To many broken rods

[Ron T.]

Just wondering , how many rods do you guys break a year . Am I to hard on my gear or just useing the wrong gear. In the past four years I must have broke about a dozen rods while fishing. Saying about a dozen becouse I lost trak. Not in a car door and not by stepping on them . I mean just fishing , setting the hook, fighting fish and two of them just makeing a cast ! Im to the point of being tired of spending good money after bad on warrenty replacement fees. Is this par for the course or do I need to switch brands. What is your most dependable brand without giveing up quality.
Not saying what brand do to the drama that could arise being a public forum.

[ASD]

I use Dobyns Rods and in 4 years I have not had any real probs. I have had to get two of the rods replaced but it may not have been the rods fault I have all three Savey Champs and Champ Extreams (sp)

[lobinaloca]

They're probably breaking under pressure because they're damaged from lack of care. I broke one rod last year by forcing a cover on it in the wind, before that in 08' when I struck the blank with the head of a jig, it broke on the next cast in that same spot where the impact occured. I don't recall breaking another rod. I spend a lot of time on the water, but I take very good care of my equipment. You might want to take it a little easier on it because it doesn't matter the brand, if you don't take care of it, it's going to break.

[ash]

Ron I have broken 4 rods since fishing - one my partner went through when netting a bed fish - shiz happens, one from high sticking a set, one from High Sticking and trying to get a lure back and one during a cast - High Sticking is no beuno for graphite rods, that and Rod Lockers - I have never broken a rod until I owned a boat and banging them in and out of rod lockers causes stress and small fractures in this anglers opinion. Another big culprit is too many on deck, they get stepped on and it breaks down the graphite - so no high sticking, no stepping on rods and be gentle getting them in and out of the rod locker. Are they breaking in the same place?

[Marc]

I broke one rod in the past year, and it was about 8 years old. Been prostaffing for Lamiglas for 12 years or more, and I use a lot of rods and fish for all species and simply do not have breakage problems. I even still have rods from the early 1970's like the original Skyline Graphite rods that I have rewrapped several times and not broken.

I would expect that you are either using rods that are not up to the task, or more likely you are not careful to keep them from getting scratched or stepped on, or your lure hooks are scratching the glass/graphite, or some other damage is occurring like from high sticking.

Many times when a rod breaks it is a result of earlier damage; not the incident at the moment of the breakage. Look at the care fly fishermen give their graphite rods, and compare that to the care the average bass angler demonstrates. It is no wonder breaks occur more with bass anglers.

ciao,
Marc Marcantonio

[ACRon]

Inspect your rods. If you get a nick in the graphite it creates a weak spot and the rod will snap at that point. If all your rods are breaking in about the same spot it may be a transportation issue. In other words they are resting on something and creating a weak spot. Only broken three rods ever. 1 my fault car door. 1 was a two piece rod and it broke at the mid section joint. 1 was a nick in the graphite.

[Turkeyman]

I never broke a rod until I started buying the more expensive models. Go to Walmart and pick up aa few and you won't break them. However giving up the feel, weight, balance is not worth it. Abuse and using the wrong rod for the job is always a big culprit.

[Burke]

In the last 10 years, I probably broke the tips off 4 or 5 of my Lamiglas rods. None of them on the water. The ones I remember: closing the door on one; stuck one through a chainlink fence when I was walking thru the marina and not paying attention to where I was going; 2 separate incidents where I stepped rods that were laying on top of the boat deck in the garage.

The only rod that I ever broke in the water was a cheap 2 piece that I had bought at Walmart to cat fish. I snagged the bait on the bottom. Instead of cutting the line, I tried to pull it out with the rod and it snapped at the joint.

Some people just have bad luck. My regular fishing buddy, Gerald, LOSES one or two outfits (Gloomis rod and shimamo reel) on the water each year. I've seen him stumble twice moving around the boat and drop an outfit into the water. He's had one outfit fly off the deck while we were moving and dropped another outfit into the water while unhooking a fish.

I've told the following store on this site before: I was with him when he bought one of the outfits for a $1,000 and we went fishing the next day. He dropped the outfit into the water when he stumbled on the deck without ever making a cast with it. He paid a diver $250 to retrieve the outfit. A year later, he dropped the same outfit into the water and paid another diver $250 to retrieve the outfit.

[elfish16]

the only rods I've ever broke were Ocean rods. Never busted a rod myself while bass fishing. I am not the easiest on my gear either. I buy mid range rods.(simply cuz I don't make enough money to buy the high end rods) I set the hook as hard as ANYONE..but the thing I always remember is to have my drag set properly and never have an issue.

My dad casted a brand new Lamiglas Fiberglass cranking rod before at the handle but that was manufactures defect. Otherwise one rod broke on a 10lber that got caught under the cleat when the fish jumped at the boat....don't ask me how my old man did that..and it was my favorite Rattle Trap rod too.

I wonder how it is that people break so many rods myself. I have set the hook like a son of a "B" on trees and rocks that don't give and never broken a rod. my line will break before a rod does.

Eric

[Tin Can]

Could it be that with rods getting so much lighter and sensitive they are losing durability? Seems to me that with a lot of products there is really not much compromise between performance and durability. It's one or the other. Could this be why so many of the high end rods seem to break?

I personally have only broken one rod in my life while actually fishing. I don't have a million high end rods like a lot of guys on here, most of my stuff is more mid grade stuff.

