Depending on where you are at with experience when you’re outside fishing, you’ve probably asked yourself what you can do to boost your performance, and where you can find the best baitcasting rod to assist you with this goal.
A baitcasting rod will bring you better control with your casts and a faster retrieve, but so many are available for purchase nowadays, how do you know that you’re really buying the best baitcasting rod when you plan to fork out the money for one?
To help you, we've created this article which contains a list of what we consider to be the best baitcasting rods.
The Entsport 2-Piece 7ft Casting Rod is designed to bring you a lightweight and durable rod constructed with solid carbon fiber. It’s also made to be corrosion resistant while it provides increased sensitivity so you have more control while fishing with this rod.
The Shakespeare 6.5ft Ugly Stik Casting Rod, like Entsport’s 2-Piece 7 ft Casting Rod, is also made to be both durable and lightweight, but it’s made out of graphite and fiberglass. The graphite and fiberglass material is designed to make the Shakespeare nearly indestructible, but the Shakespeare’s sensitivity is not as strong as Entsport’s model.
The Fiblink 4 Piece Travel Casting Rod is also made to be lightweight and durable, like the Entsport and Shakepeare rods, but is made out of solid carbon fiber material. It’s corrosion
resistant and comes with an excellent handle feature to add both comfortability and control to your fishing.
Entsport 2-Piece 7ft Casting Rod
Entsport’s 2-Piece 7ft Casting Rod brings you a lightweight and durable rod that’s made to be structurally solid because of its carbon fiber construction. The carbon fiber material on Entsport’s rod makes it a very strong rod, but it’s also sensitive enough to increase your control level.
With the Entsport 2-Piece 7ft Casting Rod, you’ll get a selection of two top pieces that offer different power options, either the 2-piece travel design or the 7-inch carbon casting fishing rod. Both come with the durability and functionality you’ll desire to help boost your fishing potential.
The full-contact reel seat on the Entsport 2-Piece 7ft Casting Rod is made with corrosion
resistant aluminum hoods. The corrosion resistant guides on the Entsport are also spaced out to provide you with an easy line flow, and efficient casting control and sensitivity.
The handle design offered by the Entsport 2-Piece 7ft Casting Rod is also made for maximum
comfort and control. You won’t experience hand fatigue as often with this rod while you’re out on the water.
This rod provides you with medium-heavy power with a recommended line strength of 10 - 20 lbs and lure weights between 0.1-1.1 oz.
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Shakespeare 6.5ft Ugly Stik Casting Rod
Shakespeare’s 6.5ft. Ugly Stik Casting Rod is an affordable choice for anglers with a wide variety of skill sets and experience levels. This rod is dependable, and it offers a lightweight durability that’s composed from graphite and fiberglass.
The graphite and fiberglass used to make the Shakespeare rod makes the rod evenly balanced and powerful, and it’s very difficult to break this rod. In fact, the Shakespeare 6.5ft Ugly Stik Casting Rod is nearly unbreakable, making it a rod that’s built to last.
Shakespeare’s 6.5ft Ugly Stick Casting Rod also comes with a Clear Tip design that is very sensitive when responding to nibbles. It’s reel seat is made from corrosion resistant stainless steel hoods so you won’t have to worry about rust.
The handle on the rod is a comfortable, lightweight EVA grip that’s easy to hold, and is designed to reduce hand fatigue for long fishing trips. Plus, the overall appearance of the rod is also sleek and eye-catching, making it both stylish and effective.
Another nice feature that comes with Shakespeare’s rod is the versatility of line that you can use while fishing. This rod is made to handle all types of line, so you’ll never be at a loss for knowing what you can and can’t use while fishing with it.
This rod provides you with medium, medium-heavy, and heavy power with a recommended line strength of 10 - 25 lbs and lure weights between 0.25- 0.75 oz.
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Fiblink 4 Piece Travel Casting Rod
Fiblink’s 4 Piece Travel Casting Rod is made to be both lightweight and durable, bringing you an easy-to-assemble travel rod that’s very portable and great for people that hike while fishing. Made with strong carbon fiber construction, the Fiblink is one strong pole, and should provide you with hours of fun fishing while you are out in the great outdoors.
