Of course, whenever you think of fishing, the first thing that comes to your mind is the fishing rod itself, which comes in a multitude of varieties. Whether it is the material that it’s made out of or the amount of pressure that it can take, the possibilities are endless.
Since breaking your fishing rod is certainly most frustrating, we will take you on a tour describing how the fishing rod gets broken and how to fix it whenever the situation arises.
How Can You Break Your Fishing Rod
So, how can you break a fishing rod? Mostly, breakage in any part of the fishing rod happens due to extra pressure, meaning that your rod is a light action one, and you put it through heavy action that it was not manufactured for.
Another common reason is cold. You take out your fishing rod on a crisp winter morning, go to your favorite fishing spot, and hit it off immediately. Your fishing rod, on the other hand, will need some warming up as it has been sitting in your garage cold and stiff up until this very moment. Therefore, if it’s not warmed up properly, it will snap.
Moreover, the incidence of you storing it wrongly, having it bent somewhere without you realizing, having it fall from a height, and having it stepped on.
All of that can easily happen to anyone, but the good thing is that you don’t need to throw away your broken fishing rod.
How Can You Fix Your Fishing Rod
The most common sites of breakage on a fishing rod are the blank, which is the body of the rod itself in between the two guides. Speaking of guides, they are the second most common site of breakage as they are formed of a circle and a hook; this hook is what binds to the rod itself, so it’s very easy for the ring to snap from the hook or for the entire thing to come undone. The last site of breakage could be the tip of the fishing rod, and fixing it can be a lot easier than the first two.
Blank
As we have mentioned before, the blank is the body of the fishing rod, and it can be formed of either graphite or fiberglass. Hence, in order to fix this, you will need a support rod. This rod will go inside so that it binds both pieces together. Now, most of the time, you will not need to go out to purchase this rod as you might very well already own one.
If you have any old fishing rod that you don’t use anymore, it will serve you perfectly. That’s why we always encourage fishers to hang on to their old fishing rods as they can prove very beneficial when needing spare parts.
Needed Materials: a rod (that can fit inside your own fishing rod), superglue, resin, masking tape, sandpaper, thread, and a hacksaw.
Steps:
1. Fixing:
- Now, the first thing that you need to do is to determine what kind of break you have. If you have a clean-cut, then all you need to do is just to sand the rod on each side of the break so that they can fit in snugly together.
- You’ll need a hacksaw and a binding machine if your cut is not clean because you might need to clip the edges off and sand them down.
- When you are fixing the pieces of the rod into the binding machine, make sure to use a cloth around them so that they won’t break when you apply the pressure of the hack saw on them.
- Take the replacement rod and slide it in till it fits snugly inside your original fishing rod. Mark the place where it stops sliding.
- Take it out.
- Cut 6 inches in front of and behind the spot that you have marked.
- Coat the rod with superglue, then slip it back in and pull it as far as it will go so that the fit is perfect.
- Let it dry.
- Now, half of the rod should be inside one side of the fishing rod that we are fixing while the other half will be outside exposed to the environment.
- Coat the exposed half again with superglue and slide in the other piece of the fishing rod.
- Make sure that it is aligned perfectly so that the guides are all on the same line to avoid tangles.
- You will have a small window of time to make any changes to the fit of the two pieces to align them.
- Afterward, let the glue dry.
2. Winding:
- Take one end of the thread and fix it using masking tape about 2 inches above the break.
- Start wrapping around it so that the break is fully covered and fully supported.
- However, before your last four or five rotations, take another piece of thread that’s formed into a loop. Lay it on top of your already wrapped thread.
- Start wrapping over it, and when you’re done, take the tip of your original thread and put it through the loop.
- Cut the excess thread then pull the loop from its tail so that you have a snug clean finish. This process allows the end of the thread to be held down and fixed by the loops that you have created.
- Remove the masking tape from the other end of the thread and cut it as close as possible to the rod.
- Always make sure that the thread is compact.
- The last thing you’re going to do is to coat the thread with resin and let it dry completely for full support
Guide
Guides take a lot of the pressure that’s applied to a fishing rod, which is why they are susceptible to breakage and snapping. However, replacing them is not a big deal. It does not take up a lot of time, and it does not need a lot of materials. Just like replacing the tips (that we will mention later), there are available kits for replacing guides, which makes things even easier.
Needed Materials: a new guide, a Lighter, a razor blade, sandpaper, a masking tape, a superglue, resin, a thread.
Steps:
- Fixing a guide takes a little bit of both the processes of fixing the tip and the blank of a fishing rod.
- The first thing that you do is that you melt the previous adhesive and thread using the lighter for 3-4 seconds. You ought to be careful not to let the thread catch on fire or ruin the fishing rod itself.
- When you feel that the adhesive has melted, start removing the thread using the razor blade. Again, be careful as not to scratch or cut the rod as that would make it a lot weaker over time.
- Once you have removed all the old stuff, including the old guide, sand the area gently just to make sure that you have a smooth surface.
- Bring your new guide, and a pro’s tip is to sand the hook of the guide ever so lightly just to make it sit flush against the rod and to prevent bulging from under the thread.
- Using superglue, fix the guide so that it’s perfectly aligned with the rest of the guides. Hold it till it dries.
- Next, we will start the winding process, which we will not go into its details again. However, this time the winding will go over the hook of the guide holding it down to the rod.
- After the winding, the same steps go, so you have to coat it with resin and allow it to dry fully.
Tip
The tip of the fishing rod is easily breakable as the cold can affect it quite strongly, and it could easily snap due to extra pressure.
Needed Materials: a new tip, a hot glue stick, and a lighter.
Steps:
The easy thing about fixing the tip of a fishing rod is the fact that all that you need can come in a kit. Many companies manufacture such kits, and they are not at all expensive. More often than not, they come in with several tips of different sizes for you to choose the suitable one. Hence, we advise you to purchase such a kit as it will make things a lot easier.
- Using the lighter, heat the tip for 3-4 seconds till the adhesive melts, and you can remove the broken piece.
- Choose the correct tip for your fishing rod.
- Take your lighter and apply heat to the hot glue stick until it starts melting at its top.
- Coat the end of the fishing rod with glue and apply a little bit on the new tip itself.
- Place the tip at the top of your fishing rod and align it so that it’s evened out with the rest of your guides, then push it in and wait for it to dry.
Final Thoughts
Fishing is a wonderful hobby, and it hones a lot of your skills. With the information present in this article, you can become a more capable fisherman and understand a lot more about your tools and how strong they are.