[Fishing Tips] How to read the Shimano Fishing Rod spec codes? - FISHING JAPANESE STYLE

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 Shimano and Daiwa are 2 big Japanese fishing brands. I could say they are now the WORLD biggest fishing brands. Especially for the mid-end to high-end fishing reels, believe they've been dominating the global market. 

 In this article, I'll explain how to read the Shimano Fishing Rod (Bass rods) spec code.


 This rod is Shimano Scorpion 1581F-2. What does "1581F-2" mean?

 We can factorize the code into these 5 parts. 

 [1] - [58] - [1] - [F] - [-2]

 Type  [1]
  • The first number means the rod type.
    • 1: Baitcasting rod.
    • 2: Spinning rod.
 Length  [58]
  • The next 2 digits "58" means 5 feet 8 inches.
    • When the rod is 6 feet 10 inches, this can be "610", 3 digits.
    • When the rod length is over 10 feet, it can be 3 digits, too.
 Power  [1]
  • This number describes the rod power. This rod has the number "1" which means this rod is 'Light Power".
    • 0: Ultra Light
    • 1: Light
    • 2: Medium Light
    • 3: Medium
    • 4: Medium-Heavy
    • 5: Heavy
    • 6: Extra Heavy
* Some of the rods use the alphabets like H, MH, M, L, UL instead of numbers. 
 Action  [F]
  • This alphabet explains the action. F means Fast action.
    • R: Regular moderate
    • F: Fast
    • FF: Ex-Fast
    • S: Slow
* Some of the rods don't have this in their model numbers.
 Pieces  [-2]
  •  The last "-2" tells us this rod is a 2 pieces rod. This is optional. When this is a one-piece rod, there would not be any numbers.
* Some of the rods don't have this in their model numbers.

 
 Please note that
  • For the Saltwater rod, Shimano has another structure. 
  • The above descriptions are just a basic structure for their JDM Bass rods. Some of the rods may not follow this way. For example, Shimano Expride has similar spec numbers but it's slightly different. But almost all rods follow at least the first three rules.  [Type] - [Length] - [Power].


 I hope this article helps you!



 Thank you!
 Angler Waki.

Location: California, USA

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