What clues do you look for in helping to determine why a blank failure occured?

Back issue of Rodmaker Magazine addressed this very question.

Volume 12 #6 detailed this with photos depicted what each type break looks like. We broke over 200 first line rod blanks to establish a pattern of the appearance left by various types of mis-use, load limit, etc., etc., failures looked like. You don't have to guess - determining why a rod blank broke is not at all hard to do. But I couldn't begin to answer or depict this in a message forum post.

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Thank you, I'll definetely be ordering a back copy. In the meantime, to help with a current situation, is a clean break between guides more like mis-use than defect? The break is between the 3rd and 4th guides on a MH/F graphite blank. This all the info I have right now as the rod is in transit to me for repair/replacement etc.

How long has the customer been using the rod?

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2-3 outings over a week or so. Supposedly he was fighting a fish (3# bass) heard a cracking noise and then the rod broke. He had landed larger fish the day before according to him.

In that case he's almost certainly hit the rod on something, high-sticked it, etc. Rods don't become defective after performing well previously.

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My thoughts too. Thanks for your time and opinion as always.

I've heard the term High-Sticking as a way to break a rod. I'm not familiar with the term. What exactly is it?

Steve Hartzell
Lake Conroe - Willis, Texas

Rods aren't intended to be put in more than a 90 degree bend (nor do you apply more pressure to the fish beyond that point). If you point the rod straight up, particularly while landing a fish, you're looking at something between 90 and 180 degrees of bend in the rod, usually in the upper third,.

By the way, when a rod does fail from high sticking, the break point will nearly always be just at the rearmost point of the flex apex (towards the handle).

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Tom, I've found a couple of times that high sticking can result in a failure just above the ferrule on a 2-piece rod. I think rods with a lighter tip and a stiffer butt section design can be more liable to break here? Interested in your opinion, but I know from personal experience this break happened as a result of high sticking on a steelhead.

Terry

i don't know as much as Tom But i would ( using common sense ) think the break will depend on the tapper of the rod A lighter tip and a more moderate action and yes it will bend more into the blank and then break

Bill - willierods.com