Posted By: Tony from Oak Point
testing out rod sensitivity with my smartphone - 10/21/16 04:57 AM
Well I sort of had a day off today but with 20+ MPH winds from the North and a sore throat I didn't bother to hit the lake. Lately I've got a few new fishing poles bought at a discount and also a few poles that I've been debating to get rid of. So with a bit of time on my hands I played around with my Smart Phone and an app "Vibrometer" to see if those bargains were really bargains and if the old work horse rods need to be put out to pasture?
Setting a 1/2 dozen rods in a rod holder and dropping various small beads from the end of the rod tied on with light line while the phone was perched on the front of the reel seat, I was able to get a pretty good idea how each rod compared. I was trying to simulate the lightest detectable bite and this worked best dropping a small plastic bead from the rod tip tied onto 6 inches of very thin braided line. Using alarm and multiplier settings in the Vibrometer app, I could get a comparison of how well each rod registered the force of the bead dropping. I also tested each drop holding the rods by hand to sanity check the results. In the end the "least sensitive" rod didn't surprise me. However the most "sensitive rod" was a surprise. I put "least sensitive" in quotes as each rod has it's sweet spot registering a bite and this isn't the most scientific analysis.
Anyone want to try to guess which rods were "better" or "worse" as far as sensing a tiny bead falling 6 inches?
The rods were:
1) Allstar Classic Medium casting 1 piece 6' ~2010 (Chinese)
2) B&M 5' ultralight slabtail fiberglass casting 1 piece 5'10"
3) Pflueger Microspin PMSP43501L IM7 1 piece light 5' light action
4) Pflueger Razor Tip casting RTCA45562L IM8 graphite 5'6" Light 4-8Lb 2 Piece
5) Tica Medium Heavy WDVA Medium Heavy casting 6' TC4 (IM9?) graphite 1 piece
6) Allstar dropshot spinning (ASTS763DS) 1 piece 6'4" 1/32-3/8 Fast Light
Setting a 1/2 dozen rods in a rod holder and dropping various small beads from the end of the rod tied on with light line while the phone was perched on the front of the reel seat, I was able to get a pretty good idea how each rod compared. I was trying to simulate the lightest detectable bite and this worked best dropping a small plastic bead from the rod tip tied onto 6 inches of very thin braided line. Using alarm and multiplier settings in the Vibrometer app, I could get a comparison of how well each rod registered the force of the bead dropping. I also tested each drop holding the rods by hand to sanity check the results. In the end the "least sensitive" rod didn't surprise me. However the most "sensitive rod" was a surprise. I put "least sensitive" in quotes as each rod has it's sweet spot registering a bite and this isn't the most scientific analysis.
Anyone want to try to guess which rods were "better" or "worse" as far as sensing a tiny bead falling 6 inches?
The rods were:
1) Allstar Classic Medium casting 1 piece 6' ~2010 (Chinese)
2) B&M 5' ultralight slabtail fiberglass casting 1 piece 5'10"
3) Pflueger Microspin PMSP43501L IM7 1 piece light 5' light action
4) Pflueger Razor Tip casting RTCA45562L IM8 graphite 5'6" Light 4-8Lb 2 Piece
5) Tica Medium Heavy WDVA Medium Heavy casting 6' TC4 (IM9?) graphite 1 piece
6) Allstar dropshot spinning (ASTS763DS) 1 piece 6'4" 1/32-3/8 Fast Light