For more flyfish wisdom from AL Campbell go to the home page. Click on features, click on Al Campbell . Pick a topic and read on. Super interesting stuff.
I would add keeping the ferrules waxed to that list. While it hasn’t “broken” per se, my first rod, a cheaper model at least, that I wasn’t diligent about keeping the ferrules waxed, has started to split on the female ends, and has a tendency to cast half the rod now and again, if I forget to cinch it down once in a while. One of these days, one that one junction will go snap!
Add clousers and split shot as well as bead heads!!!
One other handling thing that totally amazes is how many guys “throw” their $500 plus fly rods into the boat or vehicle like they were $20 Ugly Sticks!!
I can add to the list also. In the tropics while fishing for Bonefish & Permit, most rods are broken by the ceiling fans in the lodges guest rooms. Not out on the water. Folks are in a hurry to make the boat ramp and have the rods assembled in their rooms and forget all about the fans.SNAP !!! :rolleyes:
The ceiling fans get my vote for the great fly rod eater. Most houses in SC have one of these monsters per room and if you move incautiously around the house, your fly rod will detect the room with the ceiling fan running. 8T
Attempting to show off to your buddies by demonstrating your best double haul without the ferrules pushed together all the way will also break it, and your ego, and your buddies sides while they laugh at you.
Flicking ice off your guides in not a good idea. I was in a shop when a guy brought his rod in for repair and he stated he was flicking the ice off the guides and flicked the tip off the rod.
I just stick the rod in the water or let the warmth from my finger melt the ice.
I am surprised we haven’t heard from JC on this one. One of the top causes of breaking fly rods is stinging the rod. It happens when running the line through the guides in a hurry and pulling the line through the guides with too much force. The knot between the leader and fly line gets caught on one of the guides and “snap”.
The most unusual case of a broken rod I experienced was when my wife left her fly rod, fully lined, against the wall in our entry way with the near invisible leader and tippet on the floor. She had been practicing her casting in the yard. Along came someone with the vacuum cleaner and sucked the fine tippet and line into the vacuum, snapping the rod into several pieces before we knew what happened. It was ugly.
Having worked in a very busy shop for almost ten years, and dealing with hundreds of broken rods, I’d suggest a couple of different things. Anglers sometimes have a tendency to slide their reel hand onto the blank, well above the grip. Most often, they do this when snagged or fighting a fish. The change in pressure sometimes results in a break. I’ve also seen many rods, which were broken when being strung up. Anglers try sliding their line through the tip while putting a deep flex in the tip of the rod. The leader/line connection catches, and the result is a break somewhere in the upper foot of the rod.
I agree with Guy’s comment, because carelessness on my part, got my rod broke. I don’t agree with a metal bead being a major cause of breaking fly rods, because it isn’t like using a dry fly (False Casting), there is much less casting involved with a nymph. Paying attention and being careful is all I have tried to do and I never had a bead break a rod.
Doug
I have seen on several occasions, a rod breaking from fighting a big fish and the stripping hand moving up the rod for leverage. I watch Andy Mills snap a 9wt about 6" up from the cork doing this. You got to let the rod do the work right down to the end cap.
Last year, I watched a client snap his own rod trying to lift up on a big redfish that was near the boat. We did manage to land the fish with half a rod. This year, I had a guy who insisted on overhand casting a heavy crab fly with one of my rods even though he could not do it without slamming the lead eyes into the tip. The next day, I went to cast the rod to a fish and it fell apart where the fly had been striking it. A sidearm backcast with an overhead forward delivery keeps heavy flies from hitting the rod.
All of the ideas so far are true, some more often than others. I have watched this subject for many years and my answer would be, from what the rod makers tell me, (guarantee cards ya know) that the most common reason is because the one force that is the most susceptible is crushing, therefore, stepping on a rod is the most often reason for breakage, as it takes very little force to break one that way, and also why hitting it with a heavy fly is often deadly.
I would have thought it would be, high-sticking, pointing the rod straight up when landing a fish. With the rod 180 degrees from the fish and close to the fly line, it takes nothing to snap a tip. Second I would have said, would have been, loose ferrules. (wax gone) The female section of the rod has nearly no strength when that happens. One cast is all it takes.
the first broken rod was my Winston BIIx 6wt, whose dark green 3rd section looked like a perfect lightsaber sword to a 3 yr old who had just finished watching the return of the jedi. Stupid door, take that, you evil sith! The first of many times that my son has taken years off of my life expectancy. The second break was entirely my fault, because when one is throwing a 325 grain shooting head, one should always check to see that the ferrules are always seated. Otherwise, when one starts to power forward with the double haul, one hears a sharp crack by ones ear as it goes by in a broken mess. I fell off of the ladder trying to retrieve the broken section as it sailed off into oblivion. I did save it, at the cost of water filled waders and broken pride…so the moral of the story is to check the ferrules, and never let a 3 year old know where ones rods are stored…
