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Rod Design - Rod Weights

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I know I should keep my big mouth shut but this weight stuff, eighth ounces and such, is pretty silly. Our rods weigh so little that shaving a once or two really doesn't make any difference. My mouse on my computer weighs more than my fly rod, I use it all day and it doesn't make my arm tired or make me want to shave off an once or two. I carry around 8' and 9' foot fly rods on the rivers all day and the only part of me that gets tired is my legs from climbing over all the rocks and fighting the current. It's not like we are casting rods that weigh pounds.  (Patrick Coffey)

No, I think maybe you misunderstand what I have been trying to say.  I haven't been talking about wear and tear on the poor, blighted fisherman.  I've been trying to point out something about weight and the action of a rod.  And ounces certainly DO matter.

To grant you your point, it is possible that one may not be able to detect how much they matter, and in that case the issue would be purely academic (even moot).  But, if undetectable, the added weight would be a fuction of the design capability of the rod in question, and not of your general assumption that ounces don't matter.

As a luthier, surely you would agree that even fractions of an ounce (and their distribution) matter in a violin, and that they matter even more in the bow.  Now, an added ounce or two in a cello or bass would matter considerably less, while the action of any bow (whether for violin or bass) remains critically related to weight and distribution.  (Bill Harms)

In violin making we don't weigh the instrument, it doesn't mean anything. As in rod making it's not the weight that matters it's the modulus of stiffness and that it totally dependent on the stiffness of the power fibers whether we're dealing with bamboo or Sitka spruce. No two violins are the same, each is adjusted to match the material and tested with what we call a tap tone which is a audio reading of how stiff the material is, the stiffer the thinner the softer the thicker. That was the real secret of Strad., his ability to adjust the thickness of the material to match the stiffness of the material for optimum sound production. Sometimes I get the feeling that the differences in the tapers for particular models from the old makers was them adjusting the taper to match the material they had. No two pieces of wood are the same and now two pieces of bamboo are the same even if the come from the same plant.  (Patrick Coffey)