The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

I've been lucky. Just one after many, many years of flyfishing. I'd been working a BIG fish one beautiful afternoon in a shallow cove at Lake Davis which was surface feeding. I had the cove to myself and he must have been at least a six pound fish. I'd put him down at least three times but after patiently resting him he'd return to the same spot. I FINALLY hit him just right and set the hook. He took off like a bullet and put on quite a show - he's take air and I'd drop the tip - I was able to turn him 2 or 3 times. It was one of those moments when instinctively I seemed to be doing every thing right. And all of a sudden my line went slack - he'd some how managed to throw the hook.

I swore, with a smile on my face, and in frustration slapped the surface of the water with my flyrod. I broke off the tip of my Sage SP. I didn't have a second rod with me so that ended my day of fishing - I guess that old fish had the last laugh. I now use the tip of that rod as a bodkin for my fly tying. And yes Sage did replace the tip.

God knows I've been lucky with the number of trees, rocks and ground I've jammed the tip of my fly rod into while hiking around streams, creeks and rivers. I drove home once, a short distance, after fishing a near by river to find I'd left my rod on top of the car. Car doors, tailgates, boat decks, slips and falls, casting the heavy bugs and streamers - the potentials are almost endless. It's amazing I have any rods left at all - but I do - so I continue to fish and now generally carry a back up rod just in case.

Pete

...in case the fish gods realize how lucky I have been, or I change my luck by even talking about it

I have broken one rod tip, and I did it by slamming it in the truck door
Luckily, it was covered by warranty (Thanks St. Croix!). Maybe I need to fish more and increase my chances of breaking a rod on a big fish

Dawn

One, high stuck a shad of all things....

Two, if you count the one I fell on when I was about 10, but I think that was way too many decades ago to really count.

OOPS!!!! Shamed to say that about three years ago I did slam a truck tail gate on three rods at once....didn't do them the least amount of good....dang.

Well let's see... I broke a Sage by slamming the car door on it. Had it repaired (pre warrantees), and drove over it a few month later (beer involved). I left a complete outfit at the gate to Kirman Lake. It wasn't there the next day. Broke the tip on a Scott Rod (pre warrantee- beer involved)by trying to cast through some tree branches. Finally last year I broke a $48 Reddington rod I bought from Sierra Trading Post. It was warrantted. I sent it to Reddington in an old PVC tube. They sent me a new rod in a new rod/reel case. There must have been others, but that's enough for now.

Just finished replacing & re-wrapping a new tip on my 13.5' that I broke on a Peacock Bass. It's a Dan Craft Blank & Dan sent out a new tip & I had it finished (once I stopped procrastinating)pretty quickly. The other time was at Fall River, getting into the boat at "Rick's Lodge" (Now Spinnerfall). Put my rod on the deck, got in the boat and the deck hatch, which had been left open, fell and clipped the tip off the rod like a guillotine. Had to get in the car and drive 30 miles to buy another rod...

I now carry extras......

AL

Only one high sticking a sockeye on the first Alaska Bash.

I've been fairly lucky-only 2 broken, one (tip) by my tailgate and one by a salmon in Oroville.
Sage fixed 'em both.
Stay away from Oroville.....

A close friend told me a story about Walton Powell when they were at a fly-fishing show some years back. A competitor of Powell's was showing and letting people try out his cane fly-rods. Walton walked over and picked up one of the strung up demo rods and on the third or fourth cast broke the rod. My friend said old Walton just shook his head and walked away.

I guess if I had to break a rod I think I'd most prefer to do it on a big fish, a really big fish - always makes for a good story. Or how about fighting off a brown bear - now that would make for a pretty good story - although I doubt I'd be around to tell it. I did have to fight off a donkey on the Warm Springs stretch of the Deschutes once. And come think of it a cow once on the Teton River at a place I now call Mad Cow Meadow. Both the donkey and the cow were after my leashed dog at the time.

Fly rods just don't make very good weapons. And I guess that's probably a good thing or people would be out there killing each other fighting over rocks on a given run or honey buckets at a given lake. I don't carry a weapon while I'm out fishing although I can think of times when I would have liked to have had one but it was probably a good thing I didn't.

So I guess I'll just continue to use it for fish and the occasional hornet or wasp and leave the bigger game for those who are more suitably armed.

Pete

two.

first one i had hanging out the back of my bronco when i rolled up the gate window. doh!

second one was the first rod i built. since i am fascinated by material properties i decided to put 'er to the test. well if you want to find out how strong something is you have to break it

one sage rod so far

I did not want to take it apart from one spot to the next, due to laziness, and the rod wouldn't fit in my truck so i stuck it out the window. When i got to my new fishing hole I rolled up my window out of habit and blam no more tip on my rod... luckily the day was not wasted as i had another rod with me.. but what an expensive mistake.

and it was replaced free of charge and back in my hand within 4 days by the Chico Fly Shop.

I was in the process of landing a very large rainbow (5 lbs or so) and the rod broke about a foot down from the tip just as I was landing the fish.

Paul