If you're in the market for a bottom fishing rod, or trying to see if you can use a rod you already have for bottom fishing, you've come to the right place. This article will walk you through the design of various features of fishing rods and explain how each feature affects bottom fishing. After you read through it, I'm confident you'll be able to go to your local fishing store and pick out a great bottom rod.
Spinning vs Conventional Rods for Bottom Fishing
When you start trying to choose a bottom fishing setup, it makes the most sense to start off by choosing the reel. The reel, whether its spinning or conventional, will dictate the style of rod you need. Spinning rods have guides on the bottom and the guides decrease in diameter substantially as you move down the length of the rod to the rod tip.
Conventional rods have guides on the top and they tend to be similar in diameter. Sometimes, if the reel is a high capacity and narrow reel that sits tall, you may even see a roller stripper guide near the reel seat.
Bottom Fishing Rod Length
The first thing to consider when looking for a bottom fishing rod is your desired length. Usually a bottom fishing rod is between 6 and 7 feet in length.
A longer length rod is usually needed for casting or even for your wide line in a trolling spread. A long length can help catapult a lure out further. In bottom fishing, you are simply dropping a bait down to the bottom and all you need is a little length to keep you a reasonable distance away from the side of the boat.
Very short rods, under 6 feet, are usually used for heavy trolling applications. They are usually short and stout with a roller guide train. This type of heavy rod is great for planer trolling or trolling for wahoo, but is not ideal for bottom fishing.
When bottom fishing, the angler is standing at the side of the boat, holding the rod and dropping the bait. The fisherman may jerk the rod up, or retrieve a few feet, every now and then to give the bait some action. A short and stout rod is not going to give you enough distance from the side of boat, especially at times when you’re fighting a fish and trying to maneuver over the outboard motor.
Bottom Fishing Rod Power and Line Rating
The rod power, the reel size class and the line strength are all related to one another. The bigger the reel, the higher the line strength (usually), and the heavier power the rod needs to be. For example, an extra heavy rod with roller guide train would be paired with a 80 lb class trolling reel spooled with 100-120 lb line for targeting wahoo.
Bottom fishing requires heavy tackle. You’ll be using line strengths between 65 and 80 lb braid which drives the need for a heavy power rod. The heavy power rod will usually come with double footed guides to support the line and the drag force.
When trying to diecide which rod to buy for bottom fishing, check the line rating of the rod and make sure 65 lb or 80 lb braid is within the rating. On some rod models, you may need to go up to extra heavy or even extra extra heavy power.
My article on Bottom Fishing Line discusses in detail the reasons why you’ll be using 65 lb – 80 lb braid as a main line in bottom fishing.
Bottom Fishing Rod Action
When it comes to the action of your fishing rod, you’ll want to make sure you get a flexible tip. A flexible tip when bottom fishing will help tire out the fish much faster. You can expect the tip to be flexible enough if the action is moderate fast, fast, or extra fast.
A fast or extra fast action means the rod will bend but the bend will stay near the tip of the rod, rather than extending all the way down to the handle. A flexible tip is great for bottom fishing because it allows you to sense the softer bite of a bottom fish. Once you sense the bite, you’ll need to immediately start to retrieve to prevent the fish from succeeding at taking shelter within the reef or wreck.
When you’re in a store testing the action of the rod, you can point the tip down to the floor and put some pressure on it to see how much it bends. For bottom fishing, you should see a bendy tip and the remainder of the rod should stay pretty stiff.
Bottom Fishing Rod Grip Style
The grip for a bottom fishing rod usually has a small grip section above the reel seat and a full or split grip section below the reel seat. Anglers will usually hold the rod at the bottom portion when dropping the bait and the top of the grip when retrieving. There are cork grips, EVA grips, and several other materials. When choosing a grip style, I recommend choosing whichever material you like the best when you hold it.
The rod’s butt section doesn’t need to be very long for bottom fishing. A long butt section is advantageous for casting and jigging. The longer section can help the angler catapult the lure or bait out when casting, and the longer section helps the angler to pin the rod in his/her armpit when jigging.
When bottom fishing, you’re likely holding the rod in front of you for the entire duration. You may put the rod butt into a fighting belt or cush-it, but its uncommon to see anglers fight the fish with the rod in the armpit when bottom fishing. There is one exception and that is slow pitch jigging which is also considered bottom fishing and definitely needs a split grip with an extended rod section to reach to the anglers’ armpit.
Bottom Fishing Rod Gimbals
When looking at rods, you’ll see some that mention gimbals. A gimbal is on the butt end of the rod and is notched to secure it in a rod holder or fighting belt. Rod holders and fighting belts usually have crosspins that the gimbal will mate with. The purpose of a gimbal is to prevent the rod from twisting.
