30 Pound Rod - What does that mean?

[akroper]

Please pardon my ignorance.  I know next to nothing about conventional salt water gear. I have a nice mint Golden Sabre rod, Aftco rollers and Varmac seat, that says "IGFA 30 Pound" on the lower part of the rod.  That is the only marking on the rod other than the Golden Sabre decal.  There is no indication of lure weight or line weight range.  What does the IGFA 30 pound designation mean?  I'd like to give this to my grandson who is starting to do some saltwater fishing.  This weekend he caught a 73 inch, 205 pound halibut on borrowed gear.  Would this rod be appropriate to fish say 60 to 80 pound dacron for similar halibut and big ling cod?

[Keta]

30# means it is designed to work best with 30# line.  This rod is too lite for anything over 40# line.

I personaly fished 50/60 pound line for SE halibut (my home port was Ketchikan)  and I never felt the need to go heavier.  I would recomend a 6.5'-7' rod rated 40-60 pounds.  No rollers or just a roller top.

[jurelometer]

[Edit - I was typing this at the same time as Lee.  I am going to keep this post as it dives into a bit more detail on IGFA rating, but I defer to Lee's opinion on suitability for this particular rod]

The 30 lb IGFA rating means that the manufacturer claims that the rod is suitable for tournament fishing with tournament line that is designed to break just  below 30 lbs.  All rollers means it was intended for trolling, which means it is on the beefy side for a rod that was designed to fish 30lb mono. 

Back in the day, rod companies would sometimes put an IGFA rating on their high-end rods to imply that this is the good stuff that tournament fisherman use.  There were a lot more IGFA labeled rods than there were tournament fisherman.

You can probably get a better idea for its suitability for halibut fishing by loading it up and see if it has any backbone left at your preferred drag setting, but originally, they were expecting something around 10 lbs of drag at strike.  This should be a pretty tough rod, especially compared to modern  carbon fiber.

The length of the rod matters too.  Too long a rod makes for a lot of leverage working against you.  The easiest thing to do is to compare the rod length and the shape of the bending under load curve against another rod known to be suitable.   

-J

[akroper]

Thank you for the replies and the education.  Mr. Lee, why do you suggest no rollers for a suitable rod for my grandson?  Are there drawbacks to rollers?

My grandson's name is Fisher, and he lives up to it.  He was born at the tail end of our local salmon season.  If he had been eight or ten days later, at the beginning of moose season,  his dad was going to name him Hunter.

[Keta]

Extra weight and more things that can break.

Modern guide inserts are more than capable of handeling Spectra.  For vertical fishing a roller top is helpful but not needed.

[jurelometer]

More good advice from Lee. 

Some more details: Rollers will still work fine. It is just that the expense and maintenance requirements make them less desirable on most modern rod builds, so we don't see them much any more.

Regarding rod strength/backbone: For your fishery, mostly what you care about is lifting the fish. Any bend that comes and goes as you lift up and down is wasted energy spent bending/unbending the rod without contributing to lifting the fish. 

Normally the tip half will stay at the same bend and the butt half will bend and unbend a little as you pump the fish in.  A butt half that bends too much is inefficient.  You are getting plenty of exercise, but not lifting that 200 lb halibut much. As long as the butt doesn't bend too much, and the rod is not too long, you will be fine.

Over time, what is considered the "right" sized rod for bait and drop jigging for sport (not loading up the freezer) continues to get less beefy.  In part, this is because modern braid allows for much smaller lighter reels, and folk are experimenting with lighter rods.  The technique for winding in a big fish with this gear is different: pumping the rod less, and using a two speed reel in low gear and/or a long reel handle arm to allow for winding under greater load with less effort.  The reel does more lifting and the rod a lot less.  Some folk find this to be more fun.  These lighter setups are nicer for more active jigging techniques that have also evolved a lot recently.  I see that it is catching on a bit up where you fish, even with the strong currents that you endure.

I would still check with other folk that fish halibut in your area and see what they think about the Sabre.  The rod may be plenty good enough for now, and your grandson may want to eventually get into the lighter modern stuff as his fishing evolves.  Even if it is a bit light for jumbo halibut, it might be a good rod lingcod and the halibut spots that are mostly medium sized fish.

If you check the posts here from member gstours, you will find a wealth of information.  Gary fishes for halibut in SE Alaska and likes to experiment with various rod and reel builds.  He likes to carry a whole quiver of rods for varying conditions.

-J

[Benni3]

Fisher getting the big 1s,,, the old fiberglass rods work great "broomsticks" 80lb or 130lb yard sales,pawn shop,ebay,,,,,,

[Gobi King]

I have landed many red, chinook etc with a $8.88 glass 5.5ft 2pcs rod from Wally's.

I would fly in with reels with braid and some mono leader and swing by Wally's and pickup 2 of these cheapo rods.

I would focus on your need to cast bait and forearm length to use the rod on a rail or under arm etc.

All these number can be dizzying, I try to match the oz rating to jig weight

[Hardy Boy]

I have a 30 lb IGFA roller rod. It's glass. I use it for deep dropping up to 1400 feet with 1 kg of weight..... it handles it fine. Give it a go .... see what happens. Goid luck.

Todd