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.
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