Broke my rod today

skyriver

skyriver

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I broke my beloved 9' 5wt IMX today. I had a feisty 16" rainbow try to go under my Commander. I had it in my head I could stop him. The rod broke at the top of the butt. It's a 2 piece from the 80s.
6# fluoro is pretty tough!

I built the rod in 88'. It had the tip issue that some of those first IMX batches had. It broke really easily on a Deschutes trip. Loomis sent me a new blank no fuss and I only used the top section.
So the good news is I have a spare butt section at home!
I'll probably get the components from Proof Fly Fishing. I bought new cork for my Aetos 8wt from them and really like the product. And they gave great attention to my questions. My buddy had recommended them as he had built an old Sage RPLX 11wt blank into a musky rod for me using their parts.

I think I may have tweaked the IMX yesterday. I made a LOT of roll casts throwing bobbers. On one particular cast, I heard a weird noise. I then noticed the top section had almost flew off.
Oh well, I get a "new" rod out of the deal.
 
Bummer, but it's a good thing you have the other half of the blank still.

Any tips on where to go to get started with rod building? I built a G-Loomis 5-wt back in high school with the help of the local fly shop, but that ended up as a victim of a car door. I got the replacement blank, but it's been sitting in the garage for 25 years. I'd like to get around to building it, but I'm not sure where to start. The fly shops nearest me don't do their own rod building.
 
DryFly82 said:
Bummer, but it's a good thing you have the other half of the blank still.

Any tips on where to go to get started with rod building? I built a G-Loomis 5-wt back in high school with the help of the local fly shop, but that ended up as a victim of a car door. I got the replacement blank, but it's been sitting in the garage for 25 years. I'd like to get around to building it, but I'm not sure where to start. The fly shops nearest me don't do their own rod building.
Click to expand...
Proof Fly Fishing. com…they have very good starter video tutorials and EVERYTHING you need. Great people also..

mudhole.com

CRB Core Hand Wrapper

he CRB Core Hand Wrapper is built for anglers ready to start their rod building journey. Made from tough ABS polymer with a compact design, it provides a rock-solid platform for wrapping in tight spaces or on the go. Molded rubber feet grip securely to any surface, so your rod stays steady while...
mudhole.com mudhole.com

If you can justify this, it can make the process much easier..
 
What's funny is I was on Proof's website just last week thinking I should do something with that spare butt. I think I may have jinxed myself.

I'm leaning towards a black reel seat with carbon fiber insert, but they have some nice burl ones. If I went burl I'd probably go with chrome real seat. I had walnut on the original so not going with that. Hmm....
 
DryFly82 said:
Awesome. Thanks for the great resource. I'm sure expanding my DIY skills will save me a ton of money in the long run just like my fly-tying does :ROFLMAO:
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It’s fun, and you can do some nice customization, but as you point out I don’t think you save money at hobby scale. If you want to test the waters you can use a notched cardboard box as a rod wrapping jig.
 
Hmmm, I broke the tip section of my 2 piece 9’9” 5wt GL3 a couple years. It was my workhorse rod years. I liked it so much I bought a backup on eBay several years….so I do still have one. But I never investigated if I could get a replacement tip section🤔
 
I decided I should re-use the reel seat. It's black and nice walnut. It looked like this-

20170419_200742.jpg

My original build used a 6.5" grip that did not have an inlet on purpose. I thought the exposed hood was cool. It was pretty common back in the 80s.

My new grip will be a Proof Fly Fishing rubber cork faced reverse half wells 7" w/ inlet so the hood will be hidden. This will put the reel closer to the grip. Winding check will be Proof's black narrow profile. I'm re-using the hook keep, stripping guide and 1 foot snake guide from the old blank. Thread will be Fuji Ultra Maroon. The maroon looks nice with the dark grey IMX blank. If I remember correctly, I used the same thread when I re-wrapped the rod about 15 years ago. I also went to 1 foot guides then. I've really liked them. We'll see how different the thread color is. Not too worried. If it's really noticeable I'll re-wrap the top to match the new bottom.

So saving some money, but also carrying on a lot of history and good mojo.
 
Pigs said:
Hmmm, I broke the tip section of my 2 piece 9’9” 5wt GL3 a couple years. It was my workhorse rod years. I liked it so much I bought a backup on eBay several years….so I do still have one. But I never investigated if I could get a replacement tip section🤔
Click to expand...

GL3’s were very underrated along with the original GLX models aka “the classics”. I had one GL3 I broke three times. The last time they were no longer available they replaced it with a Metolius, but not the Streamdance version. Fished it one day and sold it. Just super whimpy compared to the GL3.
SF
 
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