I understand the difference in the action of a rod. Medium/ medium heavy/ heavy/ extra hvy and all that.

My question is about tip flex. When someone stays a rod has a medium tip or fast tip, what does that mean? I'm under the impression that a medium flex tip has more flex in it than a fast tip.

And last, how does different tip flex effect the rod? I'm guessing one with a medium flex tip you could cast further, but one with a fast tip you could set the hook harder and get better action with your jigs?

Help me out before I spend the money on a new Falcon rod.

Moderate Fast the taper is more limber before it hits the rods back bone, so your impression is correct.
Example: Crankbait Rod.

The faster the taper or tip as you call it the faster you hit the back bone of the rod.

Yes usually the more limber the rod usually equals farther casts.

In my opinion tho if you are texas rigging or jig fishing I would go either fast or ex-fast tapers. Crankbaits I prefer a moderate fast for less chance of ripping the bait out the fish's mouth while setting the hook.

I dont use Falcons anymore but however they are pretty good about making technique specific rods. Like for cranks you might want to look at their Reaction series(Cara).

Alot of rods these days will tell you on the rod what the rod is recommended for bait wise.

This can get very confusing.... here goes.

Most rods companies use the term power and action. What you listed in your first statement is the power. The action refers to the tip (speed).



Now, with that said, Falcon is a different animal. There is no industry standard but Falcon has a series of numbers that define the power of their rods. They use the terms Action and flex. The flex is also listed on their website. Falcon's site and brochure does a pretty good job of explaining what each rod is for. If you've got further questions on a specific Falcon rod list that. This board is full of guys who use Falcon. So far every rod I own is a Falcon.

Medium, medium heavy and heavy all refer to the rod's power and not action. Power can be thought of as how stiff a rod is, including the tip. Action refers to where a rod flexes and not how stiff it is. A fast action rod flexes mostly in the top 1/3 of the rod. This is the action most commonly found in jig and Texas rig rods. A moderate action rod flexes in the top 1/2 of the rod. Typically all crankbait rods will be moderate action. A medium power rod will flex more and generally cast further than a heavy power rod, regardless of the rod's action.

I prefer a moderate action rod on all my treble hook baits and finesse rods. For most everything else, I like fast or extra fast action rods.

Hope that helps you make a good decision.

Good and accurate information from everyone, but keep in mind that a medium heavy from one mfg may be a lot stiffer (or softer) than medium heavy from another. Also, in the case of some Shimano's I have, a medium heavy with an x-fast tip is a lot heavier action than a medium heavy with a fast tip. Best advice I can give is handle a bunch of them, flex them side by side and see which one feels best to you. You may have to go through a couple over time to fine tune it.

thanks guys.

Does the action or power of the rod have anything to do with the sensitivity?

I really don't believe those to be a factor in the sensitivity of a rod. They may play to some degree but more important are the type and quality of the blank, the weight and balance of the rod, and the components / construction.

I can't add much to what everyone has said other than you can look at it this way. Fast tip will set the hook harder and faster, and a medium/moderate fast will set the hook less hard and a bit slower. Like Twiztidtexan said, the fast tip flexs at the upper third of the rod which means you are into the stiff backbone of the rod faster. The medium/moderate fast flexs further down the rod which means it takes a bit longer to be into the backbone and will also provide a little softer hook set. Hope this makes sense.

so lets say i wanted to get four rods to do my fishing. i personally like to fish frogs, pitch/flip, jigs, texas rig, weightless worms, crankbaits, and buzzbaits. id like to get into using swimbaits and spinnerbaits but have never had good luck on them. i could probably cover frog fishing and flipping/pitching with the same rod and jigs/texas rig/weightless worm with the same rod also, right?

frog fishing = H/XH power with F/XF action
flipping/pitching = H/XH power with F/XF action
jigs and texas rig = MH/H power with F action
weightless worm = M/MH power with F action
cranks = M/MH power with M/MF action

swimbaits = ?
buzzbaits = ?
spinnerbaits = ?

is that about right?

Very good example, is thar from G Loomis?

Allow me to add a bit to things here.

One of the things that many folks fail to realize is give two rods that are otherwise identical but one has an extra-fast action and the other has a medium action means that casting characteristics will differ. The medium action rod will load more slowly that the extra-fast action. This strongly effects the timing of your casts.

Personally, I find that a STIFF extra-fast action rod is a problem for me to cast. I've got an AV70MXF Avid that is the bee's knees for pitching, but it's a major pain to cast a regular sized Texas-rig with.

TFP