How many rods have you broken?

Scudley Do Right said:
Seems like I'm in the average. Has anyone had a new rod blow up in the first couple times of using it? Just wondering how common that is.
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Brand new Edge 6wt broke within about 100 seconds of use. Two roll casts and one double haul and it broke. They ghosted me once I returned the rod per their instructions and after months of attempts to get a refund through Edge I eventually had to use my CC company to get my money back. F that company.

I've broken an Echo twice (both my fault, and both sections replaced for $50) and a Mud Bank blank that I built up that was also replaced immediately and easily for the cost of shipping.
 
While it obviously makes me the odd man out I am now used to that. I have never personally broken a rod. Of course I have only been using them for 70 years.
 
I've broken far more rods without a fish on the line than with a fish on the line, that's for sure.
Only twice have I broken a rod playing a fish, and both times they were very large fish.
The other times it was just human error, bad handling, and poor decisions.
 
I actually have only broken one rod myself. I have had others broken due to no fault of my own
Here are just a few:

Favorite break-Sage 8wt broke in Alaska when I hooked a giant King Salmon. I was still able bring the fish in by hand lining
Saddest break: My rod was in the back of a covered pickup bed when my fishing buddy stopped short and the cooler shot forward and killed the rod. Unfortunately, my friend died unexpectantly shortly thereafter.
Oddest break: I had leaned rod against a car after coming off the water when my fishing partner backed up the vehicle. The rod got caught in the wheel well, was spun around by the tire and ejected off to the side without damage. My friend saw it happen, jumped out of the car to get the rod and promptly stepped on it and broke the tip, which was the only damage to the rod
Most nostalgic break: Spinning rod caught in a car door driven by my father when I was about 8 years old and had just learned how to fish.
 
Based on what I am reading above, I am somewhat surprised that vehicle doors/windows break more rods than bead head, barbells, and dumb bells from hitting the rod when casting.
 
6 breaks for 3 rods. First four were all my poor, no longer casts worth a hoot, 6-weight Sage DS-2. It was my first and only rod for years. I think it was something of a learning tool and a sacrificial lamb, because I have only broken one fly rod since (the other was s spinning rod).
 
Broken 6 casting and another 5 doing dumba$$ stuff. I used to test a lot of pre production spey rods and still remember certain models that had blank -weaknesses- that often resulted in breakage. Especially the old Sage 10151and the CND 13' 7wt Custom, because they each were great casting rods. I remember that sickening crack/pop and sudden lack of resistance like it was yesterday. :oops:
 
About 4-5 that I can recall. Two fly rods when I was a clumsy kid; standard car/garage door stuff. One that must have been a defective blank because it just went BINK while casting shortly after I got it. A nice Diamondback 6 wt that I decapitated with a cone head bugger while fishing with the Swimster.
 
One clouserized Echo boost blue when I first started fly fishing last humpy run. The replacement tip broke on the first cast so I’m blaming the factory on that one.
Bushwhacking tumble to a Winston Alpha+.
Ran over a Sage Foundation and a mystery bottom butt section snappage double hauling.
Only been fishing 2 years, I’d say my record is pretty awful.
 
Before I started wearing Korkers, I wore Orvis wading boots exclusively. Since they tend to run narrow while my feet are wide, I needed to wear Size 11, rather than my normal size of 8-1/2, which gave me 'clown feet'. Not really knowing the limits of my feet in those longer boots, I stepped on more than one rod while floating in my raft. Of course I've also had tip tops break off following the odd impact or an overenthusiastic tug at a snagged fly.

Nothing personal against them, but I have this thing about lawyers, pharmacists, autobody repair folks and fishing rod manufacturers recognizing my name (or voice). I'd much rather they didn't!
 
Shad said:
6 breaks for 3 rods. First four were all my poor, no longer casts worth a hoot, 6-weight Sage DS-2. It was my first and only rod for years. I think it was something of a learning tool and a sacrificial lamb, because I have only broken one fly rod since (the other was s spinning rod).
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A DS2 5wt was my first fly rod and only rod for years also. It leapt out of my float tube one day when I set it down with the line still out. I kicked around a couple hours hoping it would resurface. Nope.

Now I tether a rod when I set it down. I learn. Slowly.
 
I cracked a Scott Spey rod by not having the ferrules tight ( I think).
Not a rod but the car instances made me think of a time I leaned my spare really nice bicycle race wheels against the back of my truck as I was loading up for a race. (Pre backup cameras). I backed over them and was like what the heck did I just do, and pulled forward re running them over. That was expensive.
 
I had to think back over the years for this one, but likely half a dozen or so.

