How are fly anglers breaking all of these rods?

Great thread, here goes:

1. Old 6wt Scott- climbing up hill at Penns creek. Fell and chose to break my fall with the rod. It broke above the reel seat, cork and blank. Tried to remove the cork from the blank unsuccessfully.

2. 7wt Redington- buddy's rod- walking our canoe on the east bank of Susky in the Dauphin Narrows as we did not want to shoot the rapids. Slipped on a rock and again broke my fall with his rod that just happened to be sitting where I was holding on to the canoe. Bought him a new one. That was fun.

3. 3wt Echo Shadow II- have broken tip section twice while casting. They are very fragile so they were probably nicked. Echo replaced first one for free, bought the second one for $40 which in not bad.
 
Swattie87 said:
My only non-idiot failure was also a Cabelas branded rod. Failed twice actually. It was a 9’ 6wt, forget the model, but fairly high up in the Cabelas lines at the time. $300 sticker price maybe, bought on close out for closer to $200. It was my go to WW rod, and I don’t know that I’ve found a rod I liked as better for creek WW fishing, but I’ve stayed away from Cabelas branded rods after this...
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It isn't fly rods but I have a bunch of Cabela's XML graphite casting & spinning rods which represent close to 100% of my non-trout conventional fishing rods.

When purchased close to 30 years ago they were the top of the line Cabela's branded rods, all 2 piece, and selling for around $80 - $90 bucks each.

However I've used and still use these rods a LOT for panfish, toothy critters, bass, shad and everything else. I do care for them like they were $4000 fly rods but regardless, they are still going strong with not a single issue.

Maybe older is better when it comes to Cabela's rods but I'm glad I resisted the urge so far to "upgrade" to ANY newer stuff because these rods have been very good to me.
 
I didn't personally break a fly rod until I started assembling them. The only break was to the tip when I was too heavy handed while adding the wrap behind the tiptop.
I had the front of a cork handle start to loosen and shift slightly while casting (rod was built for me many years ago). I was able to chunk out some cork, fill in with epoxy and hide it with cork crumbs. It may have eventually failed if I hadn't done that.
The commonalities appear to involve vehicle doors/windows/hatches, attempts to retrieve snags, and falls... which are basically unavoidable. The rod-last-out and rod-stowed-first practice involving vehicles has served us well for many years. Nothing we can do about the other two.
 
I broke an SP and tore a 2 inch hole in a pair of brand new G3 waders after a fall down a drainage on Raccoon Creek by Erie. That one hurt.
 
dc410 said:
I worked part time in a fly shop many years ago and remember quite a few busted rods showing up at the counter. A prerequisite of mine was to have them tell me the story because all broken fly rods are accompanied by a story. Some of them were very unique and entertaining.

But one of the wildest ones I remember over the years was this one. I was gearing up to fish a section of the Little J many years ago when another pick-up truck pulled into the parking area. Two guys jumped out of the truck totally all over each others crap about who’s fault what was!

As it turned out they had a pickup truck with a sliding rear window in the cab. They had the reel end of the assembled outfit on the dashboard and the rod back through the sliding window into the bed of the truck. In transit the fly line worked its way loose and went down between the cab and the bed of the truck and eventually became wrapped around the driveshaft. The reel on the dashboard started screaming and until they actually figured out what had happened they totally destroyed the rod (busted in 3 pieces) as well as torching the fly line which they had to cut off of the driveshaft. The ways to bust a fly rod are literally endless!
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That reminds me of the time I went down to the bay to fish with a couple friends. One of those guys owned a trailer that he kept in a trailer park there which we stayed in overnight.

In the morning, my one friend who had his boat told the other 2 of us to walk to the trailer park entrance while he drove his truck with the boat around the road through the trailer park, and he said he’d meet us at the entrance. When I asked him where I should put my assembled rod he told me to stick it in one of the rod holders on the back of the boat. So I did that without thinking that it was probably sticking up about 10’ high, and he was going to be driving under some trees whose branches were probably only 8’ high.

By the time I saw him driving toward us at the park’s entrance I could only see about half of my rod sticking up in the rod holder, and my line was trailing behind the boat way back into the trailer park. When I followed the line I found my rod tip hanging in a tree branch. I was lucky, and was using a heavy duty spinning rod on that trip, and nothing had broken. I did have to buy new line, but that was a pretty cheap cost for learning my lesson: Keep your head up and rod tip down.

P.S. I’m not sure if I had already learned that lesson before I walked into my hotel room one night holding my disassembled 10’ 2 pc fly rod in one hand. When I reached in to turn on what I thought was the light switch I learned that it was actually the ceiling fan. I turned the fan off but by then I was carrying a 10’ 3 pc rod.
 
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I've broken 2 rods on BFC alone. Both while walking the bank and slipping on the rocks. I even broke an ugly stick in H.S.
 
