Checking back through e-mails I’ve received over the past few months, a recurring theme crops up regarding modern braid boat rods. Currently a lot of anglers are replacing braid rods that were designed over six years ago. Inevitably blank designs progress and when it comes to changing a rod the difference between the original braid blank and a new concept braid rod designed in the past couple of years is massive.

Braid boat rods designed between 2000 and 2005 were generally more all through actions. This was thought correct at the time as the soft actions allowed for the non stretch braid and minimised, to some degree, the problem of hooks pulling out of hooked fish due to the direct pressure of the braid on to the hook point.

The problem with this concept was that bites, even with braid line, were not always successfully converted to hooked fish as the soft blank did not always have the backbone to set the hook in to hard mouthed fish at depth and range. Also blanks with all through actions struggled with big fish when deep down and at the side of the boat when the fish dived back for the seabed as they lacked the power to play out big fish properly.

This is where braid boat rod design responded from the mid 2000’s onwards. Instead of having all through softish actions, braid boat rods went longer to improve actions utilising a more soft supple tip and upper mid section, but then with power in the key areas increasing rapidly to give a true progression of a smoother increasing power flow and ultimately a leverage point when the rod locks up under full compression. This design concept carries many advantages.

Primarily the soft upper tip and middle section has the suppleness to protect light hook holds in fish when they lunge, but the transition of power from the stiffening lower mid section to the stiff butt provides a low down lock up point that can fully pressurise big fish at depth and control them at the side of the boat better when required.

Another big advantage was that this new blank design improved bite detection even further. The original soft all through action cushioned bites way too much. The new designs feel and show bites far more clearly and transfer power more efficiently in to the stiffening lower mid section improving your hook up ratio appreciably.

Where the problems arise is when an angler goes from the old design to a new concept rod. They obviously expect the new rod to behave the same as the old one, but the result is that with the further improved bite detection coming down in to the rod they strike at the first signal of a pull often missing the bite altogether or just lightly hooking the fish. The correct way to fish the rod when braid fishing is to not strike at all, just let the fish take the bait and pull the rod tip hard down which will set the hook for you against the pulling weight of the fish.

Others say they bump more fish off with modern designs of braid rods, but this is more to do with the angler and nothing to do with the rod. If you’re consistently bumping fish off then it will be either that you’ve struck to soon and the fish is lightly hooked anyway, or far more likely that you’ve got the drag on the reel set too tight for the braid line and are overpowering the hook hold, even when incorporating a shock leader. Generally drags should be set at least 20% lighter than you would for mono of the same breaking strain to avoid this.

Even after all this time you still see anglers fishing braid tied direct to the rig, but this is also incorrect. In virtually all cases use a shock leader of mono or Fluorocarbon two times the length of the rod to provide a little stretch and further cushion the hook hold.  

What was also a problem with some early decade braid rods was that the power flow was way too tippy resulting in early pressure points that saw tip sections suddenly snap when the rod was drawn outside its true intended compression curve for maximum efficiency and raised too near to the vertical. This will always be a problem in any rod when pressure is incorrectly applied and the most pressure put on the top 20-inches without the rest of the rod being able to bend in response. Ask any tackle dealer and he’ll tell you that he’s had more rods broken in the shop with anglers just pulling down on the rod tip end of a tip section than he ever has genuine returns through an actual fishing breakage.

There still are a few badly designed braid rods around, the majority though from all the big brands are all pretty damn good. If you’re missing bites, bumping fish off and generally struggling with a recently introduced braid rod, instead of blaming the rod and slagging it off flip the coin and look at your own performance first. Are you fishing the rod as it was intended and have you set the reel drag up correctly to fish in unison with the rod? In the majority of cases, and with all due respect, it will be the  angler blaming his tackle for a shoddy job who’s to blame.

This is where asking for recommendations from other anglers on rods and tackle prior to a purchase can sometimes fall down big time. How do you know that the person giving the advice has enough real knowledge of a wide range of rods, reels etc and fully understands the design concept and correct use of an individual blank? They will still voice their opinion of course in the honest belief that what they say is correct, but in reality it’s often completely wrong because they don’t understand the true concept of what the tackle is designed to achieve in the first place and are themselves fishing it incorrectly. It’s like any purchase you make. It should be fully considered and understood before you spend your money. It’s no good criticising the tackle if you as an individual are not using it correctly and often outside its original design parameters.

I hope that helps clear up yet more common misconceptions on current braid boat rod design and that it may further help you make the right decision when next buying a new rod, plus fish that rod it to its maximum potential.