Don't blame the material the rod is made from for the performance of the rod. Remember, rod action is independent of the material used to make it. You can make a fast action rod from bamboo just as easily as you can make a slow action rod from graphite. The overall design of the rod is what determines the action and power, and to at least some extent, the reaction and recovery time. Granted, higher modulus fibers allow you to achieve quicker reaction and recovery times, but how you design the taper/wall thickness remains extremely important.

Now why did those "plastic" rods work you to death while you were trying to get them to load? Simple - you had the wrong line on the rod for the distance you were casting/fishing. This is the greatest obstacle to today's anglers in trying to get good performance from their rods. The weight of the line varies with the amount of line you have past the rod tip. 50 feet of 4-wt line weighs more than 25 feet of 4-weight line. A rod is going to load and cast differently, along with requiring different input from the angler, as you change the amount of line aerialized or past the tip.

Remember than the line number you see on the side of your rod is purely subjective - it is not based on any sort of industry standard. Most likely, the rod you had trouble with was rated for a very long length of the rated line to be held past the tip (although you would have had no way to know that). Had you moved up a line size you'd likely have found the rod very pleasant to load and use. But therein lies the problem - there is no industry standard for the intrinsic power of a rod labeled with a particular number.

If you'll go to the rod building section on this site and check the Features part, you'll see the info for the Common Cents System. It will explain how to make your graphite rods cast every bit as pleasantly as the bamboo rods you love so much. It's all a matter of having the right amount of weight tugging on the rod.

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