I'm a bit less aware of it now, but I will never forget the first time I spooled braid on my spinning reel. I could "feel" the bottom for the first time in terms of what it was I was pulling over. Gravel felt totally different than a soft bottom, for example. Until then, I thought it was just "talk." The spongy feeling was gone.

So, a crappie or any fish plucks a line, it travels like a wave up the line back toward the rod. This would be the same for any rod with the same line. And, a slack line doesn't transmit this "wave" as well as a taut line. Once it gets to the rod, it'll depend on several factors:

One is you will feel more on a lighter rod. If you held a vaulting pole out at arms' length with an attached line, you might not discern a tiny bluegill nibble. The weight of the "rod" would overshadow it. A relatively heavy rod will mask these light touches by fish. Dense material and light weight, together, would be the best. Graphene is very dense at one carbon atom in width. The material is being considered for use in vests for police officers.

A second would be the rod material's vibration characteristics. Consider a string on a guitar. Two different strings transmit "waves" differently for different sounds (wave lengths). Likely, we just feel the transmission of certain vibrations through certain materials differently . . . or one better than another.

A third is you will feel the bite better on a fast tip than a slow tip because it loads up farther out on the rod so a tiny bite has more leverage in the transmission of feel than one that loads up lower . . . and slower.

I think an important fourth factor is the rod and reel "balance." Most of the time, this is considered just a factor related to comfort for all day fishing; but, a perfectly balanced rod and reel will likely give a quicker feedback to an angler because we feel things going from "balanced" to "out of balance" very quickly. A fish barely touches our bait, the pressure pulls the tip down ever so slightly. We are wired to feel balance by nature.

I generally agree with Hogon and others that you can get to a rod performance that is really great with a variety of rods. I also think technology is pulling ahead pretty sharply. Strength/weight ratios have improved tremendously over the last many years. We can absorb more . . . our fingers are "wired" so finely for "touch" as a sensation that we can literally feel the difference between two pieces of typing paper and a single sheet if we accidentally grab two instead of one. Rod technology is taking us closer and closer to our limits here.

Brad

Oh! I forgot to mention that I "traded" rods with a friend recently. I now own a G-Rod 6'6" Trout model and I can't wait to give it a go. I'll report back on the "feel" of it with a personal observation. It is very thin, very light, beautiful workmanship for sure. He told me he has caught some pretty large fish with it. I'm looking forward to finding out!

Brad

Are the ACC Crappie Stix the ones that do a quantity discount? (Order 5-6 rods...)

I need to get some higher quality rods over my BnM's

If you spend $150 with ACC you get Free Shipping.

Basically 3 Rods will get you Free Shipping.

You can order an 8 Footer, a 10 Footer, and a Dock shooter for example and have enough in the order to qualify for Free Shipping.

Or 3 of the 8 Footers.

Or 3 of the 10 Footers and so on.

I do not know of any quantity discounts with Andy but you can always shoot him an email and ask him.

www.acccrappiestix.com

Andy the owner of ACC was a Full Time Crappie Guide in Illinois. He left guiding and went into the Rod Business because he was sick and tired of the whimpy Rods that were available on the market for Crappie Fisherman.

He actually owns some Pro Anglers and he likes them.
He said the Big Rods for Crappie in Illinois are Ozark Rods and BnM.
I don't know much about Ozark Rods.
He said BnM Rods were like fishing with a rubber band.
My BnM SAM Heaton Super Sensitive isn't like that, but a regular BnM I don't know because I've never used one.

He told me that is why he left guiding and set out to make the best Crappie Rod for the price on the market and hence ACC Crappie Stix was born.

He would fit in great here in Texas with the Crappie folks.
He loves Crappie Fishing.
He is all about taking kids Crappie Fishing. He loves kids.
He is a very genuine down to earth fellow angler that wants to contribute to the crappie fishing community.

He has had some growing pains with the business and was actually sold out of all Rods and rod lengths from the end of April until July 3rd. He just got 2600 Rods in and will be placing an order for another 3000 in the near future. Currently, he has all lengths in stock.

