Tuesday Tips - A Few Ways Not To Break Your Rod

Whether we like it or not, we're going to have the odd accident here and there. Car doors, falling, you name it, there are lots of accidental ways to break your fly rod. 
As blank technology has improved (to increase performance) the sidewall thickness in rod blanks has gotten thinner and impact resistance has dropped.

But there are a few things you can do/not do to decrease the chance of breakage.

Keep your hand off the blank when playing fish

1- Don't play fish with your hand riding up the butt section. 
One of the top ways that rods are broken. People try and get more leverage by putting their hand up the butt section. This affects ferrule flex angles and will invariably lead to breaks at the ferrule. If you keep your hand on the cork, and use proper rod 
angles, you'll fight fish way more efficiently.

2- Don't shock the rod when snagged on something.
If you you get snagged on something like a tree, don't repeatedly jerk the rod back. Graphite can take a huge amount of bend and stored energy, but when it is shock loaded repeatedly it will often fail and then you have a broken rod.
If you aren't able to reel in line and go retrieve your fly by hand then point the rod tip at the snagged fly, hold the fly line at handle, and gently pull until it pulls free or tippet breaks. Make sure to leave at least 4 or 5 feet between rod tip and snag, otherwise the fly can snap back and hit the rod tip. This may lead to a tip breakage.If you lose a fly doing it this way its way better than busting a rod.

Right way

Wrong way when snagged

   

Wrong way

3- Keep the rod angle in front of you when playing fish.
Still continually see people playing fish just like the angler on the
old Orvis logos. This is not great for couple of reasons. First, and
relevant here, is it will often lead to rod breakage. As soon as the
rod butt gets back around your cheek and ear the risk of
breakage increases greatly. As soon as butt gets behind your ear
you're going to break the rod. Maybe not today but it's going to
happen.The other reason to shallow the angle of your rod when playing fish is that you are WAY MORE efficient. If you keep the tip way up you play fish with the tip (you can't lift a pop can with the tip) If you shallow the angle you play the fish with the butt of the rod. (you can exert a LOT of force with the butt of the rod).

By using a shallower angle and always applying pressure opposite to the direction the fish is swimming you will land fish quicker, land bigger fish, be easier on the fish, and break fewer rods. Win, win, win, and win.

4- Don't set the rod around doors and tailgates.
You've heard this one a lot! But you still do it. Lean a rod 
against the vehicle around open doors and tailgates while you
get gear on or off. Something is going to happen and a rod will
get broken. In a perfect world we put our rod away in a tube or 
set it up last but we don't live in a perfect world.
So, the safest, foolproof way to store the rod around a vehicle is
to put it on the windshield, under the wiper, like the photo 
shows. This will keep the rod safe from doors, wind can't blow it
over, and you can't drive away and forget it.