I posted this on Ifish yesterday and it seemed to draw some interest and was asked to post it here as well. Hope it is educational.


Been a fair amount of of broken rod talk lately so I thought I'd give some perspective as one who's job is making graphite fishing rod blanks.

The material:
Graphite as used in rod making is strands of material, individual strings layed out across a paper backing in a linier fashion. Added to these thousands of strings is a fiberglass mesh known as scrim. This adds toughness and stability. added to that are thrmoplastic resins that bond all the materials together when molded. graphite in this configuration has all it's strength along it's length. it has NO strength across it's grain.

The process
The graphite is ordered to the manufacturers specs and cut into patterns. The patterns are then ironed onto a tapered steel shaft called a mandrel,then they are rolled onto the mandrel. if the parts are not rolled perfectly straight or pull loose from the mandrle the material will be twisted and because graphite has no strength across the grain the part is very likely to break. we call this a "broken tack".
The part is then wrapped with plastic tape and baked in an oven. after the baking process the mandrel is removed and you have a fihished peice ( after being trimmed)

Graphite breaks under compression. It does not break from being streatched. so when a rod that has a bend in it breaks it always breaks on the inside of the curve, as that is the part being compressed. This is what happens whn a rod explodes. The break will usually have lots of fibers. These kinds of breaks usually indicate that the angler was the cause of the break by putting to much heat on a fish or snag.

If a rod gets struck by an object and breaks it's because again the graphite has no strength across the grain. Thes breaks are usually pretty clean, not always straight across but just a clean break not many fibers. However a rod can get struck and then break later as a result such breaks will have a clean side where the impact was and a very fibery break on the opposite side.

If a rod breaks while casting ( fly rods usually) and there was no aparent damage before it's likely to have been a broken tack that didn't get caught by the manufacturer ( very rare)
Another common break is breakage on the male end of a ferrule. This happens when the parts of the rod are not properly seated together. If the parts fit loosly it creates pressure pointsin both ends of the ferrule instead of even pressure through the ferrule. Because the female end of the ferrule is reinforced with an additional piece of graphite it is the pressure point on the male end that causes the breakage. these breaks are usually clean like and impact break.


Now I wanna say this as nicely as I can because I am not trying to offend anyone but with how I see people treat their rods when I am out fishing I constantly marvel an the engineering involved in the making of rods. In general the anglers I see, particularly with salmon, put WAY too much pressure on fish and snags both and commonly use mono or braid that is too heavy for their rod.

Ahhh yes, rod breakage, something I know all too much about.

The damage in the past year or so...

1141 IMX
1308 Scott SAS
Winston DBF #7/8
Freind's CND 1307 Custom
596 XP
My CND 1307 Custom

Hit yourself again...........HARDER.

Now, try being a little more careful, will ya?

Sparky: Did I teach you rod breakage too? This year I have broken two fly rods. One I landed on when I slipped and fell. The other I suspect I damaged in one of those marches from the river to the road, in an area where I was SURE the road had to be "over that way' just a bit. That excursion also resluted in torn waders. Ahhh the joys of fishing.

so rob if you are fighting a fish and it gets off and the weight comes flying back at u and the weight hits your rod u can kiss that rod good bye some time down the road?

fishforlife.... quite possibly yes not always ofcourse but it can and certainly has happened.

any time some of the graphite fibers are damaged ( cut) for any reason there is going to be a weak spot. that weak spot may or may not break.. never know til it happens.

Rob...something we won't argue about..I have a graphite rod that is old. It has a marking from the man who custom built it in the 80s and says "Clearwater 904".....This rod is 9' long and is black graphite. I have never really fished with it because it has broken so many times before getting it wet. I kept replacing the tip section. I kept doing this because it was given to me as a father's day gift and therefore has sentimental value. The latest break is a 6-7" long shatter type break near the bottom of the tip section. I had the rod sitting in the back of the car with other rods and I suspect one of the other rods rolled over on it. It doesn't take much. It actually broke once on a 3# cod hoisting it out of the water to release it.

I have another 9' Clearwater blank custom rod that was given to me by my favorite tackle store owner. It is my favorite salmon rod and has endured years of hard fishing with only the tip guide failing a couple of times. I had Greggs Custom Rods in Lake Stevens redo all the guides and I was good to go for a few more years. My question is: Is Clearwater the company over by Kingston or somewhere over there that went out of business? Is it possible to replace the tip section with something compatible to the butt section and have it look right and actually survive a fishing trip? Any of your thoughts would be appreciated. Why do you suppose the rod is so brittle and breaks so easily?

My lamiglas recently broke as I was bending the rod over to change lures. I swear I didn't put any undo bend on it. Shocked the heck out of me. I sent it in to Lamiglas and received a note stating it was a "splinter" damage and would cost $42 for repare (replace).

I guess they're saying it's my fault, huh?
Sure didn't put much stress on the rod to cause it to break... BTW, it's 3 years old.

