What Power Rod Should I Get?

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “What power rod should I get?”

It’s a fair question, and normally I can give someone a pretty good starting point based on where they fish, the depth, jig weights, current, and what they’re trying to catch.

But if I’m giving the more complete answer, it’s a little more complicated.

You might need all of them!

Obviously, I’m not saying someone getting into slow jigging needs to go out and buy every power rod available. What I mean is that as you get further into this style of fishing, you start realizing that different rod powers are tools. It isn’t always as simple as matching the number written on the rod to the weight of the jig.

The Deepliner Logicals I personally use cover everything from around 80g max on the light end to 1000g on the heavy end. Most of the time when I go fishing, I’m bringing almost all of them.

Realistically, I’ll probably never fish an 80g jig on most of our trips, and there’s a good chance I won’t need a 1000g jig either. So why bring that many rods?

Because I can use those different powers to get completely different actions out of the jigs that fall in between.

That’s the part I think is really important.

Sometimes Changing the Jig Isn't the Answer

When the fish aren’t biting, one of the first things most of us do is start changing jigs.

Different weight, different shape, different color, longer profile, shorter profile, and so on.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I do the same thing.

But sometimes the jig itself isn’t the problem. Sometimes the fish just don’t like the way we’re moving it.

This is where changing rod powers can make a huge difference.

My friend Josh Hanna and I have been playing around with this quite a bit on some of our more recent trips. We’ve been fishing anywhere from around 500–750 feet of water with 400–600g jigs, but instead of automatically reaching for a rod that would normally match those jig weights, we’ve gone the complete opposite direction.

We’ve been fishing some of those jigs on rods with a max jig rating of around 140g.

Yes, a 400–600g jig on a rod rated around 140g.

It sounds crazy, but there’s a reason for it.

We’re trying to slow the jig down.

Why Not Just Use a Heavier Rod and Jig Slower?

This is probably the first question someone is going to ask.

Why not just use a Power 5 or Power 6, slow your movement down, and accomplish the same thing?

You would think that would work, but from what we’ve seen, it really doesn’t produce the same action.

Even when you slow your movement down, the higher-powered rod still wants to recover. At the end of that lift, the rod has enough power to kick back and transfer a little more energy into the jig.

It might not seem like much when you’re standing on the boat, but that little bit of extra kick can be enough to make the jig move more than we want it to.

With the much lighter-powered rod, the rod is so overloaded that it simply can’t recover the same way.

It loads much deeper and is forced to unload slower.

That’s exactly what we’re looking for.

Instead of the rod snapping back and putting that extra bit of movement into the jig, everything becomes softer and slower.

And sometimes that is exactly what the fish want.

Making It Easier for a Lazy Fish

I think one of the easiest ways to understand this is to think about what the fish are doing instead of just thinking about what the jig is doing.

Some days the fish are aggressive.

They’ll chase something down, move a long way to eat a jig, and react to a lot of movement.

Other days they’re just lazy.

We’ve all seen it. You know the fish are there, you can see them on the machine, you’re putting jigs right in front of them, and they just don’t seem interested.

Those are the days when I really think slowing the jig down can make a difference.

If that fish doesn’t feel like chasing something, why make it?

Instead, we can use the lighter rod to slow everything down and give that fish more time.

The jig isn’t trying to get away from it. The fish doesn’t have to burn a bunch of energy chasing it down. It can take its time, move over to the jig, and eat it.

We’ve had some really good results doing exactly this.

There have been times where we’re fishing something like a Power 4, 5, or 6 and not getting much interest at all.

Same area. Same fish. Same jig.

Then we switch over to something like a Power 2 with that exact same jig, and suddenly we start getting responses.

That’s pretty hard to ignore when you see it happen.

We didn’t change the jig.

We changed what the rod was making the jig do.

You Can Go the Other Direction Too

The cool part is that the exact opposite idea works when you want to speed things up.

Let’s say the fish are really aggressive, or we’re targeting something like amberjack, tuna, queen snapper, or another fish that’s willing to chase.

Now I might want that jig to move faster and more aggressively.

Instead of putting a heavy jig on a light rod, I can put a lighter jig on a much higher-powered rod.

Now that rod is barely being loaded by the jig.

