Rod Destruction

chrome/22

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Ever blow one up, l mean really explode one?

Not that soft gentle crunch like a tip in a car door, or that delicate collapse of a wounded blank on a back cast.

But flat, out bent to the max on a big fish jackpot city.

I've seen a few in my day but nothing compares to one Fall season out on the coast my old fishing buddy Big Al had. Country strong and built like a linebacker he was one powerful dude

He found a sale on these Fenwick HMG baitcasters at that little tackle store in Issaquah circa 1987, forgot the name of the place. Anyway he stocked up. And they were all pure crap

Now BA liked to run brand new 8 lb Ultragreen mono on his Castaic 200's. He mostly threw blue fox spinners in size 3, especially loved the classic silver blade blue body. He could throw those things a country mile with reasonable accuracy. He also liked to get his $$ worth on a hook set, probably because he was too cheap to swap out those dinky trebles for a decent Siwash single.

Anyway that Fall I literally watched him mow thru a tackle store of those ill-fated HMG rods. Must have been a rancid mix of scrim on budget graphite because those bassomatics could not take the strain he could dish out.

Remember one back eddy we pulled the Clackie into, there has to be some hiding out in this frogwater sez he. And there definitely were some players present, a boil gave them away.

He launches a cast it, let's it track a second them I hear "there's one" look over to see a fully loaded spanking new rod pump once, twice and literally disintegrate. Must have no joke blown into 8 separate pieces & all going in different directions. I can still see graphite particles floating in the atmosphere around him almost like a halo

Was a spectacular sight, it's fixed in my mind even today. He almost fell over backwards as he was so leaning into that ho. The breakage was so violent it even cut his line releasing the fish. He looked over at me and said "it's under warranty brother, hand me another!" 🤣

Nobody could fish like Big Al.

c/22
 
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During a Christmas Island blue water outing I was in the boat with two guys from Texas. Fly trolling was slow, so they whipped out cheap gear rods and fished diving plugs. After a long period of no action, we passed over a school of decent sized yellowfin tuna. Both Texans hooked up immediately and braided line blazed off their under spooled baitcasting reels. One Texan howled in agony as his thumb burned against the outgoing line, then SNAP he was spooled. The other Texan collapsed onto me when the tuna struck and his cheap rod exploded into several pieces. His yellowfin slowed down just before spooling him and he fought it from the final guide still barely clinging onto his shattered rod. Luckily he was able to pump up that tuna to the gaff. The kitchen didn't have much meat that week, so the fresh tuna improved our cuisine.
 
Ever blow one up, l mean really explode one?

Not that soft gentle crunch like a tip in a car door, or that delicate collapse of a wounded blank on a back cast.

But flat, out bent to the max on a big fish jackpot city.

I've seen a few in my day but nothing compares to one Fall season out on the coast my old fishing buddy Big Al had. Country strong and built like a linebacker he was one powerful dude

He found a sale on these Fenwick HMG baitcasters at that little tackle store in Issaquah circa 1987, forgot the name of the place. Anyway he stocked up. And they were all pure crap

Now BA liked to run brand new 8 lb Ultragreen mono on his Castaic 200's. He mostly threw blue fox spinners in size 3, especially loved the classic silver blade blue body. He could throw those things a country mile with reasonable accuracy. He also liked to get his $$ worth on a hook set, probably because he was too cheap to swap out those dinky trebles for a decent Siwash single.

Anyway that Fall I literally watched him mow thru a tackle store of those ill-fated HMG rods. Must have been a rancid mix of scrim on budget graphite because those bassomatics could not take the strain he could dish out.

Remember one back eddy we pulled the Clackie into, there has to be some hiding out in this frogwater sez he. And there definitely were some players present, a boil gave them away.

He launches a cast it, let's it track a second them I hear "there's one" look over to see a fully loaded spanking new rod pump once, twice and literally disintegrate. Must have no joke blown into 8 separate pieces & all going in different directions. I can still see graphite particles floating in the atmosphere around him almost like a halo

Was a spectacular sight, it's fixed in my mind even today. He almost fell over backwards as he was so leaning into that ho. The breakage was so violent it even cut his line releasing the fish. He looked over at me and said "it's under warranty brother, hand me another!" 🤣

Nobody could fish like Big Al.

c/22
That's a great story!
 
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