Rod tip breakage

[silvers]

Just to say - if a float rod is incapable of swinging a 5oz roach without risk of breakage then it is simply not fit for my purposes.
Even my canal rod can easily handle that - and it is soft enough to handle size 26 hooks and 8 oz hooklengths (not that I'd swing a 5oz fish on that kind of gear)

 

[Keith M]

A few months before my rod tip decided to break unexpectedly; I caught an accidental smallish Barbel using my Drennan Acolyte Ultra using ‘light line’ when trying to catch a few Roach, Chub and Dace from my local stream.



I was using 3.2lb Drennan floatfish line (which was within the recommended specs for the rod) and I played the accidentally caught Barbel with a fair amount of care to try to prevent the flimsy line from parting; and I don’t think this was straining my rod in the least; as long as a recommended line breaking strain was being used; which it was (with main lines up to 4lb+ being specified by Drennan for the Ultra).

Plus since I had caught the accidental Barbel I had used the rod many further times catching Roach, Rudd and Crucians without any problems at all.

So as I was using a line of below the specified ‘max recommended line strength’ plus using over 50 years of experience of playing difficult fish; the rod was certainly not being put under any unwarranted stress even though I had hooked a Barbel; I would have thought.

As an aside, playing an accidentally caught big fish on a light ‘recommended’ line strength for the rod is not to my mind putting the rod under any undue stress, the line should break well before the rod decided to finally give up the ghost otherwise it’s not really fit for purpose in my view unless the rod is being abused in some other way.

I have used ultra light float rods since the early 70s onwards without any of them shattering while threading line through their rings, so when this happens surely you can see why I was a little suspicious of the rod especially as there were lots of other Drennan ultras being reported as being broken unexpectedly, however it is still vaguely possible that the rod may have unknowingly been damaged some other way during transportation or while it was being stored, or even a fault introduced in the shop by someone playing with the rod that gradually got worse when it was subsequently used.

Im willing to give Drennan the benefit of the doubt simply because I’ve never had any problems with Drennan rods before, and I’ve had a few over the years; and I still do; however I still use my Ultra with kid gloves just incase it happens again with the replacement tip.

Keith

 

[shane99]

They are guaranteed for life. Give Tacklebox a ring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yea I did Ray as per previous post & they just gave me a new one - top service ! I just wanted to point out they just dont break on DV's, it takes a dohnut to do that

 

[Richox12]

'As an aside, playing an accidentally caught big fish on a light ‘recommended’ line strength for the rod is not to my mind putting the rod under any undue stress, the line should break well before the rod'

That's what 99% think. But it's not true. Line ratings are merely a guide and to indicate what the rod can be used for. It's not a guide to the actual strength or durability of the rod. You will easily break a light float rod with 2lb line by pulling & pulling it (or especially jerking it - like freeing from a snag) until something snaps - and it'll be the rod. But in practice, in a fishing situation, that's not what we do (or shouldn't be doing).

 

[Richox12]

'A few months before my rod tip decided to break unexpectedly; I caught an accidental smallish Barbel....

Plus since I had caught the accidental Barbel I had used the rod many further times catching Roach, Rudd and Crucians without any problems at all'.

If the rod had any severe flaw from the outset you wouldn't have been able to do any of this for any length of time whatsoever.

it is still vaguely possible t'hat the rod may have unknowingly been damaged some other way during transportation or while it was being stored,' - you are probably right

 

[Mark Wintle]

I can't help thinking the Acolytes are a bit like the first ultra light pole I owned. Back in 1986 I bought a Tricast Maestro 11m pole for £200 - weight about 1100 grams - and it is slim and robust but heavy to use. It doesn't catch the wind and although I sold it on many years ago it has ended up in my possession and I still use it at up to 8 metres. The ferrules have a few tiny chips but it has never broken though it's probably only rated to no. 8 elastic but could handle a 12. About two years after that I bought a Browning Spiral Pro Titanium 11m for about £480 - weight 680 grams - a much lighter pole. Yet the browning had two disadvantages, one was that it catches the wind due to the weave of the spiral wrap and secondly the carbon between the wraps is very thin, especially on the no. 4 section, and the slightest knock on one or two sections, especially no. 4, means a breakage - I have broken the no. 4 at least twice. a decade later I bought the much stronger though still very light Browning Aggressor pole (12m) and although slim and light and worthy of care it endures to this day.