Here's a funny one a friend shared,
My friend and his wife drove to the river in their station wagon with fly rods sticking out through the back window. They sat at the parking area and watched trout rising while eating their sandwiches. It started raining a bit and the woman pushed the button that rolled up the electric windows. The rear window also rolled up and broke all the flyrods. They said they did not say a word to each other and just drove home.
 
In addition to the rod one that I broke in a ceiling fan, mentioned previously, here are a few of my other rod breakages:

1. Fell on Rod - 2x. One of those happened while going down a steep bank on a tributary to Pine Creek. I grabbed onto a small tree to keep from sliding down the hill just in time to look into the eyes of a coiled rattlesnake. I let go of the tree to get away from the snake and saved myself but not the rod.

2. Shut truck tailgate onto rod.

3. Shut truck door onto rod.

4. Broke rod tip while fighting large tree branch.

5. Placed assembled fly rod under a canoe that was in the truck bed. A rod does not ride very well under a canoe that is not tied down when driving on a bumpy dirt road.

————

Nearly 6 years ago I also lost a half dozen or so fly rods (plus a lot more fly fishing items) in a fire in Montana. I was only able to find the partial remains of one of those rods after the fire, which I think was a Sage SP. I’m happy to report when I discussed it with a Sage’s warranty person, he told me to send the unidentifiable graphite pieces to them and they’d see what they could do. Sometime after that Sage sent me a complete new Sage SP rod, cloth bag and tube at no charge. 👍
 
I had two rods break on me in a month and both while fishing Spring Creek last year. The first one was a Cabela’s IM6 graphite 9’ 4/5 wt. I started to cast and the rod felt like a noodle. Here, the graphite had split above the reel seat but below the ferrule( it’s a two piece). I’ve that rod for thirty years so I guess I just wore it out. I was able to fix it with epoxy and winding some guide thread around it. The second rod was a Redington 9’4wt. We were fishing Spring below Bellefonte. I stepped on a watercress bed, got stuck and down I went breaking the rod. It was a clean break in the segment with the reel seat. I took a wood dowel and slipped that inside, applied epoxy, wrapped it with thread and applied epoxy over the thread. They both cast well but I did buy a new 9’4wt. I always take an extra rod.
 
dc410 said:
I worked part time in a fly shop many years ago and remember quite a few busted rods showing up at the counter. A prerequisite of mine was to have them tell me the story because all broken fly rods are accompanied by a story. Some of them were very unique and entertaining.

But one of the wildest ones I remember over the years was this one. I was gearing up to fish a section of the Little J many years ago when another pick-up truck pulled into the parking area. Two guys jumped out of the truck totally all over each others crap about who’s fault what was!

As it turned out they had a pickup truck with a sliding rear window in the cab. They had the reel end of the assembled outfit on the dashboard and the rod back through the sliding window into the bed of the truck. In transit the fly line worked its way loose and went down between the cab and the bed of the truck and eventually became wrapped around the driveshaft. The reel on the dashboard started screaming and until they actually figured out what had happened they totally destroyed the rod (busted in 3 pieces) as well as torching the fly line which they had to cut off of the driveshaft. The ways to bust a fly rod are literally endless!
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That probably beats my vacuum cleaner story.
 
I think have a good one on broken rods. Though it wasn’t a fly rod. Hiking along stony creek in the poconos a few years along. My dog and wife were with me. I brought along a spinning rod. My dog has a habit of grabbing sticks and breaking them when he’s bored. He also likes to go after fish when I’m reeling them in. (Brings to mind anther story. anyone ever hook man’s best friend ? 😬. story for anther time) anyway so I was flinging a spinner around and I guess it got to close to his head. in a split second he bit about 6 “ of the tip off ! So much for fishing anymore that day ! ( ps.no he didn’t get punished )
 
dwa111 said:
I've broken 2 rods on BFC alone. Both while walking the bank and slipping on the rocks. I even broke an ugly stick in H.S.
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I'd wager more folks fall on/in BFC than any other PA stream. The only place I've had more trouble staying upright was the Madison.

I still have an 8wt UglyStik.
 
Hey, Jav,

You should have rewarded the dog with a Milk Bone for doing it to a spinning rod. Next time, you'll take a fly rod! 🙂 (Just kidding, you know.)
 
I broke the tip on a 10' 3wt lifting vertical to get a fish in the net. Have since read that graphite rods are not meant to bend more than 90 degrees. Got a new tip and later crunched it in the tailgate. I am on my third tip on that rod.

Here is a link to a rod blank manufacturer's findings on rod breaks. He claims over 95% of all rod failures are due to misuse or abuse

 
Bopper said:
I broke the tip on a 10' 3wt lifting vertical to get a fish in the net. Have since read that graphite rods are not meant to bend more than 90 degrees. Got a new tip and later crunched it in the tailgate. I am on my third tip on that rod.

Here is a link to a rod blank manufacturer's findings on rod breaks. He claims over 95% of all rod failures are due to misuse or abuse

Click to expand...
That sounds very believable.
 
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