What Makes a Good Trolling Rod?

I’ve noticed that selecting a rod to pair with a trolling reel can be quite difficult for anglers. Often times, the rods aren’t specifically marketed for trolling unless you’re looking at a stubby offshore rod with roller guides. If you're looking for the best trolling rod, you came to the right place.

So, what do you look for in a rod when you’re trolling inshore, nearshore, or even when trolling with a downrigger or trolling for big game? The best rod specs differ for each type of trolling.

For example, when trolling with downriggers, you’ll want a rod that’s as long as you can handle on your boat, realistically maybe 7ft in length, and has a slow action, so it has an elongated, parabolic bend. This will help the rod absorb the energy after a strike when the downrigger releases.

When flatlining or using weights for wahoos or other big game fish, you’ll want a stout rod, about 5’6” or 6’, heavy power, with roller guides to absorb the shock that comes with fighting a big game fish.

When fishing nearshore with a high capacity trolling reel you may want a rod with a roller stripper guide to decrease the friction as the line comes off the spool since the line will sit higher than baitcasting reels.

When trolling inshore with a lighter pound class trolling reel, you can likely go with ring guides, longer length, and faster action since you’ll likely be trolling with diving lures and flatlines on the surface and landing smaller fish.

Trolling Rod

In this section, I’ll cover the key design features to look for in a trolling rod, specifically one that is used with trolling leads, diving lures, surface lures, spoons, and nearly any other setup except deep drop, kayak, and downrigger rods. Each of those types of rods have differences that are necessary to point out in their own section at the bottom of this article.

Trolling Rod Length

The length of your trolling rod is a key feature to consider. On a boat, the longest trolling rod you’ll probably want is about 7 – 8ft. Most likely you’ll cap out at 7 ft, but you could push to 8’ in a large boat. Longer rods can be used for your wide lines in your spread. The longer length can help you maneuver your rod around your motor and other rods when reeling fish in. Any longer than about 7’ will likely be too difficult to store and handle on a boat.

On the flipside, rods such as 5’9” or 6’ in length are about as short as you’ll go. These rods will give you enough backbone to help fight bigger fish nearshore or offshore. They are normally used for a flatline, or with trolling weights or diving lures. A rod of this length is usually medium to heavy power.

A typical trolling setup will have two 6 ft rods on either side of center for trolling short lines. For this one, I recommend the Star Paraflex PGSU59H model. Two 7 ft rods would be used for the wide and long lines in your spread. For this part of my spread, I use my Shimano Tallus PX rod in 7 ft length and heavy action. Those will usually sit in rod holders on the wide gunwales of the boat. One long center line could be mounted on a rail above the center console and would usually be a 7 ft rod to help keep the line away from the motor.

Trolling Rod Power

The power of a rod determines how much pressure it can handle before bending. You will rarely use light power when trolling simply because of the constant pressure put on the rod when the boat is moving. A medium power will be enough when targeting nearshore species at or around 40 lbs. You’ll want heavy power when going for strong, pelagic fish. Any time you’re planning to set your drag pretty high, I’d say about 20 lbs or more, you’ll need to be using a heavy or extra heavy rod.

Usually I have my short lines in my spread rigged up with my heaviest trolling reel and my heaviest lures. My heavier lures do better when positioned toward the center of my spread so that the lure speed stays closer to a constant speed, which is how I like to work my heavy spoons.

When trolling nearshore or offshore with a planer, you’ll for sure need a heavy or extra heavy power rod. The pressure the planer creates on the rod and line is very high and warrants the use of heavy tackle.

Trolling Rod Action

The action of a rod is a measure of how far down the rod it will bend. An extra fast action rod has a whippy tip, and a slow action rod has a parabolic bend reaching all the way down to the butt section. Extra fast action is best used for presenting light lures and sensing the bite of light fish, and slow actions are best for trolling with downriggers. Fast and moderate are somewhere in between. When nearshore or offshore fishing flatlines or weighted lines to medium to large fish, a moderate action will do well.

