1. High-Sticking
The most common error is high-sticking—holding the rod at, or close to, vertical while fighting or landing a fish—which bends the rod in a candy-cane shape, causing the most fragile part of the rod, the tip, to bear the brunt of the stress. Anglers in boats make this mistake most often because a fish can swim quite literally right under the angler’s feet, or even under the boat. When a graphite fly rod is bent, the fibers on the top of the bend are stretched, while those on the inside of the bend are compressed. Since the tensile strength (stretch) of carbon fiber is higher than the compression strength, a fly rod almost always fails on the compression side.


High-sticking causes the tip of the rod—it's weakest part—to bear most of the pressure. As the tip bends more and more (left), the graphite on the inside of the curve compresses until it snaps (center). Then you're left with less than a whole rod (right), which may land the fish, but won't cast anymore. (photo: Philip Monahan)
When you’re landing large or heavy fish, it’s critical that you take care to note the stress you’re putting on the rod. The closer the rod gets to vertical, the closer it is to failing. A net is invaluable. They don’t just land fish, but they save rods, too. Aside from shortening the time the rod is stressed, a net increases your reach, thus decreasing the stress on the rod simply because the rod is not so close to vertical.
It’s also possible to high-stick the rod when you’re not fighting fish. Countless rod tips are popped by anglers who rig their rods by threading the fly line through the bottom guides and then bend the rod to thread the line through those final guides at the top. Thousands of expensive graphite sticks meet their premature and tragic demise this way—snapped in the parking lot or at the boat ramp moments before the day’s fishing is about to commence.

Good article on how not to break a rod.
http://www.americanangler.com/technique/busted

Shock Loading - applying high amount of force in an extremely short period of time.

This will break steal and steal cable (and high performance braid) with no problem, it takes less force than the actual tensile strength if applied quickly.

It also fatigues a material with no visible evidence of strength reduction like cracks or yield.

I have fished with a lot of people that will send a lure or bait/weight over the boat... If a fish is on, the rod and line is shock loaded (mono resists this because peak loads are mitigated due to stretch). A higher performance material or fiber will be stronger and more light weight, but the higher modulus that provides he need it's we love is susceptible to premature failures from shock loading.

That's my rant, and it comes from experience with high performance, synthetic tension members...

High stick is when u put ur left hand up on the rod not on the handle basically causing a breaking point. May not break when ur doin it but will later. Gotta let the hole rod do its work I've seen lots of rods snap this way

Picked one up at Railside today, $139, and they had plenty to choice from


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"W"Ing - when you just stick the hell out of fish and throwing them on the floor!!!!

Why does their ad say "custom rods"??? They are production made aren't they? Yup

U can order custom

Not from what I discussed.
Now what Jude does....That's custom built rods. He will build WHAT YOU WANT. They only build what they have.
A Custom built rod is built to the buyers specs not theirs.

He built me some

Yea cause you're a guide, they see you as valuable. I'm a nobody in their eyes. That's the attitude I got. I got the rods I want for cheaper CUSTOM BUILT to my specs.

From who? ;)

Mr A.D Welch. Ask huntin fool. I got him one. He uses benchmark blanks which is same blanks Falcon uses.
(225) 933-7955
Tell him Jeff Ramsay sent you. Been using him for years. He's located in Livingston parish. Watson la.

I know plenty of people who aren't guides that have ordered complete custom rods from Duce Rods and got exactly what they want. Like I said earlier, if you have a problem send Anthony a PM or just get over it.

I got over it the day I talked to them. & they handled my wife the same way.

This thread is making me want to start drinking.... Thank y'all!

Thank you to everyone that participated in this thread.... It is now closed, time to move on to other things......