How to break a fishing rod!!

I just got back from breaking my lamiglass. A chum ran through my legs and I could step around fast enough!


~steelymann~

i broke a spinning rod not long ago and what i figured what happened was all the casting i was doing loosened the rod up at the joint and the tip section just kept sliding farther off with every cast until it got enough leverage to split it through the joint area.so now i keep checking to make sure it stays tight,so far it hasn't been a prob with my lamiglas,Bruce

I was fishin for steelies off of the beach on whidbey island and hooked mah first salt water steelie. I was so happy that after I landed the fish I was jumpin up and down and hootin n hollerin and landed right on top of my pole. It was the most expensive pole I had bought and it broke into a couple of three or four pieces. The guys in the boat got a good laugh out of it.

Sincerely,
Roger

I broke one trying to pull a snag out of the trees. Yeap. Thats right! The trees. Never ever ever shake your pole around like a madman trying to yank a snag out of trees or bushes. Pull straight! Oh yea.. and watch out for flying lead.

I was fishing for salmon out of Shilshol and trolling along with a deep six and a spoon when I snagged something big! Picked up the rod to try and release the diver with the usual quick jerk and 'snap'!

I found out later that I had hooked onto the mooring platform or lines that the barge uses out there. What a bummer!!!!! It was my first salmon rod and I had bought it 15 years ago.

Gave me a good excuse to buy another though and better quality.

Well lets see the first one I broke was my first fly rod. Broke it going thru the woods. Got caught in some bushes and in my haste to undo it it broke above the ferrel. The second one was also a fly rod,I was sliding down a hill and at the bottom I landed kinda hard and the butt hit the ground and the tip shattered. I also broke a spinning rod. Got hooked on the bottom and in my rage as I was thrashing around it shattered. And last but not least I broke my favorite fly rod this fall. I was down on the river fishing and my reel decieded not to work (bearing fell out) so I went back to my car to change reels and as I was stringing my line thru the guides it just broke above the ferrel. It must of been just part of my good luck that I've been having this year.

The first time I broke a rod (rods) I was pulling plugs about ten years ago and let another inexperienced person in the boat work the tiller while I was tying some gear up. I have an upright rod rack in the sled and he turned the tiller the wrong way into a heavy current. We ended up next to the bank under some trees shattering three custom made loomis rods.
The next time was on the Toutle river about four years ago I laid my rod on the rocks to unhook a fish and the fish flopped on the rod breaking the tip(custom made Lamiglas)
The last time was last month on the Chehelis while trying to get a large silver into the net to much pressure at the last second trying to get his head in the net and snap.
RAMPRAT

I know ive broken 10 to 15 rods and honestly only know of two that i remember where on fish. lamiglass never a problem taking em back, loomis was a pain in the ass, thats why i only fish lamiglass, loomis makes a better rod but i will never fish one, i cant remember that guys name who wouldnt warranty the rod but i wanted to smack him in the beek so bad and it 14 yrs ago....

Alaway wear glasses and bring a extra rod.....

Ah, so many rods...so many more little pieces Nearly all the other rods I have broken while using them (mostly on snags of course) have failed for the same reason - always on a little ding. Of course then theres the car doors, tailgates, tripping in the boat, stepping on them in the garage, running over them, having a horse step on them, and just about every other stupid thing possible

1st time (2 rods, 30 seconds) no more dogs allowed in the driftboat no matter how well behaved they seem.

2nd time (1 rod, wife loading them into car)
cardoor reduced length by 6 inches

Some freinds and I where floating the Deshutes around SunRiver years ago. We had costco rafts and lots of beer. Another guy and I threw our fly rods in, just in case we got bored with drinking.

We got to the bottom, hadn't done much fishing, but had done lots of drinking. Unloading the rafts, all the gear scattered around on the ground and the other guy who had brought a rod yelled his beer was empty. A beer was tossed, missed its mark, and a 4-peice fly rod became a seven-peice fly rod.

Lets see now...it has been awhile...so I'm claiming that the statute of limitations has ran out. :p

The last three that I have seen broken were all broken in different ways.

There was the guy fishing Kings on a noodle. You know the guy...hang up on a snag and yards till something gives...Dope!

The guy with the tight drag...boondoggin...hung on the fish...err I mean snag...kershnap!

The guy who didn't back up the bank to land his fish...instead chose to get it close enough to kick it up himself...sssssshhnnnap!

Funny thing to all these mishaps...not one onlooker acknowledged even witnessing the breakeage. Must be an unwritten code or something.

FJ...out.

The Deschutes in Oregon- 2 broken rods in one day. No one told me that there were 40 pound chinook near Maupin in Early August. After that one snapped I pulled out my 10 foot ol' reliable and yanked really hard on a snag. It came loose but hit a boulder behind me. Bye Bye. Needless to say, my trip was ruined. Also broke one @ Blue Creek. Actually I didn't break it. I set my rod down to get a steelie from a net and some guy stepped on it while he was walking a fish downstream. He went on to tell me to be careful that I move my rod when someone is walking a fish down. So I guess I should just forget about the one in the net.....

One Fly rod in the garage door, not my fault of course and one spinning rod that helped brake my fall on the Sky this summer...What I learned... Wear felt soles on the Sky...never trust your rod to a friend to put away...do it yourself...

Cowlitz, I think you started something here....
Mother in law broke one it the truck door once. She felt REALLY bad, but it was a cheap rod. Cousin and car trunk lid on a fly rod many years ago. I did the unforgivable once, hung up on a rock, tried to pop it off by yanking it, and my favorite small river rod blew up. Dumb a$$ move on my part. And I broke one last year as we were fighting a big steelie in fast water; lost my balance and fell against it in the drift boat.