So with the Acolyte in achieving the lightest match rod ever strength and durability has been sacrificed such that a knock which could even happen before you buy the rod or a flaw in the resin/weave can result in a break. Ironically I took my remaining B&W John Dean stick float rod (1981 vintage) for an outing yesterday and it will swing in 8oz roach, and although despite weighing 6.5oz it feels heavier than much more modern rods yet in use it's still the finest stick float rod I've used. I did break a second JD rod which I never got fixed and no longer have the tip; I never did figure why this occured.

 

[john step]

Reading this thread has prompted me to take some action with a Daiwa SR3 match rod that I repaired after the top 6 inches broke some years ago. I had fixed it by splicing in a piece of carbon which is how I have been using it ever since.

It never quite made the grade. Somehow I would often get an annoying wrap round the top two rings. More so than any other rod I use.

As I have recently bought an Accy Ultra which can cope with light hooklengths I decided to remove the spliced 6inches from my repair. I put a new top ring on the break point. As the rod is rated for lines 3lb to 8lb bs it now seems a little more powerful at the tip if that makes sense?

I have rigged it up with line to have a play and it feel fine and I am sure it will make a good rod for tench and small carp etc at 12.6ins instead of 13 ft.

We shall see.

 

[nottskev]

Reading this thread has prompted me to take some action with a Daiwa SR3 match rod that I repaired after the top 6 inches broke some years ago. I had fixed it by splicing in a piece of carbon which is how I have been using it ever since.

It never quite made the grade. Somehow I would often get an annoying wrap round the top two rings. More so than any other rod I use.

As I have recently bought an Accy Ultra which can cope with light hooklengths I decided to remove the spliced 6inches from my repair. I put a new top ring on the break point. As the rod is rated for lines 3lb to 8lb bs it now seems a little more powerful at the tip if that makes sense?

I have rigged it up with line to have a play and it feel fine and I am sure it will make a good rod for tench and small carp etc at 12.6ins instead of 13 ft.

We shall see.

A six-inch splice is pretty unusual to say the least, and I'd guess it produces an odd "step" in the tip. I wonder if you might have got a better repair by bravely cutting off another foot and splicing in a longer solid tip? I did that 20 years ago with a 12' Shimano Diaflash - the original hollow tip just seemed too stiff for such a light rod - and luckily created a light-line rod that's my favourite such to this day. Who knows - you might have improved the rod!
Mind you, you might find it works great for some purposes with the shorter tip. I have a friend who snapped a bit off the tip of his Daiwa Connoisseur 13' some years back. He carefully cut and smoothed it back so his second ring is now the tip ring. It doesn't bother him at all, although I couldn't live with it, and it doesn't interfere with his habit of catching netfulls of fish wherever we go.

 

[108831]

I have fished for many,many years and any match for that breaks swinging a 5oz roach is junk,even a jiggling,bouncing 5oz fish does not load a for as heavily as a barbel or chub,if a for breaks in these circumstances it is either a manufacturing fault of a design one,the way I read it drennans one is the latter,I won't say how big a roach I've swung out on the Cadence float rod,but it's bigger than 5oz and I've been forced to do so many times to stop pike grabbing them. I've had a similar discussion about casting weights and t.c.'s on rods,some believe you can't cast a two ounce lead on a 1.5lb t.c. rod,well I do,a feeder for doesn't have that strong an action,yet casts heavier feeders...