Water Body-Specific Rods: Up Next?

If you’ve been around long enough, you remember when fishing rods weren’t application-specific. You didn’t have rods specifically made for pitching/flipping, cranking, etc.

You’d find one you liked for whatever technique it was, but it was just medium-heavy or whatever, and that was it.

Then along came technique-specific rods, which just like GPS, side-imaging, Power-Poles and, yep, BassGold now, got this reaction at first: “What? Why? Don’t need it.”

Now we can’t imagine not having ’em. What’s the next step in rod-world? How ’bout rods specific to technique AND body of water. This burped up reading an article the other day, some highlights:

A former guide who also owns a fishing supplies store in Redding [WA] has teamed up with two Washington state companies to design a line of custom rods.

“There is a need for rods to fish the Sacramento River, and the majority of manufacturers just quit building them,” said Gary Manies.

“The bass fishing industry has gotten so huge that the majority of manufacturers have switched their attention to producing bass rods,” Manies said.

Bass rod handles are short, which Manies explained do not make them ideal for landing a heavier fish like salmon. G2M Rods feature a handle that is 10 to 12 inches. The rod also has a different action than a bass rod, Manies said.

The SRS (Sacramento River System) series rods retail from $170 to $225….

Not bass fishin’ rods, but pretty darn interesting. Thinking of techniques that are specific to regions of the country or even single bodies of water or even folks, like a Michigan smallie rod, or a Woo Daves James River rod, etc.

Whachoo theen mang?