Not the guides, the glass

I have one, a genuine Shakespere Ugly Stick, that I must have picked up at a garage sale somewhere. That extra ridge of glass or graphite cloth wrap is left on for strength - on most rods it is ground off for looks but I guess they wanted the Ugly Stick to live up to it's advertised strength (this is the one you used to see doubled back on itself in ads to demonstrate it's strength). Don't know why I got the thing other than it was probably cheap. When I do fish for bass I prefer to use my steelhead rod (they call them flippin' sticks in the tournament circuit but they are really steelhead rod blanks - got a long story about that I may relate some time ). Anyway, about all I have used this for is jigging herring - it will lift a half-dozen Westport horse herring right out of the water just fine thank you Other than that it casts somewhat like a piece of whippy bamboo - 'bout as sensitive too :p I suppose a nice beefy spiral wrap rod would make a good halibut or sturgeon pole, and it would probably take banging around in the boat better in the long run, but for anything other than that I'd stick to smooth and sensitive