Trolling Rod Guides

The guide count is an important feature of rod design. The number of guides is critical to ensuring the stress on the line and the rod is evenly distributed when under load that it doesn’t cross the rod axis. Typically if you are using tackle within the ratings of the line, you shouldn’t really have issues with this. To test it out in the store, pull line through the guides to put stress on the rod and you should be able to see the line evenly distributed with a nice bend to it.

A roller stripper guide a good thing to look for when searching for a rod to pair with high line capacity reels such as the Penn International VI and Shimano Tiagra. The stripper guide is the first guide in the guide train, closest to the reel. With a high capacity trolling reel, the line will come off the reel at a higher height because of the large spool. The roller stripper guide helps to reduce the stress on the line at the point where the line enters the guide train and changes angle. The Star Aerial standup rods, models EX2050RS, EX3080RS, and EX 50100RS, all contain a roller stripper guide.

A roller tip top guide is best when big game fishing and keeping the rod in the rod holder. When the rod is in the rod holder, the line will turn at a sharp angle when a big pelagic fish strikes. The roller tip top guide helps reduce the stress on the line and your rod when this happens and can help ensure your line and rod don’t break.

Short trolling rods rating for high strength line are usually built with a full train of roller guides. This is because the stress a large pelagic fish puts on the line, rod, and reel is so strong that it requires the least amount of friction through the guides as possible. These large pelagic species will get hooked and take off with your line so fast that you’ll need the roller guides to reduce stress and heat as the line screams through the guides.

Keep in mind that roller guides have more pieces than ring guides and they’ll need to be cleaned after each use. Roller guides could also use a drop of oil after a cleaning to keep rolling smoothly.

Ring guides also need to be rinsed with clean water after use. These guides need to be routinely inspected to make sure there are no cracks or breaks on the ceramic rings. Funny story, I once noticed a broken ring guide on my friend’s rod when surf fishing and I ended up keeping the guide for the purpose of cutting fishing line. Nothing cuts a fishing line as cleanly and as quickly as a broken guide ring!

Now that you know about the different types of guides, you’re probably wondering which one you really need. If you’re doing inshore trolling, chances are you’re using diving plugs, trolling leads, flatlines and a smaller sized reel, like a 16 lb class trolling reel. When looking for a rod for this application, a full guide train of ring guides will work very well. Big game trolling for tuna or wahoo will drive the need for a full set of roller guides.  For nearshore trolling, the need is somewhere in between. You would likely opt for a roller stripper guide if you have a high line capacity reel for your long line, and ring guides with a roller tip for your deep line with a low profile baitcasting reel.

Trolling Rod Line Rating

Line rating is one of the more important specs to consider, especially if you have already chosen your reel. For example, if you plan to use the Penn International 16VISX, which has a max drag rating of 30 at strike, you’ll definitely stay under 100 lb test line, to make sure your drag at strike is set appropriately between 25-33% of your line test strength. More than likely, you’ll most often use something around 20-60 lb test braid for the fish you’ll be targeting nearshore. This info can be helpful when looking to pair your reel with the right sized rod.

Blank Construction

Rod blank construction varies among manufacturers and specific rods. Most fishing rods nowadays are made from fiberglass cloths wrapped around a mandrel which acts as a template for the different actions. There are various cloth wrapping techniques which affect how the rod bends. For example, the Spiral X technology from Shimano, wraps fiberglass cloths along the mandrel is opposite and diagonal directions, hence the name “Spiral X”. This type of technology decreases the sideways twisting of a rod under load from casting or retrieving. Rod twisting can be a difficult thing to avoid on casting rods especially because the guides are on top of the rod and naturally want to twist to come under the rod. When trolling, you’ll most likely be using trolling reels or baitcasting reels, which will be paired with conventional rods.

Butt

When shopping for an offshore trolling rod, you’ll most definitely encounter straight butt and bent butt rods. If you’re new to trolling, you’ll naturally wonder which type you should want. A bent butt rod is usually one that stays in the rod holder for trolling and for the fight. These are typically seen on the heavy power, short rods with roller guides, and feature top of the line gimbals to keep them secure in the rod holder.

