I have all my life been an open faced spin casting guy. I have seen many threads saying something on the line, "Bait casting rod" or "Spin casting rod"

What makes a rod spin cast vs bait cast. I know the difference in reels of course but how about the rod. Different mounting hardware?? Different grip??

Sound to me like a stupid question but I thought you could put any reel on any rod as long as you were confortable with it.

As far as I know, the main difference between the two rods are the eyes. Baitcastng Rods have smaller eyes that are facing upwards. Spincasting Rods have larger eyes that get smaller as they go towards the end. I don't know if the rods are made up differently internaly, maybe someone else can answer that. I do mix and match the rod and reels somtimes. I have a spincasting rod with a baitcasting reels on it for my trout fishing, and it works great.

Bait casting rods are made for the small revolving spool reels that guys swear at when the line overrevs and tangles. They have small guides, and are meant to be used with the reel on the top of the rod.

Spinning rods have fixed spool reels that guys swear at when the line gets all twisted up and tangles. The reel is meant to be used below the rod, and the guides are larger to allow casting with the line streaming off the end of the spool.

Hope that helps.

There's no difference in rod blanks. When I started building my own rods,I asked the same question. You can make a blank into spinning or casting,it doesn't make a difference.

So when you're shopping for a blank and they list them separately as spinning or casting, that's just a marketing gimmick?

When building rods, I always determine the backbone of the blank. Look down the blank as you rotate it, and you will notice an upward turn at the tip. On spinning rods, I place the guides under the backbone and on casting they go on top. I believe that is the only difference.

I bought all my supplies at Greg's in Lake Stevens,when I asked him about this,he said as long as the rod is suitable for what your fishing for it makes no difference. I've gone back and looked at his catalog and some of the rods are listed per style. I think it has to do with the action and style of rod your gonna build. If you want a 5' UL rod they probably figure you're not gonna build it as a casting rod,so they list it as a spinning blank?

I don't know for sure,but if a guy that's built 100's of custom rods says it doesn't make a difference,I'll believe him.

Something I'm not sure about in your post, or in the responses, is whether or not you're wanting to talk about "spin casting", as you mentioned, or "spinning", which from my perspective are two separate things.

Spinning rods - large guides at the reel end, smaller towards the tip, to accomodate the spiraling of line off the open spool .

Spin CASTING reels are sort of a hybrid, basically with a spinning reel with a housing over the spool and an exit hole for the line to run out of. You could get by with a bait casting rod for these, but I think the packages some of us buy for our kids actually come with a rod built like a baitcaster but with some of the oversized guides, mounted on top.

Also, bait casters and spin casters both mount with guides on top and a trigger grip (or whatever you call it) underneath the reel seat for more leverage when casting.

I hope this helps....it confused the hell out of me when I wrote it.

I was thinking something along that line just by checking them out but thanks to everyone who actually cleared it up for me.

Could it be that blanks being id'd as spin/casting has to do with the style of the handle? I'm sure that any blank can be made into either. I've known a number of folks who have used fly blanks for spinning rods. BTW if anyone is interested in getting into rod building this is an excellent site: rod building