A fishing rod or a fishing pole is a long, flexible length of fiberglass, carbon fiber, graphite or, classically, bamboo, used to catch fish.
In contrast with subsistence and commercial fishing, which usually involve nets, fishing rods are typically used in the sports of angling and competitive casting.
At its simplest, a fishing rod is a simple stick or pole with a line ending in a hook (formerly known as an angle, hence the term angling). To entice fish bait or lures may be added. To aid in playing a fish more line, stowed on a reel, is common.
Fishing rods vary in flexibility and length, varying between 24 inches and 20 feet. The longer the rod, the greater the mechanical advantage in casting.
Read more about Fishing Rod: History, Modern Design, Rod Making Bench, Specifications
Famous quotes containing the words fishing and/or rod:
“It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to write, nothing to infer. But our wiser years still run back to the despised recollections of childhood, and always we are fishing up some wonderful article out of that pond; until, by and by, we begin to suspect that the biography of the one foolish person we know is, in reality, nothing less than the miniature paraphrase of the hundred volumes of the Universal History.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Alas,
For the tireless heart within the little
Lady with rod that made them rise
From their noon apple-dreams, and scuttle
Goose-fashion under the skies!”
—John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)