eva rod handle grips?

[mrpike1973]

starting to look at a new rod. i notice a lot of them are eva grips. i always thought this made it harder to tell if you had a fish. i thought cork was better. also alot of the rods are split grip what is the advantage of this thanks

[Brad B]

the split grip makes the rod lighter and is suppose to increase the sensitivity. I don't know if there is any truth to it or not but I once heard the world supply of cork is getting lower and high grade cork is getting hard to get and when you do the price is at a premium. eva is synthetic and is lighter and cheaper to make. if you want the greatest sensitivity you need to go to a custom built rod with a solid hard wood handle. I have built rods with all three types of materials and like cork and wood best but have used the eva on a few rods.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have a bunch of rods with EVA, I thought I was going to not like them as much.. At this point, I prefer the EVA..Lighter, easier to keep clean..

[RK]

EVA that's used today is a lot different than the cheap foam that went on rods in the past. The stuff now is actually pretty nice, at least on better quality rods.

The main reason for the move to EVA is that premium cork is getting ridiculously expensive. Lower grade cork has a lot of fillers that will wear away and fall out eventually, leaving you with a rod handle that looks like a dog's chewed on it. EVA will stay better looking longer.

As for split grips, it originally kind of started a way to save on cork, but it does reduce weight and may marginally increase sensitivity just due to there being less material on the blank.

I still prefer cork because I'm an old school curmudgeon, but I do like the EVA handles a lot more than I ever thought I would.