Decide a casting rod vs a spinning rod by the lure you tie on, not by the reel you prefer. Weigh your working lures in grams, convert them to ounces, and read the rod's published lure rating. The number that limits you is the spinning rod's ceiling. On the Daiwa Tatula XT spinning rods we opened, that ceiling is 3/4 oz = 21.3 g. The casting rods in the same series, at the same $99.99, go to 1 1/2 oz = 42.5 g. If your lures are heavier than the spinning ceiling, only the casting side of that series covers them.
So the order is: weigh the lures, convert them, find the rod whose published lure rating brackets them, and if nothing in your budget brackets them, change the rod type rather than the brand. That is the whole decision. The rest of this page is the field data that makes it checkable, and one finding that contradicts the usual advice: "casting for heavy, spinning for light" is only half true. Across the 3 rod series we found where both sides publish a lure rating, the casting side reached heavier lures in 2, was identical in 1, and was lighter in 0.
Every figure below was read off a retailer page we opened on 2026-10-09. The source page for each row is in the downloadable table, and the sections below name the retailer and the page for each number.
A rod's lure rating is a number the manufacturer publishes on the rod, and it is the number that tells you whether a 3/8 oz (10.6 g) jig will load the blank. A reel has no equivalent published figure. When you compare a baitcaster to a spinning reel you are comparing feel and casting mechanics. When you compare a casting rod to a spinning rod you are comparing published ranges, and those can be checked.
That is the gap this page fills. We opened rod product pages at 8 retailers on 2026-10-09 and recorded the model, length, action, power, line rating, lure rating and price for every rod listed on them, converting each imperial figure to metric with the exact factors. 90 rows came back.
Download the 90-row spec table (CSV)
Columns: retailer, family, rod type, model, length (ft-in and metres), action, power, line rating (lb and kg), lure rating (oz and grams), price, source page URL, collection date, and a note column that says which fields the retailer does not publish.
Empty cells mean the retailer does not publish that value. They are not zeros and they are not estimates.
The conversions are built into the file. The factors are exact by definition, from the 1959 international yard and pound agreement:
grams = ounces x 28.349523125kilograms = pounds x 0.45359237metres = feet x 0.3048, plus inches x 0.0254Rounding is applied only at the last step, to one decimal for grams and three for kilograms.
This is the cleanest comparison in the table, because Discount Tackle lists the casting and spinning versions of one series on two pages, at one price.
| Daiwa Tatula XT casting | Daiwa Tatula XT spinning | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 11 | 6 |
| Price | $99.99 | $99.99 |
| Line rating span | 5 to 30 lb (2.27 to 13.61 kg) | 6 to 17 lb (2.72 to 7.71 kg) |
| Lure rating span | 0.0625 to 1.5 oz (1.8 to 42.5 g) | 0.125 to 0.75 oz (3.5 to 21.3 g) |
Source: discounttackle.com, product pages "Daiwa Tatula XT Casting Rods" and "Daiwa Tatula XT Spinning Rods", opened 2026-10-09. Both pages show $99.99 for every model.
Read the last row. The spinning rods in this series top out at 0.75 oz = 21.3 g. The casting rods go to 1.5 oz = 42.5 g. If your lures weigh more than 21.3 g, the spinning option in this series does not cover them at any price, and the casting option at the same $99.99 does. That is the decision, and you cannot make it without converting the units, because the shelf label and the lure packet are printed in different systems.
The casting side also spreads wider on length: it runs from 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) to 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m), while the spinning side sits between 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) and 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m).
Not every series splits the way the Tatula does, and that matters. KastKing publishes a full spec table on both product pages, so the two sides can be compared line by line.
| Kestrel Finesse casting | Kestrel Finesse spinning | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 8 | 7 |
| Price | $89.99 / $92.99 | $89.99 |
| Line rating span | 1 to 12 lb (0.45 to 5.44 kg) | 1 to 8 lb (0.45 to 3.63 kg) |
| Lure rating span | 0.015625 to 0.625 oz (0.4 to 17.7 g) | 0.015625 to 0.625 oz (0.4 to 17.7 g) |
Source: kastking.com, product pages "Kestrel Finesse Casting Rod" and "Kestrel Finesse Spinning Rod", opened 2026-10-09.