Although bottom fishing usually involves the angler standing and holding the rod for the fight, junior anglers may need to hold the rod in a fighting belt to help support the weight of the setup during the fight. If there is no gimbal on the rod, you’ll probably notice the rod twisting back and forth as the angler is winding the handle on one side. This can put a lot of stress on the rod and it’ll generally feel sloppy as you retrieve. To learn more about bottom fishing techniques, read my comprehensive guide here.
If you plan to use a fighting belt, you’ll want to make sure the rod and belt are compatible, meaning if the rod doesn’t have a gimbal, make sure the fighting belt doesn’t have crosspins, or they’re at least removable. On the contrary, if your rod has a gimbal, you’ll want to make sure the fighting belt has crosspins for mating.
There is another option if you need to cushion the rod against your body but don’t want to deal with a fighting belt. A fighting belt has some disadvantages, like having to unbuckle and move it to another person if the angler needs help. A cush-it is a foam cushion that you twist and slide onto the end of a rod with a gimbal to protect your body from getting hurt by the gimbal. This is especially helpful if your rod has an aluminum gimbal. The cush-it is fairly inexpensive and doesn’t require buckling it on like a fighting belt.
Since bottom fishing rods are normally heavy power, it’s very common for the rod to come with a gimbal. If you’re shopping in the store and only see a rubber cap on the end, try to twist it off. I’ve noticed that sometimes the manufacturers will put a rubber cap on the end to protect the gimbal before its sold. It doesn’t hurt to try and twist it, and you might just find a gimbal underneath.
Bottom Fishing Rod Guides
Fishing rod guides are one of the main drivers for rod pricing. As a general rule, the more expensive the rod, the better quality guides they use. A higher quality guide is one that is lightweight for its strength, and has improved durability. The frame is the largest part of the guide and plays the biggest role in the weight of the guide.
The weight of the guide frame can be minimized by using a high strength and lightweight material such as Titanium, and can also be minimized if the frame is a single foot instead of a double foot. Bottom fishing requires heavy power rods and single foot guides are generally rare with heavy rods.
The guide ring is the circular piece that the guide frame holds in place. The guide ring is the part of the guide that can have direct contact with the line. The ring guide needs to be durable to withstand the sharp cutting power of thin diameter braided fishing line, and also needs to be durable enough to withstand getting knocked around on the boat a bit.
Some of the more inexpensive rods will use a simple ceramic ring guide that can crack when used with braid or when the fishing rod is accidentally dropped on the floor of the boat. I’ve had this happen with a friend of mine who was surf fishing with a $60 rod and reel combo and every time he tried to cast, the line would get cut off. Eventually we figured out that a cracked ring guide was slicing his line every time he tried to cast it.
Silicon carbide (SiC), Alconite, and Zirconium all work great with braid. A good feature to look for in a bottom fishing rod is guide inserts of SiC, alconite, or Zirconium because you’ll most likely be fishing with braided main line. The last thing you want is for a guide ring to crack and cause you to lose your live bait and your potential catch.
Although bottom fishing is done with heavy gear, it is somewhat rare to see someone bottom fishing with roller guides. Roller guides are normally used when trolling for big game, and are too bulky and heavy to use with bottom fishing. Trust me when I say you’d get tired of holding a rod with a roller guide train really quickly.
Some high quality ring guide brands include Fuji, SeaGuide, and ALPs. I have plenty of rods that use Fuji guides, and one of my bottom rods has ALPs guides.
When weaker or younger anglers are bottom fishing, the weight of the setup can become a big deal. They’ll be holding the rod for potentially hours and reeling in heavy fish. I’d recommend choosing a lightweight rod and reel for a weaker angler, as long as it doesn’t bust your budget.
If you’re also trying to figure out how to choose a bottom fishing reel, you have to read my article Bottom Fishing Reels: Read Before You Buy. It will help you understand what line capacity you need, the max drag you should look for, and the best gear ratio for bottom fishing.
Blank Construction
Rod blank construction is also considered better as you move up in price. Inexpensive rod blanks are made by wrapping fiberglass sheets around a mandel in straight direction. This type of wrapping is easy to do, hence the low cost, but it can result in a rod that fails to hold up against a torque it might experience with a big fish.
Experienced rod manufacturers have designed methods of improving the torsional strength of rods. For example, a diagonal and opposite wrap of fiberglass greatly improves the torsional strength, but is more difficult to produce. When bottom fishing, you’ll most likely be using a conventional reel and a conventional rod with the guides on the top of the fishing rod. The rod tends to want to twist right away because of the unnatural, in terms of center of gravity, position of the line. For this reason, a rod with high torsional strength is something to look for in a bottom fishing rod. Examples of this type of technology include Shimano Spiral X, and Daiwa X45.
I hope this article helps prepare you to choose a bottom fishing rod. If you’re interested in reading about which rods I chose to buy, check out my article Why I Bought These Bottom Fishing Rods. Tight lines, y’all!
