I have built rods since1975 and over that time till now only had 4 rods break, all my fault. In the last year had 4 break, two broke on second time fished. Both on hook set. All rods bass rods seven foot lm6 light action fast tip. Two broke 32" from butt and 2 broke 15"" to 18" from tip. Called the place where l bought the rods, they said no one else had troubles with this blank. They said I was high sticking. Had never heard of high sticking. Can anyone tell me what high sticking is?

Read the "Eliminate Broken Rods" article in the library , link above. Modern high mod rods are more sensitive to most all modes of failure than earlier rods.

Michael Danek Wrote:
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> Read the "Eliminate Broken Rods" article in the
> library , link above. Modern high mod rods are
> more sensitive to most all modes of failure than
> earlier rods.


But are night and day more pleasurable to fish with and are capable of performing on a much higher level . I wish manufacturers offered two different prices for blanks based on warranty coverage , choose a 30 day coverage to make sure it's free of defects and offer the much longer and much more expensive lifetime replacement warranty for those that have a habit of breaking rods.


There are many of us who love high performance rods and blanks and who have never broken a blank in our lifetime but we have to pay through the nose for the people that don't. Not referring to the above gentlemen at all , speaking in general terms.

"High sticking" is having the rod in a position that causes it to over flex when under load. It usually occurs when boating a fish, (boat flipping them) or when trying to get a fish out of cover, while trying to keep a tight line on the fish. It's called "high sticking" because the position of the rod tip is usually high in the air, but it doesn't have to be. It just has to be in a position that causes it to over flex.

High sticking causes a situation where the line passing between two guides acts much like a bowstring and pulls the rod together at that point, into a much tighter arc than the 90 degrees, beyond which most graphite rods won't stand.

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The current popularity of six, eight, and even ten foot-long one piece blanks might have some impact on the number of broken rods. It's odd that fly rods, where the rod's action is so critical to casting, are nearly all four-piece rods these days?

Multi-piece rods can have the same action as single piece rods. Number of pieces doesn't affect rod action.

Long rods do tend to suffer more from high-sticking breakages as fishermen point them straight up in order to get the fish close to hand.

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It is NOT "ODD" that most fly rods today are 3 and 4 pieces! Many if not most fly fishermen travel some with their fishing, and the convenience of the short sections makes it very easy. And as Tom mentions above they suffer no effect on a rods action.

Even 2 piece rods are a problem on many flights today.