The lure span is identical on both sides: 0.015625 to 0.625 oz (0.4 to 17.7 g). In this finesse class the rod type does not change which lures you can throw, so choosing between them on lure weight is pointless. The casting side stops one step higher on line (12 lb vs 8 lb), and that is the only published difference.
Shimano Insurgence Inshore rods are sold at Melton Tackle. The casting page prints a lure rating for every model. The spinning page for the same series prints no lure rating at all.
| Insurgence Inshore casting | Insurgence Inshore spinning | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 3 | 10 |
| Line rating published | 3 of 3 (braided) | 10 of 10 (braided) |
| Lure rating published | 3 of 3 | 0 of 10 |
Source: meltontackle.com, product pages "Shimano Insurgence Inshore Casting Rods" and "Shimano Insurgence Inshore Spinning Rods", opened 2026-10-09. Both pages show $329.99 for the variant selected on the page; per-variant prices are not displayed until a variant is chosen.
The casting page gives lure ratings of 3/16 to 3/8 oz (5.3 to 10.6 g), 1/4 to 3/4 oz (7.1 to 21.3 g) and 3/8 to 1 oz (10.6 to 28.3 g). The spinning page gives you nothing to compare them to. If you are choosing between these two rods, the casting side is the only one you can check a lure against.
Across the 90 rows in the table, from 8 retailers:
The lure rating is the number you need most and the one that is missing most often. The split is not random: Discount Tackle published it on 30 of its 30 rows and KastKing on 30 of 30, while RodLocker published a line rating on all 11 of its Dobyns Sierra rows and a lure rating on 0 of them, and the Academy Shimano SLX page published neither. A retailer that omits the lure rating is not telling you the rod cannot throw your lure, only that you cannot check.
These are the two ladders you need at the shelf. Both are computed, not rounded by eye.
| Lure, fraction | Lure, decimal oz | Metric | oz x 28.349523125 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/16 oz | 0.0625 oz | 1.8 g | 1.77 |
| 1/8 oz | 0.125 oz | 3.5 g | 3.54 |
| 3/16 oz | 0.1875 oz | 5.3 g | 5.32 |
| 1/4 oz | 0.25 oz | 7.1 g | 7.09 |
| 3/8 oz | 0.375 oz | 10.6 g | 10.63 |
| 1/2 oz | 0.5 oz | 14.2 g | 14.17 |
| 3/4 oz | 0.75 oz | 21.3 g | 21.26 |
| 1 oz | 1 oz | 28.3 g | 28.35 |
| 1 1/2 oz | 1.5 oz | 42.5 g | 42.52 |
| 2 oz | 2 oz | 56.7 g | 56.7 |
| Line, lb | Metric |
|---|---|
| 4 lb | 1.814 kg |
| 6 lb | 2.722 kg |
| 8 lb | 3.629 kg |
| 10 lb | 4.536 kg |
| 12 lb | 5.443 kg |
| 17 lb | 7.711 kg |
| 20 lb | 9.072 kg |
| 30 lb | 13.608 kg |
Factors are exact by definition (1959 international yard and pound agreement). The fourth column shows the unrounded product so you can check the arithmetic.
Two rows in the table carry a value we do not believe, and they are marked rather than silently corrected:
It cannot tell you what a rod feels like, and it cannot tell you which of these rods catches more fish. Lure rating is a manufacturer's published range, not a measurement we took. Prices are what the page displayed on 2026-10-09 and may have changed since. And two of the eight retailers we opened could only be reached as category pages, so their rows carry a price and no specifications at all.
If a rod you are considering is not in the table, it is because we did not open its page. Send the URL and we will add the row with the date we read it.
The rod type does not decide your lure range. The published lure rating does, and the rod type only correlates with it. Across the 3 series where both sides published a lure rating, the casting side reached heavier lures in 2 and was identical in 1. So weigh your lures, convert them to the unit on the rod label, and read the bracket. If the bracket does not fit, change the rod type.
Once the rod type is settled, the next question is which casting rod. Reading a baitcasting rod covers the power, action and lure weight ratings printed on the blank, and how to match them to the lures you actually throw.