Winston repair

[Acristickid]

Finally sent my broke LT 5 piece travel rod in for repair. I clipped my top ferrel with a streamer and the connection literally blew up.

Was in desperation to catch and Eagle Lake Rainbow and was using that rod when I needed to rerig up my 9 5wt. Oh well, at least I brought a back up and ending up using it for the majority of that trip.

It’s my favorite rod , 8’3 4 wt. it’s great for travel and pretty good for dry flies. It is a great tool for fishing native streams out west for me.

This is probably the 3rd time I’ve sent it back for repair. Probably 15-20 year old rod.

The same ferrel blew 5 years ago trying to pull a snagged fly out of tree. Maybe compromised prior cause it broke pretty easily, meaning I’ve yanked it much harder prior to that.

Repairs for this rod have definitely have increased to a $100 now. Pretty sure it was $50 10 years ago. Such as life.

Anyway I finally sent it back. Now I can look forward to getting it back as we wait out this cold weather.

Anyone else send any rods back this winter?

 

[turkey]

That one stings A-Kid. I've had to send a couple back over the years but not over this waning winter. What I do have is an R.B. Meiser switch rod with broken snake guide. I've had the replacement guide, thread and Flex Coat sitting on my desk for 2 years now. I snapped it off trying to separate 2 sections. One of these days...

 

[KeviR]

I just sent a Sage Sonic the six-weight back for repair. It's been sitting since last summer, but I procrastinated through the fall and winter. It was not covered by warranty and they charged me $50 which includes return shipping. Not bad at all. But it is only 2 years old, so maybe they would charge more for older ones.
I have two old Sages that both need new snake guides, and I plan to repair them myself. The last time I did this, I called Sage and talked to a nice lady who said they would send me a full guide set for the repair. (I guess they don't mess with single guides.) Anyway, no charge. This time I couldn't find a phone number anywhere on their website. So I sent a "contact us" email. That was 2 weeks ago. Crickets.

 

[caddisflyer]

Winston is a solid company in my experience. I have sent two rods to them for repair and although the wait was quite a while the rods came back perfect. In one case they put on a new reel seat which I had not asked for. Winston and Orvis both are good to work with. Some of the other companies like Diawa and some of the wader companies, not so much.

 

[Acristickid]

I took charge of my outstanding items last week and checked off a bunch of life items , once the big items were dealt with I got around to the rod.

That Winston rod was 112,000 it fell in the category of “classic” meaning it just made the $100 level. At least it wasn’t “vintage” which woulda cost more.

I have 5-6 rods.

Ended up using an Orvis 9 5 wt that I hadn’t used in 10 years as my primary rod from mid summer on last year. Sort of a rediscovery, it was pleasant to use.

It’s nice companies are willing to send out components.

Looking forward to getting the rod back as it will be dry fly season in another month or so.

 

[Acristickid]

Just an update- rod not back yet. Says contact again if not heard anything in 4 weeks. Lady said materials on ship. Glad I don’t have any trips in next month or two.

 

[Acristickid]

Update:

Got rod back awhile ago but this repair took much longer than anticipated. A good 4 plus months to get rod back.

Glad I didn’t have any trips planned as this 5 piece is my primary tool for native trout fishing. Pretty small tube and fits inside my luggage. Been a good tool for small streams.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Update:

Got rod back awhile ago but this repair took much longer than anticipated. A good 4 plus months to get rod back.

Glad I didn’t have any trips planned as this 5 piece is my primary tool for native trout fishing. Pretty small tube and fits inside my luggage. Been a good tool for small streams.

You should consider finding the same rod on eBay and purchasing it.
It may take awhile but one should come up eventually.

I'd avoid the Japan sellers, they ask outrageous prices.

 

[Bamboozle]

Update:

Got rod back awhile ago but this repair took much longer than anticipated. A good 4 plus months to get rod back.

Glad I didn’t have any trips planned as this 5 piece is my primary tool for native trout fishing. Pretty small tube and fits inside my luggage. Been a good tool for small streams.

Color me surprised they repaired it considering the age which makes me feel a little better about my stash...

I own more than a few Winston graphite rods (including the 7'9" 2wt LT-5) and many Winston Retro fiberglass rods.

Even though I am the original owner with the warranty card of all but three rods, in the case of two of my favorites, I paid to have matching tip & mid sections built because I feared a situation where I couldn't get a repair.

I also bought several downlocking Winston reelseats with different inserts when they were available because I hate uplocking reelseats and I figured they'd use one as a replacement if I needed a major repair.

BTW - I don't know if Mike Callahan still works in the Winston Repair Shop but he took great care of me when I needed work done by the factory...

If I loved that LT-5 8'3" 4wt as much as you I would look into getting spare sections made, however you WILL have to send the rod back to Winston for that to happen.

Glad you got your rod back!!