This is probably the stupidest question of the day... But, I understand what the power on a rod means (ML, MH, etc..) What exactly does the "moderate fast" or "fast" mean? Does have something to do with the rod top tip or what? All of my rods are mod fast, but when I've bought a rod I've only payed attention to the power. Never really understood what the mod fast meant

Thanks

There is a cool video on youtube from Flukemaster where he describes actions. He even ties weights to rods to load them up for examples. (I made a previous post when I was really tired at around 3am, what I typed out confused me so I deleted it lol )

You can see the action. Just hold the rod butt with both hands and place it center of your chest, sticking straight out almost above eye level. Now pivot your body back and forth. Look at the rod end, where it bends and how much it bends. Cast action rods (stiff) bend at the tip. Slow action bend much further down. Worm rod is fast. Fly rod is slow.

Any rod, irrespective of its power rating, can have a fast tip. It simply identifies where a rod's lifting point is located, where along the length of the rod it wants to bend under its maximum load. Designs vary.

Fast and Extra fast rods are all the rage now and they are popular for several reasons, one of which is that for presentations where you need to set the hook more aggressively/faster, a rod that doesn't flex far down closer to your hands delivers the hook a bit faster, maintains a longer sweeping radius.

The downside? A rod is a third-class lever meaning the fish has the leverage over us, not the other way around. So, a rod with a fast tip has less power to pull in a fish. But, we don't need much so we gladly give away leverage advantage to the fish for casting distance and these other factors.

For finesse applications where the fish often hooks itself, I like moderate/medium action tips. And, for really long casts, say you are throwing crankbaits far to cover water, you can cast farther with something other than a fast tip. But, since a fish that grabs your lure can be so far away, there are trade offs here related to setting the hook.

Brad

Extra-Fast actions are great flipping and pitching, as they don't lend themselves to making longer casts. These techniques are often deployed around heavier cover, so the stiffer rod assist in getting the fish out of the cover quickly & successfully.

Fast actions work well for single-hook techniques, where making casts is required and you usually have slack in the line that needs to be taken-up quickly to set the hook. These are great for T-Rigs, jigs, etc.

Moderate-Fast and Moderate actions are more forgiving. For this reason they work well with treble-hook applications, as they prevent the fish from throwing the treble hooks. Moderate actions work like a shock absorber against a fish thats thrashing to get off the hook.