Fishing Rods
Evolution Of Composite Materials

There are quite a few theories as to how and when fishing rods have developed since the beginning. However, it's safe to say that the first rods were sticks and limbs from tree branches. Would you agree? It is obvious that fishing poles have since evolved drastically since then.

Bamboo Rods

Anglers began incorporating the use of bamboo. By the mid 1800's, they started attaching strips of flexible cane bamboo tips onto their rods. They would use about three or four strips of the bamboo. The better poles were tapered and often made from hard durable wood such as hickory.

As with anything else, improvements were made through experimentation and through the evolution of technology. To build better rods, the amount of bamboo used would increase, eventually leading to eight strips of bamboo, now known as the classic eight-strip laminated style.

Fiberglass Rods

The World War II era brought forth the introduction to the fiberglass fishing poles. This included two techniques;

One consisted of glass fibers saturated in cloth wrapped around steel templates for size and taper. The other wraps glass fibers around a light wood core with cellophane film before being heated.

Graphite Rods

Graphite was invented by Britain for aerospace technology. High modulus graphite fishing rods were introduced to the fishing world by Fenwick in 1973. Graphite is a carbon fiber which comes from the residue of crude oil, post-refining sludge that is extruded into polyacrylic nitrate fibers. There follows a series of baking operations and other procedures to accomplish the making of graphite rods.

Graphite weighs two-thirds less and is ten times stronger than fiberglass. Pure graphite is too brittle though, so most often, graphite fishing rods will contain a small percentage of another material, usually fiberglass.

Boron Rods

Boron is a very light metallic filament, lighter than aluminum, that is five times as strong and twice as stiff as steel. Boron has been making a strong push to be an alternative to graphite. Many fishermen feel that boron is better than graphite because of its sensitivity and strength, including the reduction of the weight of rods.

Kevlar Rods

Kevlar is the latest insertion into the space age of rod manufacturing. It's light weight, stiff and strong, with fast actions, and superb sensitivity. It provides the power needed to fight winds and playing out those feisty fish.

fishing rods like a battle field freshwater fishing

Some rods are made solely of each of these materials, while many are made with a combination of these substances. These materials possess light weight, strength, and sensitivity to better suit the fishermans' needs and wants.

It is argumentative, of course, as to which kinds of fishing rods are best. It also goes to say which is best suited for each style of fishing, type of fishing, or saltwater and freshwater.

As you should know, rods are classified into groups and categories. So these are a few things to consider when selecting the right one for the battle field. One of the major things to consider is the action and power that freshwater fishing rods provide.

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