Fishing Forum

[center][font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Have you ever broken a rod [car door, fighting a fish or a sunken log] and been able to get it repaired free of charges?[/size][/#008000][/font]
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No, it cost me $30. for shipping. REPAIR was free.[cool]
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[center][font "Garamond"][#008000][size 4]Yea it is like when you buy something on line for $7 and then they charge you an extra $ 6.95 for S&H.[/size][/#008000][/font]
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[indent]Oddly enough, I've never actually broken a rod. Just lucky I guess.

I had an Orvis rod come in, though, whose tip was broken in the fabric sleeve. When I contacted them about it they sent me a new one, but told me to keep the old one.

I put a new tip guide on it, and now have two tips with that rod, although one is three inches shorter than the other.

FWIW, it's all but impossible for a fish to break a rod. When that happens its' because the rod was damaged previously, and the strain of fighting the fish is too much for the weakened section.

That's why I find it so strange that I've never broken one. As much as I bang my rods around, you'd have thought otherwise.


Brook
http://www.the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com
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I watched a program several years ago, Andy Mills (married to tennis play Chris Everet) had his own program about ff. In one episode he was battling a huge salmon in a fast current. He put his left hand "IN FRONT" of the cork handle for leverage. The rod snapped right in front of his hand. Got to remember to let the rod do the work.

I also had the same situation. I had an Orvis rod, in tube, in sock. When I took it out for the first time, the tip was gone.

Two other times...indeed my fault. One, getting out of a lake as quickly as I could during a lightening storm. Rod straight up and pulled the line...pop goes the tip.
Other time, fishing from a shore line, went with the back cast in a breeze, then back forward with no tip.

BUT, working at Orvis, there can be rods put out with slight defects that will cause them to break without human error...well fly fishing error. I guess the person making it made an error.
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>In one episode he was battling a huge salmon in a fast current. He put his left hand "IN FRONT" of the cork handle for leverage. The rod snapped right in front of his hand. Got to remember to let the rod do the work. <

That's a fairly common technique with salt-water fishermen. Heck, I used it myself, on the only permit I've ever caught. And I've held Atlantic salmon by the blank, with the butt laid against my arm, while trying to simultaneously take pictures and play the fish.

It's also one of the reasons Tom Morgan, when he was running Winston, told me manufacturers have a love/hate affair with salt water flyfishing.

On one hand, it's a great (and still growing) market. But, due to the techniques anglers use on the briney---particularly the pump & lift---you're going to get the rod back for repair or replacement sooner or later. Fly rods just aren't designed for the kinds of strain salt water fishing often subjects them too.

Still and all, I believe there was more to Mills' breakage than just holding the rod by the blank. I've done that all sorts of times, with everything from fly rods to big game rods, and never came close to breaking one. But, if there were even a slight scratch across the blank, it could have made enough difference. Enouth extra strain gets put on the fault, and poof!

Bass fishermen are notorious for breaking rods while fighting a fish. But the usual culprit is the banging on the gunwales they did with the rod before that big fish hit.

Brook
[url "http://www.the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com"]http://www.the-outdoor-sports-advisor.com[/url]
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