Broken fishing rod fixes

[oldmanjoe]

    Well I broke one of my favorite sticks again .   First time it broke 12 inches above the reel seat .    This time it broke 19 inches above the seat .

   I had a big bonnet head on , fought nice seen the boat and took off again ,was on the fourth run  and snap .  Caught me by surprise ,tough it broke at the first repair . Was real happy that I got the tip section back .

   Second picture is were it broke the first time ." Under the red bandaid "    That is how I keep track of breaks .   When I checked with a dowel, it went down 3 1/4 inches , when it hit the first dowel repair.  Glued it up Gorilla glue , 5 inches will go into the top section .   Let it bleed glue , and clean up with a knife .  Put a copper bandaid on this one !!

     I wrap in my lap . When I need two hands I place the spool on my hip to hold tension.

[steelfish]

nice save but seems that from now the lower section will be kinda stiff with two dowels inside the blank

[MarkT]

Time for a new rod. It should've been replaced after the 1st break. An insert 12" above the seat doesn't do good things for the action even if you can put it back together. A 2nd break? Fugetaboutit!

[oldmanjoe]

     It`s still one of my favorites , it is a slow action stick .  It is sliding up the scale to
    moderate slow action with the stiffer back bone .   Still like the tip action ..

[Bill B]

Good save, but I agree with Mark, time to retire that old soldier. 

[oc1]

If you pick the perfect rod for the application to begin with, then any repaired break will make it something less than perfect.

[Cor]

90% of broken rods can be repaired successfully.   I have never had much success with inserts, I always make sleeves which are obviously athletically not as pleasing but I find it easier to do and a sleeve is stronger then an insert.

The trick is to make the repair without finishing and go and test it to see how it feels, cast pulls etc.   If that test is OK then do the finishing off which is usually the most work.

[happyhooker]

For me, the best info on various rod repair strategies has been from an old article by Ralph O'Quinn (who I believe is deceased now) that you can find online at many spots.  I believe the original article was on Rodbuilding.org. I do not treat the tips in that article as gospel, but the info there explains why he repaired rods the way he did, and I use that to come up with a plan for each rod I work on.  I have had exceptional success (knock on wood) with his general schemes on repairs for rods within, say, the top 15 in. or so of rods.  One thing I like to do, if I can, is locate the repair sleeve in a place where I can re-wrap a guide on top of the repair; I feel this not only strengthens the work, but unless you look very closely, it masks the repair area so it is much harder to see the sleeve, or that any repair has even been done.  I also had good success with a repair of an old fiberglass spinning rod I had made 40+ years ago after a plastic crate got dropped on it about 10 in. above the top of the foregrip.  I always thoroughly test all repaired rods under live angling conditions, and have been fortunate in that I have not had a repair go bad, and the action of the rod remains fairly true to what it was before the break.

Frank

[oldmanjoe]

            I could have retired this stick , It`s not like I don`t have at least 16 similar action sticks .

   But what`s wrong with this fix ,It`s a little more back boned .   It will go with me on the next outing . 

[foakes]

Nice work, Joe!

Best, Fred

[Cor]

I agree Joe, fixing a rod is a challenge and great when successful.

[oldmanjoe]

    I also look  at it as , how else are you going to know what works and what does not .     What are consequences of the fix ..   Never give up a good fishing buddy !

[jtwill98]

how else are you going to know what works and what does not

My thoughts as well.  Give it a shot and if it works, Great ; if not, you learn something from trying. 

Great job on the rod repair. 

[sabaman1]

Looks like she will catch you many more fish Joe.

[oldmanjoe]

        Another broken stick .  I found part of a rod in the garbage fairly new , no top half .
  I had made a bamboo stick to graft to this carbon fiber base .  Drilled a hole in the base cork and slid the bamboo in .


  It was a nice stick , until I high sticked  it .    Broke at the graft point .      I found some ferrules in a  draw that were the right size .   Needed  a little thread band for fit.

   This time I am going to use a smaller reel and line ..