This happened last night and I don’t know what to do. Also this is a spigot ferrule rod and the only idea I have for fixing the spigot is to coat it with rod finish and then sand down some if necessary.
You didn’t say who made the fly rod, and if you bought it as a blank to build your own, or that what happened was an accident.
Many manufacturer’s have a policy, that they will repair and/or replace damage components of a fly rod, only asking a minimal charge.
I had that happen when my Cortland CL Series 6 wt tip broke. Cortland had me send it the whole rod in (for matching up ferrule sizes) and it was returned in less than a week. Another time, I lost the plastic cap for my Cortland tube, that came with the Cortland CL Series 6 wt. They shipped out a new cap the same day, Priority Mail (no charge).
I built a 5 wt St. Croix Ultra, and was in a hurry, and had disassembled the fly rod, but had not put it in it’s case. Sad story, I broke one of the sections when I was closing the rear hatch on my Saturn VUE. St. Croix had me send it in, and charged me only $10 to cover return postage. Even though I had built it myself.
Many companies, do this to keep their loyal customers. Remember the Golden Rule in Business, is “THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!”…at least sometimes. ~Parnelli
Thanks steve. I built it myself on a now discontinued diamondback classic trout blank. The Spigot ferrule seems to be too worn and the tip flew of damaging the female end.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Steve.
I own 2 St. Croix rods, and its nice to know I’m dealing with a good company.
As far as Cortland…now that they own Diamondback…do you think their excellent service will extend to those rods as well?
I would probably repair it as you mentioned and fish it until it failed again, then look at more permanent repair or replacement and hope the fish that got off was small.
The first thought I had was to reinforce the wrapping with kevlar thread and coat with epoxy. I don’t know your fishing situation, I could live with epoxying it into a one piece rod and transporting it locally in my pickup bed or through the sliding rear window. Buy or make a female ferrule to slide down over the piece and cement in place.
Good luck, just don’t go off on a long trip and take that one rod. Under those circumstances it will fail for sure.
That was pretty much along the line of thought that I had. Use epoxy to make the existing ferule a permanent connection. Cut the blank 6" inches up or down and install a brand new fiberglass spigot. As I think about it, probably better to put the new ferrule up towards the tip from the old one.
If you do not call them, you will never know!
Cortland is a sponsor of FAOL, Leon Chandler “Comparadun” was a member of FAOL, and was the Vice President at Cortland.
Cortland Line Company
PO Box 5588
3736 Kellogg Road
Cortland, New York 13045-5588
Phone: 1-800-847-6787
Email: sales@cortlandline.com
Call them, and find out, I think you will be surprised at their answer!
~Parnelli
Thanks everyone. I’ll try calling Cortland Monday. I may have to go with the one piece seven foot rod which is an idea I hadn’t thought of. I don’t believe I will even have to cut any of the blank as the damage doesn’t extend anywhere near to the end of the spigot and should be kept from continuing by the same glue that hold the two halves together.
I have had a similar problem with a rod I made. I stopped the ferrule wrap a little too far from the end and accidentaly caused a split when I got carried away undoing a stuck joint. I was able to repair the rod and have fished it for several years without a prolem. I have also seen this type of damage when a ferrule got a little squished, the damage appeared after the next few casts.
I would remove the thread wrap so you can inspect the damage. Check to see how far the split extends into the ferrule. If your lucky it stops right as it gets to the intact thread wraps. If so you can probaly just clean up the rough end with some sand paper and re-wrap. Make sure you wrap as close to the end as feasible, the unreinforced area is prone to splitting.
My damage was more severe, it extended about 1/2 inch into the ferrule. I solved the problem by underwrapping with a kevlar thread (kevlar is low stretch, GSP might work also) applying a thin coat of 2 ton epoxy, then over wrapping with matching thread. My theory was to prevent the crack from spreading with the kevlar, then cover the ugly kevlar with a cosmetic wrap of normal thread. I was concerned that the nylon thread alone would have too much stretch to prevent the split from spreading.
For severe damage you will need to reinforce the whole area with a sleeve. Find a broken rod of similar material and cut a small piece that will slide over damaged area like a glove. You will need to remove all of the rod finish in the damaged area for a good tight fit, the tighter the better. Taper one end of the sleeve to a feather edge and glue it in place. Then wrap the end like a normal ferrule wrap, extending the wrap over the feathered edge.
This toutorial shows a similar repair in much more detail…
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/rodrepair/
The end result is a small bump in the repaired area, it’s not as sexy as the origonal rod but it casts just like before. I just tell friends its a new anti vibration dampening system I’m experimenting with.