Advise on rods

[copie]

Hi all was looking at some rods today at bcf Daiwa TDT and Crest both spin rods. What I want to know is when a rod has a line rating such as 3-5kg or 4-8kg what does this realy mean. Should you only use line at a maximum of 5 or 8 kg.
What if you have a reel with 20lb braid and maybe use 15lb leader. Looking at one of the new Daiwa freams reels and would like to load it with 20lb braid, use it for plastics, floating pillies, squid and maybe a livey.

Thanks Mark

[rosco1974]

mate i normally just use this as a safe breaking strain of the rod..my 5-9 veritas i have 30lb braid on it caught tuna to 11kg on it and it never broke it..i think they rate the rods under what they can withstand...i looked at the 4000 freams the other day but decided to get the 5000fj stradic instead as my old 5000fi model worked well for floatling offshore...the new stradic had a bit more drag then the freams but the freams had more line capacity...got 300mtrs of 30lb whiplash on the stradic
cheers rosco