One nice extra feature this Fiblink rod brings you is its multi-purpose hook holder, which makes it very easy to hold, store, and find the hooks you want to use while you fish. The reel seat on the Fiblink rod is also made with corrosion resistant stainless steel hoods with stainless steel frames and ceramic inserts, all of which make this rod both sensitive and durable.
The handle of the Fiblink 4 Piece Travel Casting Rod is made to be comfortable and comes with an ultra-premium-grade cork grip design. This cork grip is made to help you not only grip the rod better so you have more control, but it also provides more comfort so you won’t experience hand strain.
The sensitivity of the Fiblink 4 Piece Travel Casting Rod is enhanced with graphite, making it both easy to control and efficient when you get a nibble at the end of your line. You’ll probably enjoy both the versatility and flexibility of Fiblink’s 4 Piece Travel Casting Rod.
Fiblink's rod provides you with medium and medium-heavy power with a recommended line strength of 12 - 20 lbs and lure weights between 0.25- 0.62 oz.
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What Should I Consider When Looking for The Best Baitcasting Rod?
Rod Guides
When selecting the best baitcasting rod, you’ll want to examine the rod guides, which are the rings found on the length of the rod. The rod guides affect the rod’s ability to cast and retrieve.
Most manufacturers use one rod guide for every foot of rod length, but the more guides a rod has, the smoother your casting will feel. However, they still need to be made out of quality material to perform well, so if you have several low-quality guides on your pole, you won’t receive the same benefit as having several high quality guides.
Most rod guides nowadays are composed out of silicon and titanium carbides since these materials are strong and lightweight. However, these are high-quality materials usually saved for more expensive rods.
A more affordable material option that still performs well is alconite, which is formed from a base material of aluminum oxide. Alconite rod guides are often just as smooth and durable as silicon and titanium rod guides, but cost far less.
Recommended Line Strength
The line strength on each rod is also an important factor to consider depending on the style of fishing you plan to do.
You need to make sure you stick with the line strength the rod manufacturer suggests so that you get not only the best performance out of the rod, but also so that you don’t overload your rod and break it.
Rod Power
The rod’s power tells you the style of fishing you can perform with your new fishing rod. Ratings typically run from light to medium to medium heavy to heavy.
Light rods are typically only good for freshwater fishing of smaller fish.
Medium, medium to heavy, and heavy rods give you more options to fish in saltwater, and for medium to large fish.
Rod Action
The rod’s action rating will tell you much about the flexibility, sensitivity, and durability of the rod. Most rods should be flexible and bendable for good performance levels, and the better the action level on the rod, the more sensitivity, flexibility, and durability you’ll receive.
Rod Size
The size of the rod you select is also important. Different sizes of rods are made to be utilized in different fishing environments.
Typically, the shorter the rod, the closer to shore you’ll have to cast. Rods that are around seven feet long will require casting close to shore. So if you want to cast farther from shore, you’re going to want a longer rod.
Frame
The quality of frame material is also an important feature when it comes to selecting the best baitcasting rod.
An alloy or graphite frame is a more standard type frame and also costs less, but it tends to be weaker than an aluminum frame.
Graphite frames also tend to be lighter, while aluminum frames tend to be more medium in weight. With an aluminum frame you’ll get more strength and the rod will be heavier but it will also cost you more.
Fiberglass frames are another option but they also tend to be heavier, but more durable.
Conclusion
The Shakespeare 6.5ft Ugly Stik Casting Rod emerges as the winner of this best baitcasting rod round-up. With its affordability, durability, and nearly break-proof construction, it offers high-quality materials to extend its life and also help you perform better while you fish.
In comparison to the Entsport 2-Piece 7ft Casting Rod and the Fiblink 4 Piece Travel Casting Rod, Shakespeare’s rod is versatile when it comes to skillset as well as line. We also like it’s sensitivity when responding to nibbles, and its stylish appearance.
We also like the lightweight EVA grip that comes with the Shakespeare rod, since it’s easy to hold and meant to reduce hand fatigue. Plus, the control the Shakespeare rod provides you with should boost your performance on all of your fishing trips.
