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Poopdeck

Broken rod

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So just about ten years ago I purchased my first fly rod. A Cabelas brand 5 wt combo that I paid $89.00 bucks for the rod reel, line and possibly even a leader. The salesman told me the rod would be fine and would not itself cause any frustrations in learning to cast. He was right it did not. Others told me I would at some time  “upgrade” to a better rod. They were wrong. I’ve bought other varying weights but I’ve never purchased another 5 wt because I liked the rod and used it heavily. I really did not need anything “better.” Until a few weeks ago when I closed it in my tailgate snapping the one section in half. Sadly I went and bought a new 5 wt. a whiz banger TFO at $169.00. I’m not use to such expensive gear so I’m gonna take care of this one leaving me in need of a beater rod. So I cut off a piece of rod from a rod section I found at the local creek. I was going to make an ice rod out of it but instead decided to sacrifice a piece to repair my broken Cabelas 5 weight.  I glued this piece into the two broken pieces, joining them together again. I wrapped it with a brownish colored Kevlar tying thread and coated the wraps in the same 5 minute epoxy. I don’t think I’ll be taking any orders for custom rods anytime soon but I’m calling it fixed. Can’t wait to give it a try to see if the repair will hold. What a great rod, I hope it holds. 

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That will work... You'll have a dead spot where the new ferrule is but other than that let us know how it works out.  I have a similar problem, also a five weight that I'll be attempting to repair in similar fashion.... For the last few months it's been sitting waiting on free time to get after it.  This will be a bit different since it's crush damage over about three inches all told... and in the tip section - just forward of the existing ferrule...

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I fixed a shimano steelhead rod in the same way a few years back. It's not a flyrod but the repair held and works well.

 

Les

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Looks good and it should work.  It may change the action a bit but since the break isn't in the tip area, you should still have a 5 wgt.  I just did something similar with a South Bend Flounder rod a woman gave me at work years ago when her son gave up fishing.  When I started taking the guides off I discovered it was painted(white) so I had to carefully sand the paint off.  When I took the grips and reel seat off  I found the blank was surround by an aluminum "pipe" which I wasn't going to be able to cut off.  So l cut the rod off at that point.  Rummaged around some rod blanks a friend had found in the trash.  Turned out they were blanks from Dale Clemens' old store.  Found a piece that fit tightly into the rod piece and epoxied the new butt end into it.  Added a cork foregrip, Pac Bay reel seat and a cork butt grip.  I now have a decent medium action spinning rod which I used a couple of times when I was up in the Poconos two weeks ago.

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Glad to hear all the success stories. I took the rod out in the yard and cast a fly for about 45 minutes. All seems well and I didn’t see, hear or feel anything different. I’ll have to see what a fish does to it next. Hopefully a big fish. 

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Five minute epoxy doesn't have the flex as epoxy for rod building as Flex Coat, etc. Good repair job. Repair guys buy cheap rods and use sections to repair breaks as yours. I had a repair job where I used a short section. Measured with calipers, coated the big end and inserted into the break. After it set for 12 hours, I coated the section and slid the tip part on, holding in place until it set up. Wrapped and coated.

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I was worried about the flex issue but I figure if it holds a golf club together it ought to hold a fishing rod together. With the rod plug inside the rod there’s not a lot of flex at the break, Should the flex become a problem I will take the lesson learned an give flex coat a shot. Thank you for the recommendation, I have a slight feeling I might need it. . 

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I started using Flex Coat in the late seventies- but only as a high build finish - not as a glue at all… It’s worked very well for that purpose, and I’m still using it today all these years later.  You have to be a bit disciplined about the amount you use in a repair or when building a new rod from scratch since it’s easy to use too much.  I try to apply it in two coats allowing it to cure between coats and, of course you need a rotating fixture for the first two hours after application since I has the consistency of honey until the two parts kick off and it quits flowing…

The epoxy I use for gluing up reelseats and grips (of any material l) has always been Fasco’s slow cure epoxy with a pot life of about 20 minutes working time.   Any glue job is allowed to sit undisturbed for 24 hours before handling and excess glue is cleaned up using lacquer thinner on a rag before it sets up.  That’s what I’ll be using for the broken tip repair, then wrapping with thread over the repaired area after he glue has cured…

Hope this helps…

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11 hours ago, Poopdeck said:

I was worried about the flex issue but I figure if it holds a golf club together it ought to hold a fishing rod together. With the rod plug inside the rod there’s not a lot of flex at the break, Should the flex become a problem I will take the lesson learned an give flex coat a shot. Thank you for the recommendation, I have a slight feeling I might need it. . 