A straight butt rod is good for stand up fishing where you pick up the rod and hold it after a strike. Once you pick up the reel, your fishing partner can help you get on a fighting belt or a rod butt cushion to help distribute the force of the rod on your body. I would recommend getting a bent butt rod when targeting large pelagic species or when your rod & reel is too big for your angler to handle, and a straight butt rod for everything else.

Kayak Trolling Rod

Kayak trolling rods are a different animal than trolling rods for offshore. When kayakers are trolling, they are normally doing so with the same rod and reel they’ll use for casting and are targeting smaller fish inshore. This virtually eliminates the use of short, heavy rods with big reels and roller guides.

Since kayak trolling rods are usually dual purpose for casting, a 7 ft rod is usually a good option for both objectives. Kayakers will sometimes use light lures, which are best thrown using spinning tackle. For this reason, a kayaker’s trolling eel setup is likely going to be a spinning rod about 7 ft long, a spinning reel, and a lightweight lure.  They’ll opt for a moderate or fast action to effectively work their lure when casting, and medium or light power for the smaller fish.

It likely doesn’t need to be said, but a kayak trolling rod will almost always be light duty enough to only be offered in a straight butt configuration with ring guides.

A great option for a Kayak trolling rod is the Daiwa TD SOL Inshore spinning rod. This rod features a comfortable grip, and the optimum power, action, and length for the versatility that kayak fishing demands. To learn more about inshore trolling, read our how-to article here.

Downrigger Rod

To select a proper downrigger trolling rod, you’ll need to understand how downriggers work. A downrigger is mounted as far back on your boat as you can go and still reach to clip the line. Your rod sits in a rod holder while the downrigger weight pulls the line down a specific depth. When a fish bites, the clip releases and your rod springs up to set the hook.

When the line and lure are pulled down to depth by the weight, the rod should have a nice parabolic bend to it because of the moderate to slow action and will need about 7 feet in length. When the rod springs up, you’ll want it to quickly dampen the spring motion, and moderate to slow action helps this as well.

If you’re fishing for medium to large fish, you’ll also want to make sure you get a medium to medium heavy power rod. A medium to medium heavy power rod will be stiff enough to handle larger lures and fish, but not so light that it’ll break under the heavy load of a pelagic fish. Whether you’re trolling from a kayak or a boat, knowing the weight of your crankbait and checking it against the lure rating on the rod will get you to the power you need.

Although marketed as a slow pitched jigging rod, the Tsunami Trophy Series Slow Pitch Jigging Casting Rods come in the optimum 7ft length, heavy power, and moderate-slow action for use with downriggers.

Bent Butt Rod

If you’re targeting big tuna or marlin, you should be looking at a bent butt rod. The huge stress these fish put on your rod and reel during the hookset is intense. The bent butt changes the angle that the line makes when it comes off the reel in such a way that it can better withstand those strong pulls.

Bent butt rods are meant to stay put in a rod holder or fighting chair for the entire fight. They’ll usually have a heavy duty gimbal as well to securely lock it in place. As you might imagine, since the heavy tackle is staying put in a rod holder, this can also be an ideal butt to look for when searching for something for a smaller framed person like a lady angler or young kid. The challenge with bent butt rods is storage. They don’t fit as nicely in the rocket launcher holders under the gunwales or under your T-top. Some manufacturers will offer rods with both styles of butts- straight and bent. This can improve the versatility of your rod and help solve the storage problem. Winthrop also makes a nice product with a hinge which allows the same butt to be used in a bent or straight configuration.

Bent butt rods are also typically heavy power, short, around 6 ft or 6’6, and have a full roller guide train. They are designed to help the angler reel in very large fish. It can be more difficult to reel one in with a bent butt rod because the angle of the rod favors the fish more than the angler. The Star Handcrafted StandUp rod in 5’9” length, heavy power features a 2 piece Stuart Aluminum Curved butt and Aftco Wind-on roller guides.

Now that you know a thing or two about trolling rods, check out our articles Trolling Reel Features Explained and The 2 Best Trolling Reels to find the perfect matchup. If you'd like to read about other types of fishing rods, read our article discussing types of fishing rods, here. Tight lines, y'all!