well, I would love to tell you we have this nailed down but, I don't believe we have.
I'm alot closer than I was a month ago though.
When I first got a soft plastics rod nearly 12 years ago now, it was awesome but, to be fair, we knew little to F all about it.
I've caught hundreds of fish on sluggo's, curly tailed worms etc but, mostly when fish were having it.
Now of course, I have the Injection (brilliant rod btw) that is great with 5g + slug bait etc but...
go to on the drop fishing with smaller jigheads and finesse stuff and the Injection is out of its depth.
Not a reflection of the rod, more the technique. I now know why those US Bass pro's have over a dozen rods on the boats.
Matching rod, line, bait and jig weight is CRITICAL !
For the lighter stuff I'm using my Cormoran ULX but, I have realised, I need an inbetween rod, maybe 2 to really cover
the weight range, bait range and depth/current ranges we experience from 40ft of water to 18" of faster flowing stuff.
1 rod might do alot but, you'll not notice it's limitations until you play about a bit.
I would honestly suggest anyone looking for a decent SP rod to consider all the above and get a rod rated for a tight weight range
as opposed to a wide one. Wide range rods might cut it for plugging but not, imho, for soft plastics.
8lb braid, 3" slug, 8ft rod, 25ft of water and a 7g head might be perfect on one rod and on another, useless.
I can tell you, getting a rod with FEEL is vital.
Ok, to get feel you can up the jighead weight, use thinner line, etc.
That is fine but...
Most takes are on the drop IME. Not all, but most.
If the fish are intercepting falling baits, they can feel the jig weight and expel it so quick, you get little time to react.
Using soft baits and or scents helps but, ultimately, the fall rate matters. Fish can feel the weight of bait.
So you need a rod that allows contact and control on the jighead range you are most likely to use.
I'm finding 3.5 -7g the most used range. Of course, that is head weight, not overall including the plastic weight.
But, I can and do use 1g heads too. Even the ULX looses contact with a 1.5" grub on a 1g head. However, so far we are
making do but, I can assure you, a 0.5 - 4g rated rod with 4lb braid WOULD show bites the ULX cannot.
So, choose very carefully and match the gear closely. Yes, most rods will of course multitask but, you will start to
compromise take detection either side of the optimum range.
The trick for now, especially in the salt for a myriad of new, unfished for species is to determine what is needed.
I'm finding this discovery magnetic re: It's attraction to hold my interest. SP fishing is at a skill level quite a number
of notches above the chuck it and wind brigade plugger. No disrespect to that style but alot of guys would reap
a ton of confidence learning the basics of real SP fishing.
Sorry for the long post but as people want to get into this stuff it is important not to leap too fast. Do it, oh yea, do it
for sure but it's about feeling the bites. Without that feeling a huge percentage of takes will go un-noticed.
Hope this actually helps and doesn't confuse.
