I was fishing my Pac Bay Quickline series 9' 8 wt. (actually a 7 wt. w/ERN of 7.9 used with an 8 wt. line) yesterday when I hooked a lily pad stem. Rather than pointing the rod at the snag and pulling straight back on the line as I should have done, I gave it a sharp upward snap like I was setting the hook on a fish -- not really hard, but hard enough apparently--and the blank broke. It was a clean break, no splinters, right in the middle of 3rd piece of the blank (the one below the tip section). It broke between two guides.

My first question is, was this purely my own doing, or is there a chance there was a defect in the blank? Obviously I did a dumb thing which was the ultimate cause of the break, but the fact that the blank broke so cleanly, with no splinters, and the fact that it was between two guides (and thus not likely the result of the guides being wrapped too tightly), makes me wonder if there was a weak spot where the break occurred. It doesn't really matter, as the blank is 2 years old so there's no chance of getting it replaced under warranty, I'm just curious about the cause.

That leads to my next question, about my proposed fix. I REALLY don't want to have to rebuild the whole rod. I love the reel seat on that rod, it was hard to find and I don't think I could find another one. What I'm wondering is how it would work if I bought a new Quickline blank and just built the section that broke on my rod, and "subbed in" the new piece? Would I notice a big difference in how the rod casts?
If that idea is no good, how about if I got the new blank and built everything except the butt section, so that I could keep my current grip and reel seat? The butt section is so stiff on those rods, I can't imagine I'd notice that big a difference in how it cast if I went that route.

Thoughts? Ideas? Input from anyone who's tried either of the above proposed fixes would be especially helpful.

Thanks!
Bryon

Just put a splice on the break and move on.

It should take no longer than about 20 minutes for the fix

Enjoy.

There is no guarantee the new section would fit into the current rod. You'd have two ferrules to fit, which may or may not be possible. If you like the rod and want another one, then sure, get a new blank and before building it out completely, check and see if the new section from the new blank will fit properly on the old rod. If so, great. If not, then just build the new blank out.

Obviously the break point was the weakest portion of the rod. There could have been a small bruise, nick, etc., at that point which caused it to break there. Also remember that the area of greatest stress will occur at a point between any pair of guides.

.....................

Worse case just cut the seat off at the front and ream out the old blank
then remount it on the new one.

Tom, thanks for your response. Fortunately those blanks are much less expensive than their performance would normally dictate, so I think I will take my chances with a new one. As you said, worst case scenario is I have to build the whole new blank out.

I didn't know about the point of greatest stress occurring between guides, but now that you say that it makes sense. It's entirely possible that there was some sort of nick or bruise at the break point--in 2 years of fishing, the rod had seen its share of collisions with speeding weighted flies.

There have been a couple of positive outcomes to this situation. One is that I have finally broken a rod after 17 years of fishing, thus disabusing myself of the notion that if it hadn't happened to me yet, it probably wasn't going to, and revising my perception of how rough I can be with my rods.
The other is that I read your article in the library section of this site on preventing rod breakage by handling rods properly, and thus learned that I was doing several things that probably should have broken rods by now. As a result, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I now feel lucky to have gone this long without a break, and I know how to prevent them in the future.

Victor Heal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Worse case just cut the seat off at the front and
> ream out the old blank
> then remount it on the new one.


Victor -- thanks for this idea on the reel seat. I will have to look up how to ream out the old blank as I've never done that before. I used to use the boiling water trick to recover reel seats I wanted to save, but I've damaged both seats and blanks that way and I don't do it anymore.

Bryon,

I would try contacting Pacbay. I would bet they can just sell you the broken section. And if you mail them the rod I would guess they could match up the correct fitting section for you. Not sure if this is how pacbay works but with some of my sage rods I have had luck with this.

give them a call the PHONE'S are cheep today

William Sidney
AK

I built 4 WT Quickline when they first came out. It broke just casting in the back yard in about the same place you are describing. Pac Bay replaced the whole blank which did not match up with the old one. I rebuilt it again and it broke in the same spot again (between two guides) casting in the back yard. I never got a replacement again, just wrote it off and dont use quickline blanks at all. Batson and American tackle will replace the broken section, Pac Bay wont.

My 2 Cents!

Jimmy and Greg -- I did email Pac Bay and inquire about the cost of getting a replacement section. No reply as of yet. We'll see what they have to say, but in the meantime, my wife presented me with another solution. As I was shopping around for other possible blank replacements yesterday, I discovered that Sage is closing out their VXP line and selling them off at a substantial discount. I casually mentioned to my wife that, as much as I love building my own rods, at this moment in my life, with time being at more of a premium than money (up to a point, of course), if I had the money to plunk down on one I'd just do it. To my great surprise, she agreed and, what's more, gave her blessing. So...I feel a bit sheepish about admitting it here, but I ordered a VXP 890-4 today. I've never owned a Sage before--for that matter, I've never owned a rod that I had more than $150 in, and have owned only two others in my life that I didn't build myself. I don't plan to hang up my rod-building apron--not by a long shot--but, just this once, I think I'm going to enjoy letting someone else do the work for me. :)

Thanks to all who responded for your input.