While beginning some early preparations and equipment checks for a trip in a few weeks to Colorado; I found that my 9’ 5wt. TFO Professional series rod was missing all of the ferule spigots (every section). I knew that one was missing from the 3rd section after another trip, but had not worried about it. Finding out that I was missing all of them was disconcerting to say the least as I am extremely careful with my equipment and the rod is always in a hard tube when not being used.
On Monday of this week I called TFO and asked them if this was a valid warranty issue and was told it was and to send in the rod and the $25 fee and they would get it back to me as soon as possible. I had heard peripherally people in Dallas/Fort Worth could go by their offices and have warranty items taken care of in person, so I asked if this was true. I was told it was and to just come by anytime and they would take care of it.
My office is about 15 miles from the TFO office, and so on Tuesday around 1:00 I left work and drove over. While finding their office was a bit of a challenge I was helped immediately when I got there and one of the employees (I didn’t get his name) in the warehouse quickly checked my rod over, and then handed me a brand new one without question and sent me on my way.
A huge thank you to TFO for their professionalism and an even bigger thank you for providing such a nice service to those in the DFW area. The only cost to me was the gas to drive to and from their office.
Glad you had a good experience with TFO. Last weekend I received a TFO Professional 8’-6" 5wt as part of an award, and the first thing I noticed is that there is a gap between the sections that shows the unfinished blank. Here’s what they look like, and I assure you they are fully seated:
I contacted TFO by e-mail on Monday morning, and was promptly replied to by Brandon Powers of TFO who said that they are designed that way so that as the ferrules wear, it will continue to seat itself deeper, until the unfinished blank almost disappears. I guess I haven’t lived long enough to have ever seen this type of design before, but it sure looks weird, like I did not seat my rod sections well enough. I’ll fish it because it was free (except for the myriad volunteer hours that earned me the award), but if I saw this design in the store I think I would be hesitant to purchase one. Does your rod look like this as well? Anyone else have one of these anomalies to the standard design?
Joer I had the same question when I built my first rod on a diamondback blank. I was ready to return the blank when a local rod builder I talked to said that spigot blanks are supposed to be that way.
I have their 8’ 4wt in 2-piece and their 8’6" 6wt in 2-piece and they fit together perfectly. The ones I have are the Series I and only cost $99 each and the blank is green in color. The sections on the Series I rods fit together and seat all the way. The Series I rods are the least expensive of all their rods. All the TFO rods above the Series I are multi piece and a black blank and all the sections fit together just like the one you have. Like you, I always thought it gave the rod an “unfinished” look, but, everyone I know who owns them, claim they are really pretty good rods. The 2 Series I rods I own are “light in hand” and cast and fish very well.
Spigot ferrules are made that way. Many guys have seen that, sanded them down until they seated;;; then had them get too loose real fast. Many quality rods use that type of ferrule. Not “anomalies” . Two come to mind of mine, my Hardy Angel Smuggler and my Hardy ‘Perfection’.
This is exactly how my rod looks. I tend to agree it does look a little odd, but it wasn’t a deal killer for me when I purchased the rod. This is the only rod I have with this type of ferrule so I’ll defer to Castwell’s experience. I will also confirm on my old rod (which had been put together and taken apart many times) the gap between sections was smaller than it is on my replacement rod.
Yes, that’s exactly how my TFO LK Pro looks. I thought it was a little odd, but then when you look at it at any distance it appears (to my eye) to be like whippings, so it’s not a big deal.
Also, to me rods are fishing tools, not works of art. I don’t really care what it looks like, I care what it fishes like. For the price there’s no beating TFO. I bought it as cheap rod for a trip to England figuring if it got damaged or stolen from the airline luggage bin, I wouldn’t take a huge hit on it. I ended up using the rod all the time, the action really suits me.
I have and older Orvis rod with spigot ferrules. I actually like them and they have worn nicely…I had to call them to make sure it was right when I first got the rod though. I had never seen them before.
Janus
Excluding bamboo with a few exceptions all of my rods have spigot ferrules. The “gap” troubled me at first but now I don’t notice it at all.
There are two types of spigots out there. One type is really a modified “sleeve over” ferrule design where the upper portion of one blank is left unfinished to serve as the male portion and that is fitted into the inside of the next section.
The second type is a “true” spigot where a totally separate piece of graphite is glued inside one section and that graphite piece serves as the male portion of the ferrule. You can easily tell if you have this type because you can see the slight step down where the separate male “plug” is glued into the blank.
Spigots are considered by many rod designers to provide the best transfer of flex between sections. They also can be lighter than many sleeve over designs and they are individually fitted on the better rods which actually make them a more expensive option to produce.
While I can’t speak to the TFO spigot I can say that on rods with true spigots the male portion CAN be replaced when it wears and becomes too loose. I have been told by my preferred rod manufacturer that when the gap gets around 1/8" it’s time to consider replacement.
How did all of your spigot ferrules go missing? No offense intended. Unless the rod was defective, you may need to handle it differently to avoid the same problem in the future…
Used the wrong terminology and for that I appologize. The end of the spigot has a plug in it (I’m assuming epoxied in place). On each of my sections the plug had gone missing (I’m assuming fell into the rod section at one time or another). As I mentioned in my original post I’m extremely careful with my equipment and in each case the plug was missing when I pulled the rod section from the rod bag (which then goes into a hard TFO tube).
The rod was still fishable, but I have noticed in lawn casting the replacement rod it seems to flex slightly differently from the original rod. This may be a placebo effect, but I notice something is different between the two rods and I can only look to the missing plugs as the difference.
aseveryone else has said, that the it’s supposed to be. i also want to say i broke a roke about 16 months ago, fell on a slippery bank amd came out with a 5 piece. gave them a call, got the right address to send, shipped it out with my $25 and got the rod back about 2 - 3 wks later, no problems. and there is no warranty card to send, its covered.
No charge. I live in DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) and can drive to the TFO corporate offices/warehouse located in Dallas. As noted in my original post TFO is nice enough to do rod swaps in person at no charge for those of us willing to drive to their offices.
