Had a rod come in yesterday afternoon that was broken in five pieces on the first fish he ever hooked on it, or so the story goes. It doesn't matter as I will replace it under my no questions asked policy, this time. Forever more he will get no more "Freebees". My question to all of you out there in rodland is have you ever seen a rod break in many pieces like this at the same time? This was a six and a half foot graphite casting rod that he was using for "TOG FISHING" [Wreck fishing] which is a bit on the lite side for this type of fishing. Goes to show you never know how a rod's going to be used/abused once it's out of your sight. Jesse

J Man - he probably had to break it in that many pieces to fit in his glove compartment to keep from letting his wife seeing it and letting her know that you had his cash! Was the price tag still attached? She caught him and now he needs the money for an alimony payment.

I had one come in this past summer broken in three places. Not one of my rods, fortunately, and the guy wanted it fixed. I was able to repair it, but it looked a little weird with all the sleeves.

This was freshwater spinning rod that it turns out the guy uses in Alaska for Salmon fishing. It is way too light for that sort of fishing. I'l Probably see it again mext summer.

Joe Douglas

Actually, such breakage is often indication of a true manufacturing defect. Often, when a rod breaks, the resulting shock vibration that immediately ensues causes several more breakages almost instantaniously.

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I say my dad break an "off the shelf" rod when setting the hook on what turned out to be a stump or something. It broke about a foot from the tip and six inches from the butt. It was a 6 1/2' MHF bass rod with braid and a drag set obviously to tight. I never have been able to convice my dad that he doesn't have to cross their eyes when he sets the hook with braid LOL!

TJ

Sounds like he was trying to salvage the wreck. Was he using spectra line? That is one of the culprits of using the super lines just no give. I used to work on head boats/party boats and I have seen a few rods break when they tried to pull the plug out of the ocean and high sticked the rod. The rod would break in several pieces and all were graphite rods. Most of them broke down the the shutoff point of the blank. The solid glass boat rods that I saw broken would break only once or split and that took a lot to do. I don't express using spectra line on my rods will void my return policy but I should I do pack a warning with the line that spectra or other super lines may cause damage as well as high sticking.

Thad
Dutchman's Creek Tackle

I don't know if it is a defect but I understand overlining a rod that is using a much heavier line then the rating calls for can cause a rod to shatter as described if a steady pressure is applied as Tom said it is almost instantanious
John

Jesse,

I had one do that very same thing back a few months. I sent it back to the blank maker (customer did for warranty) and the maker contacted me and I was told: "there were air bubbles in the rods epoxy that held the fibers together, the blank was defective and we'll send you a new one today"

This one was in 4pcs, looked like someone just slammed it in a car door twice.

DR

Did this guy have a lot of clothes covering up the whelps his wife put on him for buying this rod ? LOL

Jesse,
Do you put a considerable bend in your rods before you build them? I pier fish, the most a rod will bend on a pier is in a "U", so I tie them up to a bucket full of water and put a nice bend in them. I've built probably 100-200 rods in the past 5 years, 2 have broke. The first was from a 5oz sinker strait into the rod, the second was a graphite rod that had a lot of abuse and nicks in the blank.
Good luck...warranty work @#$%& lol
-Anthony

most of the time you can tell what caused the rod to break. if its abuse there are usually the tell tale signs of scratches of nick on the blank, when i see this my warranty is void, i dont fix abused rods, they are told when they buy them "abuse and break it i wont fix it", most people only treat store bought rods badly anyway, most likely that was a flawed rod jesse,

JEsse, as you know I mostly Blackfish. I've seen abotu a dozen blanks break the past couple of season, almost EVERY one was broke when the idiot tried setting the hook while hung in the bottom (they couldn't tell the bottom from a fish). A couple did break into 3 pieces, but never more than that.

You guys who think you can mimic the bend of the blank when someoen swings the rod from the 8:00 position back to the 2:00 position - have fun. You other guys who want to tell people the proper way to fish a rod...never been Blackfishing.

I'd love to get video of my friend who swings so hard and high and far back that his rod will often hit the rail behind him, and more often the fisherman standign behind him. It's a funny site, and it does hurt as I always fish behind him...keeps me in shape dodging rod tips & Mono line from hanging me like a noose.

Actually this guy did not buy the rod, he won a 150.00 gift certificate from his angler's club [The club gives away four of these certificates at their anual banquet each year] and just picked the rod off the rack while I was in the hospital. He gave it to the club president and she brought it to me. She vouched for his honesty etc.so I'm inclined to believe it happened as described. The blank was a Shakespeare Medium Graphite that I got a hundred and fifty of when they went out of business, I've used all but about a dozen of them and this is the first breakage that I know of from any of them. Win some, lose some. Jesse

Last year I had a guy bring me a medium quality spinning rod that he sold a customer that was broke in 4 pieces, once at the handle, another at the middle, and two at the tip. The customer swore to him that it 'just broke' the first time he went to cast it. I didn't sell or build the rod but the rods owner was screaming that he wanted it fixed for free at my customers expense.
I told him what the massive fix would cost, and that it wasn't worth the effort, so he decided it was best to send the customer directly to me. I don't usually allow that but this guy spend a lot with me all year long. A few days later the guy shows up with the rod in a paper bag.

When the customer with the rod told me the story, he said that it broke when he was on vacation, he had used it a bit here first with no problems, then flew out west for some catfishing with it and that he had carried it with him the whole way. He then went on to ask if I thought his rolling it into a circle and placing it in the carry on compartment of the plane may have damaged it. Somewhat amused I asked how he managed to keep it like that and his answere was simply "Duct Tape". I took it that he had taped it into a full circle so he could get into some piece of luggage to carry it on as carry on luggage. ( I couldn't imagine them letting someone just carry a fishing rod on a commercial flight these days). I was trying so hard not to laugh I didn't ask for any further details. His instructions were simply that he wanted it fixed at any cost.

I ferruled and repaired the rod, he paid and I haven't seen him since.
I made a point of making it very clear to him that a rod isn't meant to bend that way, but his answere to that was to go out to his car and get a magazine with an Ugly Stik ad showing a guy bending one in a loop. I tried to explain but I doubt that made any difference. So I made it clear that the repair was an as is, as long as it lasts repair and if he broke it again, he would simply have to just go out a buy an Ugly Stik, elsewhere.

It was pretty much a case of a guy that should have bought a cheap off the shelf throw away rod.
Like they say, some people could brake a crow bar in a sandbox.

Good point. He doesn't sound like the type of guy who should own a good rod. It's not fair to the rod.

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