I have broken 2 Lamiglas rods, (1) a Herzog BC setting the hook on what I thought was a fish and turned out to be a mess of line and corkies. On the set the rod BLEW UP at the cork and about 6" down from the tip. (2) OUCH, I was using my Lami Titanium for Springers and it BLEW UP right where the Titanium ends and the Graphite begins and about 6" from the tip. I set the hook on a Springer and caboom it was over, my son held what was left of the rod and I played the fish from the butt section for a few minutes than the leader broke.

On the funny side I saw a guide a few years back take his drift boat out on a rough ramp on the Bogy, he forgot to secure his anchor and the trailer hit a rut and the anchor swung up and around 4 Loomis Rods, needless to say all 4 rods had broken tip sections. He blew it off and said get new ones from Loomis which I am sure he did.

Mason bees set up shop inside the ferrule of my pole during the summer. (Unbeknownst to me) I put the pole halves together thinking that it had bottomed out. but it was only about 1" into the ferrule. Fifteen minutes into opening day on the Carbon, I hang up on a rock, give it a fair tug and BANG! Broke at the joint.
But the story ends happily. My father-in-law hears about my plight and buys me a new Lami as an early Christmas present.

Several years ago, at Hoodsport (and one time, at band camp), a guy next to me shattered a spinning rod on a chum. It was in three pieces. The chum was still on, so my buddy picked up the tip piece, I picked up the middle shard and the unlucky rod owner stayed on the handle fragment. We coordinated a pull and reel drill, interspersed with the fish taking line, and eventually landed the fish.

Wives; you've got to love them. I must have put my rods in the car and taken them out thousands of times. My wife has done this ONCE, she broke a favorite spinning rod of mine in the car door.

My sister. Years and years ago, she snuck a spinning rod out of the house. It had belonged to my grandfather, who introduced me to fishing. I never used it. I had it as a keepsake. She took it to a lake with a bunch of her friends. At the end of the day, she left it propped against the back of her car and ran over it when she was backing out of wherever she parked. It's been 30 years and I still get hot about that one.

Me? I broke two rods in the last three years, both in exactly the same fashion. Landing fish on a confined bank space. Trying to haul the fish just that last foot onto the shore and it starts flopping harder than it ever fought in the water. It's called an ignosecond - like that instant when you shut the car door and realize you just locked the keys inside - you realize that you've just put way too much bend and pressure on the rod and just the instant before you can ease up, the rod shatters.

Buy your Loomis rods at Auburn Sports and Marine and you will have no trouble with the exchange. You take it in, you get your replacement off the rack and if it's not in stock, they order it. They get my business for this specific reason, but believe me, I've made it worth their while.

My buddy was left attending the driftboat at an early morning launch at the Memaloose Ramp in the dark at Tillamook. While I parked he moved the boat down the dock. The boat went to the outside of the piling and two Lami's went to the inside. He ran back to where I was parking the rig explaining how we needed to go to the store real quick and get some new rods. I reached into the back seat and pulled out 2 backup Esprit's. That same guy broke another the following year.

on a tough rainy jan day couple years ago I had a flat on the way home,got absolutly soaked changing it and mindlessly threw the flat in back of the dodge,shattered my fav rod at the time

1 berkly to a boat battery in the bed of my truck.

1 browning to a car door

1 lamisnap trying to hide from bardo and his heiocbopter,The line got caught in the brush at the tip and I yanked and it broke.

1 Fenwick to my neighbor boy stepping on it.

1 south bend to the ferule wearing out and loosening,finally snapping on a hook set.

1 eagle calw feather light to my wifes frustration.

1 another browning to unknown circumstances while moving.

I am sure that the list is bigger and I will not even get into broken tips.

I keep pushing the limits to the lightest rod I can fiish with found out that 2-6 lb rod will snap with 8 lb line landed my fish any way with a 3 ft rod instead of a 7'6" rod

Well, I've broken a bunch, including two that need to be rebuilt from this years' adventure. I'll just tell you about one. This is sort of a "kids, dont try this at home" story.

We had been floating down the Goodnews River in Alaska. It had been a bit of a long trip, with poor weather and not as many fish as we had hoped for. The silvers had been snubbing our flies for two days.

We were camped at one of the last holes above tidewater, near a massive clay bank. Silvers rolled intermittently in the hole in fornt of camp, but ignored the flies we threw at them. We didn't have any casting gear, this being primarily a fly fishing trip. However, deep in my gear bag, I had a box of wiggle warts that I had thrown in the night before leaving, just in case.

Neal and I tied the warts onto the end of our 8 wgts, and rowed up to the top of the hole. I eased the raft out and over into the main thread of current. We let the rods out, and I wedged mine into the frame of the raft, there being no rod holders.

We started backing down the hole. The raft hadn't moved 10 feet when my rod doubled over. I reached forward, grabbed it just below the first guide, pulled back, and yes, Virginia, snapped it as clean as if cut with a knife just above the grip.

This presented a bit of a problem in landing the fish, which was still attached. We solved this with me handing Neal the reel, while I fought the fish from the tip section. It being now somewhat abbreviated, I had better leverage on the fish, and the fight took on a somewhat Roland Martin-esque flavor, as we yarded the fish to the boat. I'm a bit of a believer in heavy leader.

That was the second time that particular rod has been broken. I love Sage's rod guarantee. It was broken again this year, but that's another story.