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Test curves Vs line and casting weight

M

Mark Evans 2

Senior Member & Supporter
Hi all,

Not mentioning any brands but when it comes to deciding on a rod these days is it better to go off the test curves or the line/casting weight the rod has been spec'd with?

I have a 1.25 rod that's been given a line rating of 6-12lb and a max casting weight of 3oz, now this is the same rating as my current low priced 1.75 Barbel rod and seems very heavily spec'd for a 1.25 rod?

Same as another 1.5 rod I've seen, line rating 6-12lb with a max casting weight of 4oz.

What is more believable, test curves or line and casting weights?
 
Neither method of rating is of any use until you understand the action of the rod, and even then it is just a guide.

A good example being a Chimera 3 which is nominally rated by Harrison's as a 2.25 TC rod. It is stiff stipped and through-actioned and capable of casting out 5oz feeders and 6oz leads.

Yet if I tried casting out a 5oz feeder with my 12' Torrix 2.5lb rods I would expect to left with a rod with a broken tip and an expensive repair bill. This is because it is a faster action. But because of this faster action it will easily outcast the Chimera 3 with lighter leads.

Although I've never handled one, I understand the Torrix 2.25 is better with heavy leads and feeders than the Torrix 2.5 as it is stiffer tipped.

In short, the action and tip is critical, so my advice is not buy a rod blind unless it has been recommended for a specific use by someone who knows what they are talking about, either a rod builder or an experienced angler who has actually used one. And there are plenty of those on here 👍
 
I did a quick search and a 2.5 Torrix is meant to be rated up to 6oz?

If that same spec of rod was only rated at say 2lb TC then would you still be looking at it's line rating and casting weight range when weighing up your options?

This goes for any rod and price, all my rods are off the shelf and generally under £100
 
Mark Evans 2 said:
I did a quick search and a 2.5 Torrix is meant to be rated up to 6oz?

If that same spec of rod was only rated at say 2lb TC then would you still be looking at it's line rating and casting weight range when weighing up your options?

This goes for any rod and price, all my rods are off the shelf and generally under £100
Click to expand...
Personally I wouldn't buy any rod I had not handled unless I had a recommendation from someone who knew what they were on about.

And to reiterate, all test curve and casting weight ratings are meaningless unless you understand the rods action. Even then, they are just rough guide.
 
If we are talking about casting ability of a rod it also depends how you cast .Adopting what I would call the long distance beach caster /. chuck 4oz 100 ms across the lake/river approach then Joe is spot on with his advice . However with a gentle swinging lob you can get away with casting relatively heavy weights a reasonable distance with light test curve rods , its when you start loading a rod up and punching a cast out for a long distance that the action / test curve becomes much more important . In my view its the action of the rod that is more important than the test curve / weight / line rating when it comes to casting ability and ability to cast fairly heavy weights
 
Feeder tips (if you have them) also affect how a rod casts. I leave those with more knowledge than me to elaborate, if they wish, but my barbel and feeder rods are all twin tips, which I like because I like to use lead as light as 10-15g whenever I can (even in the floods of a few weeks ago)... casting a 15g lead with a 1.75lb TC tip just doesn't work.
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Agree with Joe W - all rods are simply not equal. . .

The only thing you can do is either ask on here (most barbel rods will have been means tested by somebody in terms of action/weight rating) or have a waggle in a shop. Bought my 12' Torrix 2.25 on this basis from the unfortunately now defunct Walkers of Trowell (RIP) - they tied on a length of line with various weights from 3-6oz on a variety of blanks in differing lengths / tcs so I could get a 'feel' for what I typically need / felt 'right' in my hands - and in this instance the specific Torrix won (was looking for an allrounder that could handle a variety of typical uses / greatest range of casting weights / balance between tip indication and butt grunt)
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Neither method of rating is of any use until you understand the action of the rod, and even then it is just a guide.

A good example being a Chimera 3 which is nominally rated by Harrison's as a 2.25 TC rod. It is stiff stipped and through-actioned and capable of casting out 5oz feeders and 6oz leads.

Yet if I tried casting out a 5oz feeder with my 12' Torrix 2.5lb rods I would expect to left with a rod with a broken tip and an expensive repair bill. This is because it is a faster action. But because of this faster action it will easily outcast the Chimera 3 with lighter leads.

Although I've never handled one, I understand the Torrix 2.25 is better with heavy leads and feeders than the Torrix 2.5 as it is stiffer tipped.

In short, the action and tip is critical, so my advice is not buy a rod blind unless it has been recommended for a specific use by someone who knows what they are talking about, either a rod builder or an experienced angler who has actually used one. And there are plenty of those on here 👍
Click to expand...
My torrix 2.5 @12ft , will cast a 4oz loaded method feeder , probs 5 oz total, 80 yards no problem??
 
Mark Evans 2 said:
Hi all,

Not mentioning any brands but when it comes to deciding on a rod these days is it better to go off the test curves or the line/casting weight the rod has been spec'd with?

I have a 1.25 rod that's been given a line rating of 6-12lb and a max casting weight of 3oz, now this is the same rating as my current low priced 1.75 Barbel rod and seems very heavily spec'd for a 1.25 rod?

Same as another 1.5 rod I've seen, line rating 6-12lb with a max casting weight of 4oz.

What is more believable, test curves or line and casting weights?
Click to expand...
Hi Mark, what would you be using your rod for!
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Neither method of rating is of any use until you understand the action of the rod, and even then it is just a guide.

A good example being a Chimera 3 which is nominally rated by Harrison's as a 2.25 TC rod. It is stiff stipped and through-actioned and capable of casting out 5oz feeders and 6oz leads.

Yet if I tried casting out a 5oz feeder with my 12' Torrix 2.5lb rods I would expect to left with a rod with a broken tip and an expensive repair bill. This is because it is a faster action. But because of this faster action it will easily outcast the Chimera 3 with lighter leads.

Although I've never handled one, I understand the Torrix 2.25 is better with heavy leads and feeders than the Torrix 2.5 as it is stiffer tipped.

In short, the action and tip is critical, so my advice is not buy a rod blind unless it has been recommended for a specific use by someone who knows what they are talking about, either a rod builder or an experienced angler who has actually used one. And there are plenty of those on here 👍
Click to expand...
Agree with this….specialist rods are just that, rods built for a specialist application and manufacturers such as Harrison design a blank for that purpose. I may be wrong but I would imaging the TC rating is measured once they have the model designed and add this to the product description simply because that is the label many anglers understand!?
 
Thanks guys,

I'm probably overthinking things by the replies, as much as I'd like one I'm never going down the custom build route and anything I buy will be online without trying first, even something priced like a FS Barbel Tamer at around £160 I'd just buy blind, hence using quoted specs to judge a rod.

Thanks for the help and advice guys
 
There is casting and casting....

I'm happy to use an overhead smooooooth cast to pop out a filled large 90gr feeder ( around 5oz) 40 yards into the Lower Severn with my 2lb Torrix

Or the 2 25 Powermesh a bit further into the Trent.

I'm happy to casting out a total 4oz weight near to 60 yards with the 2lb torrix

These are just using the loaded weight to do the work with minimum compression.

Saying that, 95pc of my casts are underarm.
 
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