When I put movement into it, the rod recovers much faster and puts more energy into the jig. The jig can kick harder, accelerate faster, slide farther, and overall just become a much more aggressive presentation.

Now instead of trying to give a lazy fish an easy meal, we’re trying to make an aggressive fish react.

It sees something take off and instinct takes over.

It chases it and eats it.

Same basic idea, just used in the opposite direction.

That's Why I Look at Rod Power Differently

This is why I don’t think rod power should only be looked at as:

“What weight jig can this rod fish?”

Of course, the manufacturer’s rating matters and it gives you a starting point. But once you start experimenting, there’s a lot more you can do with a rod than just fish the weight printed on the blank.

I’ve started looking at it more like:

“What do I want this rod to make the jig do?”

If I want to slow a jig down, I might go way down in rod power.

If I want to speed the jig up and get a more aggressive action, I might go way up in rod power.

Then you have everything in between.

This is also why it’s hard for me when someone asks what single power rod they should buy.

I can absolutely recommend a good starting point based on the fishing they’re doing. But once you start really playing around with different powers, you realize there isn’t necessarily one rod that does everything.

And honestly, that’s part of what makes this style of fishing so interesting.

Having Options Can Change the Day

This is why I bring so many rods.

It isn’t because I expect to fish every jig weight from 80g to 1000g in one day.

I want options.

If the fish are aggressive, I want to be able to speed things up.

If they’re lazy, I want to be able to slow things way down.

If what I’m doing isn’t working, I don’t want my only option to be changing jigs over and over again.

Sometimes a rod change can make just as much difference as a jig change.

Maybe I’m fishing a 500g jig on a Power 5 and getting nothing.

Instead of immediately deciding the fish don’t like that jig, I can put that same 500g jig on a Power 2 and see what happens.

Or I can go the other way and put a lighter jig on a stronger rod and really get it moving.

Those are options I wouldn’t have if I only brought rods that perfectly matched the recommended jig weight.

And some of our recent trips have really opened my eyes to how big of a difference this can make.

The Rod Is Part of the Jig's Action

We spend a ton of time talking about jigs.

What shape is it?

Where is it balanced?

How does it fall?

How long is it?

How heavy is it?

All of those things are important, but the jig doesn’t create its action by itself.

The rod is a huge part of it.

So is the line, the depth, the current, and obviously what the angler is doing.

But changing rod power is one of the easiest ways we have to change how energy is being put into that jig.

That’s why two people can fish the exact same jig in the exact same area and still be giving the fish two very different presentations.

Once you start thinking about it that way, rod power becomes another adjustment you can make instead of just being a number that tells you what jig you're supposed to use.

One Word of Caution

I do have to add this because I don’t want someone reading this, putting a 600g jig on a rod rated for 140g, ripping on it as hard as they can, and wondering why they broke their rod.

When you overload a rod, you have to change your effort too.

If I’m putting a jig on a rod that is way outside of its recommended range, I’m not aggressively lifting it.

Everything has to slow down.

You need to let the rod load and unload instead of trying to force it.

The whole reason we’re overloading the rod in the first place is because we want it loaded deeply and recovering slowly. If you start aggressively ripping on it, not only are you defeating the purpose, but you’re putting a ton of unnecessary stress on the blank.

There is always going to be a risk when you're using a rod outside of the manufacturer's recommended range.

So if you want to experiment with this, understand what you're doing and try it at your own risk.

So, What Power Rod Should You Get?

If you’re just getting into slow jigging, I still think the right answer is to start with the rod that best matches the majority of the fishing you’re going to do.

Look at your normal depth, jig weights, current, and target species and start there.

You definitely don't need ten rods to go slow jigging.

But as you get more time on the water and start paying closer attention to how different rods affect the same jig, you may start finding yourself wanting more options.

That’s basically where I’ve ended up.

For me, the different rod powers are just different tools.

Sometimes I want the rod to slow the jig down.

Sometimes I want it to speed the jig up.

Sometimes the fish tell us we're completely wrong and we start experimenting until we find something they respond to.

That's fishing.

So instead of only asking:

“Can this rod fish this jig?”

I think a better question is:

“What is this rod going to make this jig do?”

That change in thinking has made rod selection a lot more interesting for me, and lately it's also put quite a few more fish in the boat.