4 broken fly rods in a month

[s037474]

I lived and fished in Florida for 20 years catch redfish, trout, bone fish, snook and never once broke a rod.

I move to Colorado and pick up fly fishing and have broke 4. A 150.00 rod from Amazon broke while placing the hook on the holder and very slightly tighten the line to get the slack out. Snap went the tip last month while on vacation 6 hrs away. I also bought a 150.00 combo rod reel for my wife from cabellas, so I use that for the day, place the hook on the holder and snap, there goes the tip. Unbelievable!!

So I'm 6 hrs away from home and go to the local fly shop for a new rod. I explain what I'm doing and they state all poles should be able to place a hook there and reel in slack but talk about how cheap Cabela's poles are and proceed to tell me how great orvis is and a lifetime warranty no questions asked on the clear water line. After breaking two poles, I'm sold on the warranty and buy both the rod and reel.

I fish 2 more days, then head home, vacation over. 3 weeks later, I go to the same place since I caught so many fish, another 2 week vacation. I also bought my wife a cheap Walmart fly rod. Not sure how much she will like fishing.

2nd day fishing a stocked lake, the orvis rod snaps about a foot down while reeling I'm a 14 inch rainbow. Unbelievable!!!! Never had a rod snap on me ever, so disappointed! I then use my wife's Walmart rod and the large thick part snaps while casting it!

The fly shop I bought it from said they won't exchange it, send it to orvis. I call orvis and they say it's been 32 days since purchase, it will be 60.00 to fix. 60.00!!!! The fly shop stated lifetime and never mentions 60.00. honestly, I don't even feel this rod is worth 60.00!!! Walmart swapped out thier rod no receipt, no questions asked!

So I told orvis I want my money back per the website statement, 100 percent satisfied or 100 percent money back. They said they would do that but would not swap out the pole????

I got home, absolutely disappointed in orvis, I go to the local store to see if they will exchange it and he says he's not supposed to and explains why but after him tellimg me the million reasons why he shouldn't, he decided to with out me even complaining. I'm very thankful he did although it's the right thing to do.

I still have no confidence in the entire company and wonder should I just get my money back and buy a different brand? Or did I have extremely bad luck and should give e this rod a chance?

I know one thing I learned, I'll only buy from Cabela's in the future for rods and reels. They have 90 days returns and I will probably only buy TFO. After this nightmare they appear to have the best warranty which is zero cost, lifetime if you don't cause the break. If you cause the break, only 30.00.

 

[weiliwen]

The chances of getting 2 defective rods is one in a hundred. 4 broken rods is user error. I know you won't want to hear that, but I feel it's the case.

 

[westcoast]

Your probably not moving your whole arm when putting out line, but rather just doing quick jerks like on a spinner rod and putting all the strain on the tip.

 

[s037474]

Trust me, after 4 broken rods I'm open to the fact it could be user error. With that said, one would think rods wouldn't break due to the way you cast after spending 200.00 on it. I was just throwing 22 drys, maybe I'm wrong but I'd hope they were built better than that.i do use my whole arm but I'd be lying if I said there's never any wrist involved. That still wouldn't explain the Walmart rod breaking by the handle.

 

[clsmith131]

That still wouldn't explain the Walmart rod breaking by the handle.

The word "Walmart" might.

 

[ejsell]

I feel your pain. I had also never broken a rod until last year and managed to break 3. First was my tenkara rod which snapped a little ways above the cork handle while playing a medium sized rainbow. Luckily I was able to retrieve the top half of my rod after chasing it for a little while and Tenkara USA has a fantastic warranty. Second one was my Allen steelhead rod, I broke the tip and it was totally my fault but they also have a great warranty and a minimal charge to replace the section. My newest one, early in the summer I broke a guide on my 5wt LLBean. Again totally my fault with a bad cast and a heavy clouser. When I called Bean they put me through to the fishing department at their flagship store. The gentleman I spoke to sent me a couple of replacement guides and walked me through removing the old one and replacing it. I recommend all 3 companies for great customer service. All 3 had parts to me in less than a week and were great on the phone.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[silver creek]

The chances of getting 2 defective rods is one in a hundred. 4 broken rods is user error. I know you won't want to hear that, but I feel it's the case.