[Dom]

did my post get nuked?

[Tin Can]

did my post get nuked?

Post it again, I never saw it.

[Oldschool]

Todays thin wall light weight rods are less foregiving than older heavier wall rods. Bouncing bass into the boat will over load the upper 1/3 on standard med/hvy to heavy action bass rods. Storying hooks on rod guides allows the point or barb to damage the rod blank from vibration. Casting lures heavier than the blank is designed to handle can break the rod. Breaking off snagged lures using the rod can damage it.
IF you set the reel drag for 1/3 the line strength or not more than than 5 lbs for a med/heavy action rod or 8 lbs for heavy action rods, don't try to bounce 3 lb+ bass, keep the rod no higher than 2 o'clock, don't store hooks on the guides, your rod should not break from fishing use unless it is defective.
Tom

[acm95301]

I own both Dobyn's rods and St. croix Avid rods. In the past two years Ive broken
1 St.croix Avid, 1 st. croix Mojo, and 4 Dobyns rods( 2x 702sf, 2x 736c). 5/6 were because I either stepped on it or in some way caused traumatic damage to them. I have a 6'8" St. Croix Avid Spinning rod that has "splintered" and I consider this defect related, but the rod is out of warranty. Despite this list I still retain a High degree of confidence in these rod brands and continue to recomend them. I have noticed that bringing less gear tends to reduce the damage list a bit. Also higher end rods tend to be designed for reduced weight and increaced sensitivity, which I think makes them prone to fall prey to rough handling.

[Eric Ocampo]

im pretty carefull with my gear, but the end of last summer i had a one month streak where i broke 3 lol snapped 8in off a bcfr953 at sand hollow on a hookset, snapped the tip off a mbr844 on a hookset and a random 10in break on my crucial dropshot rod while casting. Luckily Shimano warrantied all three no questions asked one thing to take notice of , is if you have people come up on your front deck a lot ask them to watch there feet. I dont like to sound all anal but that is a lot of $$$ to step on lol

[Rich461]

Here is something we all can do about broken rods. Inspect them after an outing with a magnifying glass.
Graphite is a real strong material, but only when it is not nicked or scratched. Any minute scratch in a
graphite rod will make a weak spot there. The biggest reason a rod breaks is because of a hook rubbing
on an area when you put the hook thru the line guide posts. The vibration of just having the rod on the
deck of your boat will cause that hook to rub a scratch into it. It's like a banana. Try bending a banana
until it breaks open. Now take a banana and put a small cut across it and bend it. Same idea.
Hooks (or any lure) should never come in contact with graphite. I don't even use hook holders. I run the hook to the
back of the handle or under the rear reel seat, or across the reel itself. I use cheap BP $100 rods and have never
had one break on a hookset.

I got all this good info from the old guys up at GLoomis about 10 years ago when I went up there. They
showed me all of this stuff on the rods that had broken. He said that if a rod gets just one scratch in it,
it can break on the hookset.

Even graphite golf clubs will do this. That is why you never carry graphite clubs in those plastic tubes.

[scott h]

I have broke 5 rods in the last 12 months, 4 of them I sent back for warranty and none of them were warrantied even though they all broke in the very same place I have pleaded to the company they have a design flaw and need to drop the blank power by one, they still will not warranty the break, all four of them flipping sticks and each of them on fish and at 90 bucks a pop im thinking real hard about changing brands, I have another flippin stick from the same company 3 inches longer and one power less and have had the three of them for 8 years and not one break. I fish hard,cast like I mean it and put my gear to the test.

[resqd1]

You should check out Denali Rods, amazing feel and sensitivity through all lines, and awesome warranty. Scott the owner is super friendly and takes care of anglers.

[TZ1]

I used to break alot of rods at one time. Not sure if it was because I was throwing around those rods during tournaments. They were oviously breaking because they were getting scratched up or stepped on. I dont break very many anymore, two things have changed I'm not fishing many tournaments and now I'm using stix jacket rod covers. I think its a little of both, my rods stay stored in the covers at home and on the boat until they are on the deck.

[DanWarme]

Apart from having one of my favorite C-rig rods break, (snapped in the cork handle) and fall into Piru last Sat,
(I go back for another attempt at retreival this Saturday)
I can only remember breaking maybe 6 rods over the last 25 years of fishing.

And I consider myself to be very hard on tackle.
I definitely do not baby it.

[frisbee]

Over the years I have only broke one rod, and it was sticking out of a window i closed. Luckily it was a Cabelas fish eagle II. killer for jerkbaits, but didn't break the bank.
Since then I have bought lots of used high end equipment that passed a thorough visual inspection. I fish quite a bit and have tested just about every rod on monster tree fish, huge rock fish, underwater braid nests, and the occasional 2 lb bass/trout/panfish.
i haven't broke one yet(knock Knock).

Some things i think have helped:

don't keep them in the rod locker unless on the water. The freeways and roads are like mogul courses/ old school vibrating weight loss belt machines combined, that surely create weak spots as mentioned in previous posts.
fish barefoot/ in socks. especially if you have too many rods on deck, like when you can't get a bite.....on the entire arsenal....

[froteur]

i've never broken a rod on fish. my son, on the other hand, has broken the same rod on back to back weekends (the original, then the replacement) by dropping them on the very same rocks. the only other rod of mine that has been broken was done by my buddy last year when the rod locker lid fell on it.