I bought Quantum ultralight 4 1/2' rod combo for my daughter and today I was impressed regarding how much sensitivity it had out on the water. It got me to thinking, was the UL 4 1/2 superior to my other jigging rigs as far as sensitivity goes?

There is really no way to know without testing right. So I set out to try to find a simple real life test short of fishing. I tied on a few feet of braid to a 1/2 dozen poles on one end of a pole and on the other end a 1/10 ounce bead. By quickly lowering the pole a few inches I create a bounce that simulated a strike. I did this a dozen or so times with each hand with each pole doing side by side comparisons on which bounce was more easily felt. Where I had near equal results I choked up on whichever pole was longer and tested at equal lengths. A cheap Axiom Shakespeare medium action pole with 6 inches broken off at the end and 3 patches with fiberglass and epoxy had the strongest thumps! Along with the UL Quantum, this beater pole beat out an IM8 Berkley Bionix medium action one piece pole. This doesn't mean that all cheap graphite poles are sensitive, as a generic Tournament Choice "Premium" pole was barely better than my cheap Shakespeare fiberglass crappie pole.

Well it all began with cane poles, and they were successful....

when the bite turns light i turn my rod eyes down and hold the line with my left hand
this takes the rod out of the loop
i can feel them rubbing on the jig or smelling the minnow

i just set=em out sit back & wait. hoping nothing like work comes along.

I am looking for a new rod myself and would love to know which pole ya'll think might be the most sensitve as well. Since it will be used on a boat slip it needs to be pretty short. Any thoughts?

Hey Rowdy UR right. I caught 100s of crappie on a pole vertical jigging not much better than a can pole. Truth is even the cheapest glass pole I own now had an adequate detectable "thump" using the 1/10 ounce weight test.

BickMack, that's a good idea. I need to remember to keep the rod tip almost touching the water with the line angled down.

r63pappy, UR right too, I mean, if the fish are biting they'll bite right.

Mark, for me for dock jigging I'd look for as short as I could find IM7 or higher graphite rod with a line rating around 6-12 lb (i.e. light or medium light) with a fast action tip. (I took a look at the high testing Shakespeare rod and it was IM7 after all)... I'd look for a cork handle (more sensitive than foam). The cheaper high modulus rods tend to break off tips easily. For me if the tip breaks I won't be sad, since I don't stare at the end of the rod for a bite and with less flex that bite to be transferred back to my hands better. I suppose if I found another Wally world sharespeare axiom bargain I'd pick it up again although I'd betting the Berkley Lightning Rods and Abu Garcia Conolon rods are made in the same factory and have better components and are still cheap enough to avoid heartbreak if they snap or get kicked off of a dock.
Hmm, I may buy one of these.
http://ffo-tackle.com/detail.cfm?PassProdId=5465

Generally speaking, shorter rods will be more sensitive than longer rods. Simply a result of physical properties. Another misconception is some folks say, I want a real flexible tip so I can feel the bite. A tip can be so soft that you loose sensitivity because the tip bends and doesn't transmit the thump. The softer the material, the more vibration it absorbs. Generally, the lighter and stiffer the rod, the more sensitivity you feel as vibration is transmitted to the hand. The type handle also comes into play as foam absorbs a lot of vibration. That 2.2oz rod Josh had made most likely has great feel and sensitivity like you wouldn't believe.

Thanks Ken, that's good info!

I won't delve any more into recommending any particular rod or try to explain the technology as there are prior posts and people with a lot more expertise and experience than me.

However I'll say that it seems like you could go into a store and simply clip on a bit of line with a small splitshot at the end and bounce it around to gauge the sensitivity. Head to head you might notice a difference from one rod to the next. Granted, comprehensive testing would involve a whole lot more, but this would at least point out a dog or a hidden gem as far as sensitivity goes.

I've never tried this test in a store as I only thought of it recently. However I have tested rods a bit in the store. Once I was shopping for a longer 9'+ jigging rod. I had my son cough hard on a graphite and a fiberglass pole. With the graphite I could feel it clearly, but with the fiberglass I could feel nothing. So I bought the IM6 graphite pole, (probably the cheapest of it's class). Somehow I managed to snap it in 2 places before ever catching a fish with it.

I do know one thing. I got to check out a custom made dock rod today and I want one. The most well balanced sensitive rod I've seen.

Not a crappie rod, but...

I love it.
Berkley® Lightning Rod® Shock Series
I was wandering around BPS testing all the rods and stumbled on this guy. It says it is made for 'superlines' but it works just fine with mono (Suffix Siege Neon Tang).
I read that it was carbon fiber so I was ready to put it down. I had never seen Carbon Fiber under a hundred bucks... and I don't spend near that for rods.

I got confused when it said graphite and fiberglass... 'cause I thought it was carbon fiber. Turns out it is CF for lightweight and kick [censored] backbone and a graphite/fiberglass tip for sensitivity. Best of all worlds?
When I first got it to the lake, I thought it seemed kinda stiff, 'what have I done'. the first fish was a (legit) two pound crappie. I was glad I had it. Very nice setup and very lightweight and sensitive.
PS - I don't like whippy rods - at all.

http://www.basspro.com/Berkley-Lightning...060#description

http://www.iboats.com/Lightning-Rod-Shoc...-view_id.816332