When I spoke to him and we were talking Rods I told him that G-Rods and Pro Anglers were the big Rods in Texas. He said I have some Pro Anglers and I like those rods. I told him the G-Rods were $160 and his jaw hit the floor...I heard it.

Anyway, you certainly can order one rod or two and if I remember Shipping was a flat rate $8.00.

He is simply a regular guy just trying to make a positive impact on the Crappie Community.

I'm simply a fan and a customer.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Oh and I fish with 20 pound Power Pro Super Slick Braid in Aqua Green with an 8 pound Berkeley Vanish Clear/Gold Flourocarbon leader.

G-Rod and ACC stick are in two different worlds to me. I'll pay the extra for a G-rod. I only own the 9' G-Rod but it's a great addition to my collection. And I own over 50 Crappie rods..

I don't even spend that on a Bass rod!

So my question is this......I am one of those guys that usually has the line touching my index finger when vertical jigging. Is a $160 rod really going to help me feel anymore bites??? I can tell you I have a couple of very cheap ultra light rods ($11 each) and a few mid level ultra lights ($50-$60 each). Using them all in the same day the mid level rods didn't put anymore fish in the boat than the ultra cheap ones. So in my opinion holding your line kind of defeats the need for a super high end rod. After all the bite is going to have to travel up the line anyway no matter how much your rod costs.

JCB, a good observation.

My only thought is the index finger would sense a very light bite as a pull increasing pressure on it; in contrast, it comes down the rod as more of a vibration.

I rarely vertically jig, but I suspect that in most cases the quality of the sensation is higher coming down the rod than holding the line with a finger, that the rod sensation has more "information" in it.

One example and you may not agree, I could be wrong, but if your vertical bait sort of floated into some submerged vegetation, you'd get a signal up your line into your finger. I just don't know if it'd signal a difference between that kind of pressure and a bite. With a high-end rod, I think most of us can differentiate, very clearly, a snag in vegetation from a fish bite. They usually feel completely different.

Brad

... Braid is like a super chip for average rods....greatly increases performance.

Skimp on BEER?
BLASPHEMY!!

Thump is in the line for me. You wanna feel the fish fart on your jig, throw some braid or flouro on. When it comes to the rod, I'm looking for what feels good in my hand, and something that I can hold for a good while and not get fatigued. For more me it's the Pro Angler all day long.

I've fished with quite a few rods since I started crappie fishing. I started with Pro Anglers and then the St Croix craze hit. I swapped over to St Croix Premiers and noticed a difference. I also went from straight mono to braid with a fluoro leader at the same time. Then came a pair of St Croix walleye rods...better yet. Next came Dobyns both Champions and Champion Extremes, I caught alot of fish on a Champion 702SF. Again, all these from the initial swap to St Croix were using braid/fluoro. I'm back to fishing St Croix again mainly because they have a reasonable selection of 7'6" rods in all price ranges. I also fish Pro Angler from time to time. They all catch fish but I can tell you the single biggest game changer for me has been the braid/fluoro line combo. Even the Pro Anglers benefit from this change. FWIW, I've never been a big fan of B&M as it seems their rods are on the wimpy side and everyone I know that's fished them has had issues ranging from guides to breakage.

Yep..line makes a big difference. I have a couple of short Ugly stick rods I use in tight situations, like under low bridges...with mono, you really have to watch the line...you might not even feel a soft bite, just see it. With braid, its a solid thump.
I have a couple of rods that are just blanks, reel seat and guides..no foam or cork. With braid, you can feel them breathe on a jig. They are No.8 Tackle blackout 7' ML spinning rods. I got them from Tackle Warehouse. Amazing crappie rod... a little heavier than a G-Rod, but every bit as sensitive...for less than $60.00. Sadly, they are sold out of the 7' ML, but if you see them elsewhere, they are a lot of rod for the money.

$160 a mite pricey. If you fish tourneys maybe but I catch enough crappie to feed me and all my friends as it is. Besides, the Pro Angler rod is super tough. I step on them, catch big LM Bass, cats and stripers and they dont end up as tomato stakes like those Wally marshal rods.

For those of you that think $160 is too much to spend on the MAIN tool that puts fish in your freezer ..... I found a pic of your crappie boat on google!