I had two break on me a couple of years ago. This was after a 20 year hiatus from broken rods. Up to the two fly rods the previous break was caused by having a surf rod crunched by a car trunk lid.

The two flyrods.. one broke in 2000 and the other in 2001. I suspect the original problem was a hook hit or a beadhead hit. One broke sitting in the boat and the other snapped off while I was stringing line thru it. Both flyrods were replaced by Sage.

I used to build a lot of clearwater blanks and I am sure that they went out of business. I have not been able to get them for quite awile now. I had an 862 steelhead rod that has been put to the test on hundreds of fish and lots of abuse. It finally broke on me last year. (ferrule came loose while I was casting spinners and the stress of casting cracked the butt section)

To answer your question you could replace the tip with something compatable if you get the right fit at the ferrule. The taper would have to match, meaning that it was a snug fit the entire length of the overlap of the ferrule.

I would think that you would be better off just replacing the whole rod. I do know that clearwater sold a 902/903 rod that had one butt section and 2 tip sections, one lighter and one heavier. If you could find someone with and extra tip you may be in business...

good luck...

It depends on how sharply and squarely the rod was struck. If it was hit hard enough to delaminate the layers of Graphite from one another, it's probably going to go quickly, especially in an area that is flexed alot.

A past job I used to do was test graphite parts for aerospace use. The material is pretty tough as long as it remains intact. I have also done some damage growth monitoring on parts that were purposely delaminated and put through their paces and showed no significant growth through the course of the test. But there's always the other side of the story. If your graphite rod is hit hard enough to leave an impression on the surface or visibly separate the protective clear coat from the rod, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to use the rod until you could get it checked out.

that's why I shop the bargain bin of Outdoor Emporium. I can drink beer all day and not get all bent out of shape when I bust them 25-20 dollar rods. You name it, I've done it. - casting ofgf the top half, steppin on 'em, throwin em down and breakin em, explodin em on fish and or snags, bangin em in the boat.

It's funny. I have an old Eagle Claw yellow fiberglass rod that I can't seem to break, but all the new ones only last me a year or two, no matter whether I pay 20 or 120 bucks for 'em

Rob maybe you could correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that unlike fiber glass the higher you hold your graphite rod ie. getting the rod angle above 11 o'clock when fighting a fish or snag you greatly increase the chance of breakage. I see a lot of people bending the tip of their rods over to thread them change lures or the like. This type of bending while it doesn't require a lot of force by the fishermen it puts huge amounts of preasure on a very small area of the rod.

Jr23


You are correct graphite rods are desicned to fight a fish in the butt of the rod not the tip hokding the rod low allows the rod to bend evenly and thereby distribute the stress throughout the blank. Holding the rod high even when setting the hook!!!! puts all the stress on the tip section of the rod.

I have broken lots and lots of rods in my life of all different brands and styles but i have never ever broken a steelhead or salmonrod on a fish or a snag . The only way to do so is to put too much pressure on the rod.
a rod broken on a snag or a fish is angler error 99.99999999999% of the time..

Rob: I agree that most rod breakage is angler error, and God knows I have made my share of them. My worst was on a central america trip. I had a brand new G Loomis 10' 10 weight GLX, about a $500 rod at that time. As I pulled the line through the tip I had the tip way up over my head and apparently pulled almost straight down on that slender tip. Naturally it snapped before having ever been cast once. It was 100% my fault but I was mad at Loomis for about an hour before I thought about what I had done. I later learned that what I did was a fairly common mistake.

rob - i broke a 9'6 6-15 certified pro just llike you said where the top wasnt seated correctly and it slid up and broke on the top of the bottom section. Lamiglass replaced it cheap though even thou it was my fault . but he told me that on grafite rods you want to seat the top perpendicular to the bottom and once it is tight, twist the two sections straight. i tried that way and the top never rides up now.

Rob: Is this an excellent way to break a rod?

Surecatch thats a superb way to break a rod:D

Anyone here never done that????

Good Post and I am sure everyone has a war story or two. And here is mine-

To Fishforlife and Rob Allan-Yes it does! I got a spoon stuck in a tree on the other side of the river. I yanked and on the third or fourth try the spoon came back at me warp speed. The spoon struck my Loomis GL 3 and caused a nick and small crack or I thought a small crack. A year later when I went to set the hook the rod broke right there at the nick. Loomis replaced the rod for $50.00.

To fly persons every where-I got a fly caught in a tree, yes once again, on the other side of the river. I started waving my Sage XP up and down to get the fly out of the bush. Yep, my $610 fly rod snapped. I learned the hard way that with the newer "fast tip" rods you never want to wave one up and down and generate a lot of speed and energey. Sage replaced the rod for shipping and handling fees.

The two thing I leaned were not to cast to tree's and bushes on the other side of the river. And always buy a rod that has a good warranty.

Love seeing guys fighting a fish while having a firm grip on the middle section of the rod.

Also like seeing guys dipping the rod in the water and rake the rocks and gravel while fighting fish.