I used Two Ton epoxy for grips, reel seats, etc. but Flex Coat for thread wraps. TTE was when I built golf clubs. A repair as we see here isn't going to flex much. The one I mentioned was very cloose to the tip as flex would be farther down the blank. 

Speaking of repairs, I had a guy ask me to fix the top section of a high end fly rod. I cracked at the female ferrule by not seating the peices firmly. He wrapped the ferrule with sewing thread and CA glue! I told him that it was a lost cause. 

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Finally took the repaired rod out for a test at the local sunnie creek. Caught a few dozen sunnies and Rockies. I couldn't feel or see any difference in the rod in any aspect of fishing. No different feel casting, hooking or landing a fish. I fished a size 14 parachute dry, a size 12 Chernobyl ant and after watching bass swiping at my hooked sunnies again I tied on a weighted wooly bugger. Rod handled everything with zero noticeable difference. Wish I could have gotten a bass to cooperate but wasn't up to the task tonight. I sure wish I took some poppers with me but I didn’t. So far the repair looks the same and I’m pumped about that. Next up something a little bigger. 

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Great report and glad to hear your repair has worked so well... Me?  I've broken two more fly rods (or my customers have actually - and that poor 5wt is still sitting for the time and interest needed for a proper job....).  Breaking fly rods as a guide is something we do - all too often - and that's why I've been buying Temple Fork Outfitters rods for my skiff now for a few years.  Their replacement policy is nothing short of outstanding - and when I need to buy a rod they'll have it to me in just three or four days from purchase - pretty handy if you're a guide.   I'm still building and/or repairing all of my spinning and conventional rods in the meantime as well.  Anyone wanting to be a fishing guide should be cautioned... "Be careful what you wish for"... 

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Glad it worked out. Cheaper than a new rod. Although a broken rod can be an excuse for a new rod.

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8 hours ago, Capt Bob LeMay said:

Great report and glad to hear your repair has worked so well... Me?  I've broken two more fly rods (or my customers have actually - and that poor 5wt is still sitting for the time and interest needed for a proper job....).  Breaking fly rods as a guide is something we do - all too often - and that's why I've been buying Temple Fork Outfitters rods for my skiff now for a few years.  Their replacement policy is nothing short of outstanding - and when I need to buy a rod they'll have it to me in just three or four days from purchase - pretty handy if you're a guide.   I'm still building and/or repairing all of my spinning and conventional rods in the meantime as well.  Anyone wanting to be a fishing guide should be cautioned... "Be careful what you wish for"... 

TFO warranty is great. Send in the broken section with 35 bucks and get a ew section. Simple. Can’t beat that.

1 hour ago, skeet3t said:

Glad it worked out. Cheaper than a new rod. Although a broken rod can be an excuse for a new rod.

I did buy a new rod and then I fixed the broken rod which now becomes what I like to call a son-in-law rod.

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Nice work Greg. That's pretty much how I do repairs as well. That should hold up well for ya.

Also, next time you see an old fiberglass rod at a garage sale for $5 pick it up to use as the "spigot" on a repair down the road. Fiberglass will have a slight more amount of flex in it so can help to retain the feel of a repaired rod.

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10 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

Nice work Greg. That's pretty much how I do repairs as well. That should hold up well for ya.

Also, next time you see an old fiberglass rod at a garage sale for $5 pick it up to use as the "spigot" on a repair down the road. Fiberglass will have a slight more amount of flex in it so can help to retain the feel of a repaired rod.

thanks for the pro tip. As luck would have it I went to the local creek again last night and found an Ozark Trail ultra light with reel in the weeds along the  bank. The reel still had the two zip ties holding it to the rod. I’m guessing somebody set it on a forked stick and it got pulled in. There was a lot of line out but no fish or terminal tackle on the end. Lots of spigots on it.

What kind of epoxy do you use on repair such as this? How do you think the 5 minute hardware store epoxy will work? 

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