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Today as I was collapsing my Kasugo tenkara rod I broke the tip. This is the second time I've done that to this rod. I wasn't in a hurry and was trying to keep the pressure straight back when I felt a slight snap.
Have any of you had this happen and what rod were you using?
When you collapse your rod, do you grip the section right at the joint? You may also want to try to apply less "pressure" when you open the rod, you just want to open a section until slight resistance is felt. You don't need to "seat" the connection (so to speak). If you don't use too much "pressure" when opening your rod, it should collapse using minimal "force" when closing.
I've broken the tip on my Iwana twice. The first time I stepped on the line in the dark. The second time was walking through brush with it extended. I carry a spare tp with me. I'm waiting for a new Amago. I'll probably keep a spare tip on hand for it, too.
I know of an Unagi rod that was also broken by what the guy who did it thought was less pressure than it should have taken to break it.
I would bet that every model has had at least some breakage reported. That you broke a rod is very unfortunate but what is much more troubling is that it broke a second time even when you were trying to be careful.
I think I know why I broke the tip of my rod. It got jammed so tightly that when I tried to take the broken sections apart I couldn't. I think this happened when I hit a snag and tried to get the fly loose by pointing the rod straight at the fly and pulling. I didn't think I pulled that hard, I ended up pulling on the line to free the fly, but I did pull too hard.
Live and learn. Next time collapse rod then pull line.
By all means, collapse the rod if you can. There will be times that you will not be able to reach the line and you will have to pull straight back on the rod. If you do get stuck sections, there are two possible ways to free them. The first and easiest is to use a Tip Grip, which I will send you if you send me a PM with your address. Some stuck segments are too stuck for a Tip Grip to work, though. In those cases, use the rubber band method that Daniel Galhardo explained in this blog post: http://www.tenkarausa.com/blog/?p=1081 I assume it would still work with the longer sections of the "universal" tenkara rods.