In a previous thread there was quite a discussion on breakage of some rod blanks on their first trip. I saw the term "stress testing of the blanks" and "high sticking". Could some of you give me a quick lesson on these terms? Thanks!

In general, stress testing is the process of putting a material under stress for the purpose of testing either the strength, compression or deflection rate of said material. For the purposes of custom rod building I would imagine that blank manufacturers stress test blanks to determine the failure point when put under immense stress, basically by bending until the structure of the blank fails. For a custom builder like myself, stress testing refers to the practice of placing guides along the blank, stringing the guides and then placing static load on the blank, (static load: tying the free end of the line to a stationary object and putting stress on the blank until it bends substantially) to determine if the placement of the guides along the blank evenly distributes load along the blank. This is necessary because, if the load is not evenly distributed over the length of the blank, a premature failure will likely result. Fair warning, the faster the blank's action the less stress the blank can usually take before failing because the blank's action is limited to the upper portion of the blank giving less area for the load to be distributed over. Basically, a slow action blank (or especially parabolic action blanks) can bend significantly further before failure than an extra-fast blank.
As for high sticking, my understanding of this term is limited to personal understanding, and lacking in the ability to portray it clearly to others; so I will leave the quick lesson on "High Sticking" to some of the others.
Good Luck!
James

Check the Glossary here (black buttons along the top of the forum window) and you can find the explanation for these and other terms.

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Tom Kirkman Wrote:
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> Check the Glossary here (black buttons along the
> top of the forum window) and you can find the
> explanation for these and other terms.
>
> ..............
Tom, did not find "high sticking" in the glossary. This was the one I was really interested in knowing about.

Hi, Mark,
In the Library section- "Eliminate Broken Rods-Correct Rod Usage"

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Mark Twain
John in Wethersfield, CT

Hight sticking is just say when a fish is on the rod is pointed straight up to the shy. The tip bends over to much and a break usually occurs in the middle of the bend.

Bill - willierods.com

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to increase the angle of the rod with respect to the line much past 90 degrees, or perpendicular to the line.

High sticking would refer tot the practice where a fish is close to the boat, the rod is pointed straight up, so that the line is actually at 180 degrees with respect to the blank.

Many more than one rod has shattered as a result of this practice.

Really no good reason to bring the rod tip higher than 90 degrees to the line. Often, the reason that a high stick procedure occurs is that a person is reeling a fish in, the rod gets elevated, and then the fish suddenly makes a run under the boat. A fraction of a second before, the rod was fine- But when the fish made the run under the boat, the rod becomes imperiled, unless the tip of the rod is quickly dropped to follow the fleeing fish. If necessary, the rod tip should be dropped under the water to follow the flight of the fish.

Good luck
Roger

A good example of "High Sticking" ;
I built a friend 3 Crappie Trolling rods on 10' Steelhead blanks, 2 piece.
He was trying to net a large Crappie with the rod tip pointed back over his head . Naturally the rod tip was bent 180 deg when he attempted to dip the fish, it snapped. He has broken 2 of the new rods by doing this. I have repaired both of them, still holding to date. Since I gave him a good tongue lashing and instructions on how not to break a rod, the third one hasn't been broken, yet. His excuse was, he couldn't reach the fish with the net.
This is a very common breakage problem with long rods.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

I have already seen this phenomenon with the relatively new deep-water jigging spinning rods used offshore for large, powerful fish such as Amberjack. The scenario: you drop a heavy jig into deep water using specialized spinning tackle. Jig up and down quickly. Hook a fish weighing perhaps 100+ lbs.
With the rod parallel to the water's surface, the line is already 90 degrees to the rod tip. When a big fish hits, the rod bows over. The natural tendency of an inexperienced angler is to try to get the rod top up. This puts a pretty good bend in the rod, but the blank will usually take this strain. A problem develops when the fisherman, getting tired, decides to gain a bit more leverage on the fish by grasping the blank forward of the fore grip, between the fore grip and the first guide, and lifting hard. I have seen 4 rods thus broken, and was present when one rod failed. The sound was like my 25/06 rifle being fired.

Mark - high sticking

Take a common plastic soda straw - it is a hollow cylinder similar to a fishing rod blank

Slowly bend it while watching

There is an agle of bend where the cylinder will start to take a oval shape

At a certain point of failure will occur - it will fail by compression of the bottom of the cylinder - with a straw notice how the thing will instaneously crimp and collapse when its limit is reached.

Same thing with a rod blank -

The design of the most of todays graphite blanks used to build fishing rods will not withstand a bend of more more than 90 degrees.

Guys who sell rods will really have a needed proof source for this type of failure to show their customers when the article in Rodmaker is in our hands.

Jay, if you build for the crappie fishermen you have more guts than I - they stick that high end graphite custom jigging pole down in a tree top trying to shake loose a $ 0.50 jig - snap the tip - and bring it back expecting the free warranty replacement - I simply go ballistic! - there is normally a second failure of that rod - impact on the top of their head!

Bill and Gary ,,excellent discription !
And I have seen this happen more than a few times with Crappie fishermen. You got to teach a class everytime you build one.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

John Repaci Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi, Mark,
> In the Library section- "Eliminate Broken
> Rods-Correct Rod Usage"

Thanks John, found it!
And to rest of you thanks as well.

Jay:

Why not just build them a shorter and a little stronger rod.

Bill - willierods.com

Bill,, most of these Crappie fishermen love a 9 or 10 ft rod for trolling for Crappie. They will set up what is known as a Spider Rig, whereas they have 4 to 6 rods in holders,all setting in a row, on the back of the boat or 3 on each side of the boat. Very productive when locating Crappie in the pre-spawn staging areas. They will either use small jigs or live minnows.
Length is important when using this process. And besides that, I get to make a lot of repairs and build a lot Spider Rigging Crappie rods.
I would be willing to bet that Bill Stevens and Bob McCamey have built arm loads of these type rods.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

Then a more durable blank how ever long. The last thing I would want is a customer telling me his rod broke. Maybe glass would be .

Bill - willierods.com

I know of a couple guys who I have seen break good quality IM7 rods by high-sticking. They had a good fish on, 1 a walleye, 1 a bass, instead of swinging the fish, or netting the fish, as most smart anglers would do, they just lifted the fish straight up out of the water by lifting the rod back over their shoulder, dangling the 5 lb fish in front of their chest. This will bust a good rod every time!

My question was raised because of a crappie pole, 10'-6" i built for a friend with a shoulder problem. He does not fish with a spider rig as Jay mentioned, (which we have a lot of around where I live) but tightlines a single minnow or jig over the front of his boat. He uses an automatic fly reel and fishes brush piles and stumps in 20 to 30 feet of water. He will have maybe 18" in front of his trolling motor. The problem is when he hangs a big drum or catfish or a rockfish. He would not be caught dead with a spider rig.

The natural tendency of an angler trying to land a fish in tight quarters (on a boat or crowded dock) is to point the rod to the sky to try to bring the fish closer to the angler. In effect, the angler's arms are too short for the rod!

Shorter rods or nets with longer handles can help - otherwise I'm not sure what else to suggest, other than fishing in an area with lots of elbow room.

Depending on how heavy the fish is, one could try to get the line close, grab it and then bring the fish in that way.

Bill - willierods.com