^^^^ What he said.

I'm thinking that the rods that broke near the tip AND the Orvis Rod in the upper section were probably damaged during casting by impacts due to tailing loops.

Three different rods from 3 different manufacturers all break and the common factor is the same person using the rod. Operator error can occur in many ways from high sticking to loose ferrules, but for a new fly fisher/caster with breaks in the upper section of the rod = casting impacts. You man not have even realized the damage.

I don't know about the Walmart rod other than to say I have never heard of the butt of a rod ever breaking on a cast.

"I got home, absolutely disappointed in orvis, I go to the local store to see if they will exchange it and he says he's not supposed to and explains why but after him tellimg me the million reasons why he shouldn't, he decided to with out me even complaining. I'm very thankful he did although it's the right thing to do."

The reason Orvis does not want rods swapped out is they want to examine the rod for operator damage that caused the break. You return the rod and they look for manufacturing vs angler error. I think the policy is very reasonable.

 

[satyr]

^^^ That's true. When I broke the tip on my rod and sent it in the told me it looked like I had cut the tip off. I told them that yes, after it broke, I cut the rest off so that I could continue to fish since I was 3 miles from the car and the fishing was good. They took my $60 and sent me a new tip.

 

[clsmith131]

I was fishing on the Tuck in NC a few months back, standing on some rocks that line the bank in front of a friend's cabin. I had had plenty to drink and decided I would go down and toss a streamer. Long story short, I fell straight out of my shoes (literally) face first into the river. When I realized where I was, I took a moment to assess the damage.
Phone-- in pocket but waterproof, no problem.
Shoes-- On the rock, where I fell out of them
Wallet-- Still in pocket but waterlogged
Winston BII MX -- 12" scrape from the handle toward the tip, epoxy dangling in a spiral from the from the rod, thread wraps exposed and unraveled, but amazingly, structurally sound and functions fine!
I tell you this simply to demonstrate that a fly rod can be surprisingly durable. There's something fishy going on here...

 

[s037474]

The word "Walmart" might.

I agree with you except I bought two cheap 9.80 spinning rod/reels for the kids to catch fish on and they abused the rods and caught 20 plus stocker rainbows, the same stockers that broke my 200.00 pole, but the cheap walmart spinners gave me zero issues lol. Go figure.

 

[silver creek]

I agree with you except I bought two cheap 9.80 spinning rod/reels for the kids to catch fish on and they abused the rods and caught 20 plus stocker rainbows, the same stockers that broke my 200.00 pole, but the cheap walmart spinners gave me zero issues lol. Go figure.

I think you will find that the cheap spinning rods are SOLID fiberglass.

More expensive rods are HOLLOW TUBULAR composites. A tubular rod requires winding the scrim and composite flag around a steel mandrel, then winding that with compression tape, then firing that in a curing furnace, then separating the hollow rod from the mandrel, then finishing the blank.

The reason I know this is that I have seen the cheap rods being made at the the St Croix rod factory. I got a factory tour when Jim Greenlee and I went up to visit with the owner.

The cheap rods start out as long SOLID fiberglass rods that are cut into sections. Then the sections are fed into a grinding machine that grind them down into tapered rods. So making the rod blank is a simple matter of grinding the solid rod down. They are then coated and the graphics, guides & reel seats are put on. They were making "Barbie" rods at the time.

So you can make a solid rod cheaply enough to sell for $9.80. You can't do that with a tubular rod.

So these rods will not break. The entire rod is essentially like the top of an Ugly Stick Rod.

See how thin the base of the rod is on these kiddie rods. That means they are solid and not hollow.

 

[sweetandsalt]

Short inexpensive spinning rods are built very differently from longer more complexly flexing fly rods. You seem to be equating fly rod durability with price. I'm sorry to inform you that some of the most expensive, many hundreds of dollars, fly rods are even more fragile with thinner walls and slenderer diameters than your Cabelas rods. Something like 99% of rod breakage is user induced. I encourage you to seek a fly fishing class where you can learn correct casting, presentation and equipment care.

 

[biker1usa]

Sounds like user error, just not being careful with your equipment. 4 rods broken is definitely not material fault IMHO. Procrastinate and end up sitting in the deep end of the pool without a paddle.

