What the convention boils down to
A rod prints a range in grams — German listings call it Wurfgewicht — and it states the weight the blank is built to throw. The corpus shows the whole spread: 2–7 g and 3–14 g on light lure rods, 5–20 g and 20–60 g on general spinning rods, 60–90 g on an allrounder, 0–120 g and 0–220 g on feeder rods, 100–250 g on surf rods, 150–400 g and 200–600 g on boat rods.
It is a band, not a maximum. A rod works inside it and does neither of the two things it is for outside it.
No body defines the method. Like the test curve, it is a maker’s figure on a maker’s basis.
What it does not promise
It does not promise a casting distance, which depends on the line, the reel and the person.
It does not promise that two rods with the same range feel alike; the action — where the blank bends — is not in the figure and is rarely published.
It has nothing to say about the line the rod suits, which several makers print separately and many do not.
And on a combo it does not describe the reel. A rod rated 5–20 g sold with a 2000-size reel is two specifications, and the listing sometimes gives only one.
Where it shows up on this site
On every rod shelf, and on every lure shelf as the figure the lure has to fit. That is the site’s single most repeated compatibility check: a 14,5 g wobbler on a 3–14 g rod is a lure that cannot be cast, and a 16-piece trout spoon set at 2,5–5 g is unfishable on a 20–60 g pike rod.
It is read alongside the reel size, because a rod and a reel are balanced by weight rather than by brand.
How it is read here
A page prints the range as the maker printed it, with its hyphen and its unit, and never rounds or widens it. Where a lure page states a weight, the rod range is what it is read against.
Nothing is derived. A rod that prints no range is reported as printing none, and the page does not infer one from the length or the price.
The questions that keep coming back
What happens if I cast outside the range?
Below it the blank does not load, so the cast is short and the rod feels dead. Above it the rod bends further down than it was designed to and the cast becomes unpleasant before it becomes dangerous. The range is the working band, not a limit with a safety margin.
Does the range include the weight of the bait?
It includes everything the rod throws. On a feeder rod that means the feeder and the groundbait packed around it, which is why a rod rated to 120 g is not a rod for a 120 g feeder.
Is the range comparable between makers?
Loosely. There is no published method, so each house sets its own band — but the figure is concrete enough, and printed often enough, that it remains the most useful specification on the rod shelves.
What if a listing gives no casting weight?
Then the page says so. On this corpus that is rare on spinning and feeder rods and more common on rods sold as part of a combo, where the listing leans on the reel instead.
Last reviewed 22 September 2026