First was in high school, I fished a lot with one of those old inflatable Sevylor rafts that I'd fold up and keep in the trunk of the car. One day after fishing I was trying to fold up the deflated raft and apparently there was still a section of an Eagle Claw fiberglass spinning rod nested in the crease where the floor meets the big side tube. For some reason the deflated raft wouldn't fold in half and 16 year old me thought that forcing it was the answer. After reefing on it heavily, it finally "folded" along with a loud snap.

Next was a few years later, steelhead fishing on the Snoqualimie with a new Lamiglass Northwest Special. I got to aggressive trying to drag a small hatchery steelhead onto the bank and the lower section of the rod blew up, much to the amusement of the other dozen anglers lining the Cable Hole. I quickly got a free replacement from Big 5, and that one had a visible wrapping defect and broke on one of the firsts casts with a heavy spoon. The 3rd rod worked out and I still have it upstairs.

At the Chico creek estuary, fishing for chums I blew up an Orvis 9wt Silver Label, trying to unhook a feisty dog in knee deep water. Orvis sent me a replacement Trident TL in less than a month, I think for free.

Broke the tip off my Loomis IMX 4 wt 9' (built from a blank) so now it's a 8'9". No idea how it happened, I just noticed it one day when getting it out to use.

I blew up the butt section of my Scott ARC 1287 spey rod on the upper Green, while trying to execute a Snap-T / Circle cast with a heavy sink tip. Scott rebuilt me a new lower section but it cost me a few bucks, maybe $100?

Had my brand new Redington CT 590-4 somehow get wrapped under the anchor rope while my buddy was launching his driftboat on the upper Yak. I now wait until the boat is launched before bringing thte rods down and getting in. Redington sent me a replacement rod for whatever their fee is these days, $50-ish.

That's all I can think of at the moment.
 
At least a half dozen:

I will start with one that is not my fault so it doesn't count. Fishing the evening trout boil at Grosvenor Lodge in AK with my dad and BIL. We all had a couple rods in the boat. BIL had a few before we went out. At one point during the evening BIL takes a leak over the side of the boat. End of the night and my dad is putting rods on the pegs on the side of the lodge. He ticks my rod tip on one of the pegs and the thing snaps. The look on his face. Next morning I am lamenting the broken rod and BIL says. I don't think it was your dad's fault. I thought I heard a crunch when I knelt on the seat to pee. By the end of that trip I really hated my 6wt Echo Carbon backup.

These I can't blame on anyone else. Never have I broken one while fighting a fish.

1. Glad to hear I am not the only one who has left a rod on the car after fishing and drove away. That is the stupidest one.
2. I am part of the loose ferrule club too - heard a crack while casting - man that was a horrible noise. Might have done this twice.
3. Also cracked one with a weighted fly.
4. In my canoe paddling/fishing a channel through reeds. Got to the other end and reached for my dry fly rod - broken. Must have got caught in the reeds during a clumsy maneuver, but I really don't now how it broke.
5. Carrying two rods on the river. Put them down next to each other while I took off my backpack. Went to grab a rod and noticed one was broken - again a mystery
6. Landed a fish and tossed my rod in the grass to unhook the fish. Picked up a broken rod - again a mystery.
 
Eight is the number that comes to mind. Over the past 50 or so years. Three were breaks about an inch or so below the tip top, so those rods were repaired and continue to fish a tad shorter than they were originally. Two were the CND Custom that Doublespey referenced earlier. Truly a nice casting rod, but there was some design flaw in the mid section that just suddenly blew up. Two were Hardy 10 1/2' 8 wts that I think also had a design flaw where the butt section just snapped during ordinary casting. And one was my old S.A. fiberglass system 6 trout rod. It was in a plastic rod case when someone threw another duffle bag on it while loading a small ferry boat. Fortunately my partner had a "loaner" rod I was able to use on that trip. Looks like 4 of the 8 were user error, while the remaining 4 were the result of a design or manufacturing flaw.
 
Over the past few years my tally is 2.

The first was a Reddington Claymore. I'd tied down my rod on my Watermaster, launching from Dodge Park on the Sandy. There is a rapid immediately after the launch and this was maybe the 3rd time I'd used the raft. Things did not go well and I ended up on the island in the middle of the river with a broken oar and no spare. Luckily you can ford the Sandy above that island so I got back to the park and discovered that the rod tip had broken somewhere in there. Of course I got home, ordered a new tip which took a couple days to get there. Thats when I discovered that the rod I'd broken wasn't actually mine, it was my friend's 7wt claymore which I'd broken, somehow we'd mixed the two rods up getting ready to launch.

The second was a simple clouser to the tip of my Beach Boost, I feel like that was just the obligatory lesson of "Don't try and rip a clouser out of the water when you have 20 feet of line out" lesson.
 
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