 

[brownbass]

Rotten luck or inexperience. Sounds like you need some lessons on casting and caring for your equipment. I have had rods break on me and I know they were defective, Brand new bass casting rods from Bass Pro. They were a new series of rod. they broke on the hookset all by the handle. I bought All-Star rods after that and no problem. TFO's are as bomb proof as you can get So are Echo, but they still cast $35 to repair if sent back broken.

Bill

 

[JDR]

I really don't want to pile on, but Orvis did give you all your money back, right? I don't think you could ask for more. If you've lost confidence in the Orvis rods, that is one thing, but I think they have treated you very fairly as a customer.

 

[winstonwt]

If your going to buy tfo be prepared to have them break,thin wall design.I would look at other brands,echo,st Croix.

 

[el jefe]

Consider fiberglass rods. Though the actions by and large will differ, glass is not prone to breakage as is graphite, short of slamming it in a car door.

 

[proheli]

Casting instruction and understanding fly fishing mechanics are the solution here. You can do a hell of a lot of learning with YouTube videos and a decent patch of grass. And and as mentioned above, casting classes/coaches.

 

[JoJer]

My local guru used to do rod repairs. he told me 605 of his repair business was Cabelas tip sections. Also told me that he was amazed at how over built TFO's were.

 

[silver creek]

Consider fiberglass rods. Though the actions by and large will differ, glass is not prone to breakage as is graphite, short of slamming it in a car door.

^^^ I agree with el jefe. Glass rods are more durable because the walls are thicker.

As I thought more about beginners and tailing loops, it occurred to me that a common cause of tailing loops for beginners is a poor backcast. And beginners are notorious for having asymmetric casting strokes because they concentrate on the forward delivery cast.

Why would a backcast have anything to do with a forward tailing loop? Well, I'm glad to be able to answer the question you were thinking about asking.

Think about this - why do you get tailing loops ONLY on your forward cast?

If your casting stroke was symmetric, should you not get one on your backcast as well? The reason is that your stroke is NOT symmetric and you maybe laying your wrist back on the cast to open the loop on your backcast. It is a common fault and results in an open loop and poor aerodynamics on the backcast. A weak backcast result has less kinetic energy and less momentum that you can use to preload the rod for the forward cast.

Think of it this way. A poor backcast results in the caster trying to add more power to the forward cast to get the distance they want. The need to add extra energy because the backcast has not straightened the line and provided a reward momentum AGAINST which you will load the rod for the forward cast. Some of the initial forward rod motion of the forward cast must go to removing slack and straightening the line from the backcast . So you waste stroke length and need to punch/jab the rod resulting a tailing loop on the forward cast.

The way to improve the forward cast is to improve the backcast. The backcast is the platform from which you launch the forward cast. So work on your backcast to help cure the tailing loop. A person that is not versed in casting would never think of a fault in the backcast could be the major cause of a tailing loop on the forward cast

The cure is to get casting lessons. I may be right or I may be wrong but I am convinced that you would benefit from having your casting analysed.

See reason #4 for broken rods in the article below:

Busted! - Technique - American Angler Magazine


”4. FLY IMPACT


According to Rajeff, one of the most common traumas a fly rod can endure is being whacked by a beadhead or other weighted fly during the cast.

“When a fly hits your rod tip, it could be traveling as fast as two hundred miles per hour,” Rajeff explains. “Imagine shooting a BB at your rod. When that happens, you’ve created an injury to some of the fibers in the rod, so when you bend or stress the rod in some way, that one spot fails. Then the rest of the area fails because the injury does not allow the stress to be distributed over a large area.

When you are casting beadheads, streamers, or weighted rigs, be extra vigilant about your casting stroke. Open your loops, or use the Belgian cast, which features a much more rounded motion. Learn to cast using the water load, in which you use the surface tension of your line and flies to load the rod. Not only will waterloading deliver effective, wind-fighting casts, but it will dramatically cut down on false-casting. The fewer false casts, the less chance you have of beaning your rod with that Clouser, Double Bunny, or Beadhead Stonefly nymph. For the sake of rod preservation, it’s important to work on your casting in all situations because the better caster you are, the less likely it is you’ll break a rod.”