The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of the graphene oxide (GO) and Au nanorod(AuNR) hybrid (GO-AuNR) has been investigated by using the rhodamine 6G (R6G) as Raman active probe. Because of the existence of CTAB in the GO-AuNR substrate, the electronic transition efficiency has been greatly increased, which results in the significant improvement of SERS activity. A non-monotonous intensity change of SERS as a function of longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (SPR) wavelength has also been observed, which has been attributed to the aspect ratio-dependent competition between SPR and lightning rod effect. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.