Broken Rod

[JeffP]

Well, I broke my rod today. It was a new build (new build) a year ago and I loved it. Unfortunately, the blank was an older All Star blank from Lamar. I noticed that there was a strand on the male ferrel that was split. It was the only rod I had with me for the day. After fighting a few really nice rainbows it shattered. I guess there is no hope. Could I have saved it if I had stopped and gotten it looked at before it shattered. Is there any hope? I loved the rod and it had a really nice reel seat and cork grip. I guess those can't be saved either. I am so bummed!

 

[Dave_W]

It's tough to say whether the rod could have been saved. Losing a favorite gear item with sentimental value is always hard.

I build pretty much all my FF rods and typically use low-end blanks and they usually perform fine. I'm highly tolerant of flaws and blemishes and my windings are sloppy. As such, I don't hesitate to chop and glue rod blanks to keep them serviceable or change their length/action. Folks with finer tastes in FF rods would likely say yours was doomed but I might have tried to fix the crack with glue or winding and such a repair might have kept the rod going. I'm still fishing with a 6WT that shattered a ferrule a decade ago and the fix has held.

Depending on how bad the break is, you might take the rod to someone with experience in rod building and see what they say. Ferrule breaks are, in my experience, easier to fix than rods that break in the middle of a section, which I usually regard as a total loss. FF rods that are a total loss for me (about one per year - I break a lot of rods) can sometimes have the seat, guides, and fighting butt recycled.

 

[laszlo]

Sorry to hear about your rod, always ruins my day. Like Dave said the reel seat and cork can be removed and used on a future build.