishing. Some also say that they prefer that the rod for bass fishing should be "rather" stiff for 80% of its length from the butt on, and flexing on the rest of its 20%.

This is the action of the rod.

In short, it has to do with flexibility.

But not only as you may read on the link above.

As an example, imagine that you want to buy a new pair of shoes but you can decide not only your size, but also subtilities like running fast, long running, or hiking in difficult terrains, or just using them for a party, a wedding and so on...

Manufacturers of rod blanks divide the taper of their rods in different categories.

• Extra Fast
• Fast
• Moderate or Medium
• Slow

and perhaps all subtle nuance inbetween like

• Medium-fast
• Medium-heavy

and so on.

And the you have also the power of the rod to complicate the topic. So here is a summary:

The the power is categorized according to "light", "medium" or "heavy" and degrees inbetween or by using a proprietary table (e.g. my castaway rods page)

If you want to read further click here (its a bout fly fishing rods but the idea is the same).

This is a picture which summarizes the concept and its fairly intuitive:

(continues...)

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