I have a bass rod I built for a friend that has a long crack along the the blank in the split grip area between the rear grip and the short butt grip (I.m guessing it got stepped on the front deck of the boat). Anyone have any ideas on how to salvage the rod so the crack does not spread? I have made carbon fiber grips, I was thinking of trying to find some smaller diameter carbon sleeving and and wet laying it up in that section.

An interior sleeve extending up inside the area where the rod blank resides would likely be your best bet. Try to match tapers as best you can.

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To implement Tom's suggestion, just remove the butt cap, and find the necessary blank piece to insert up the butt of the blank for the repair.

When I do things of this sort, I try to find a blank piece that is longer than the required patch. Trim off the tip of the repair as needed and leave the butt end of the repair blank several inches longer.

Then, after finding the necessary repair blank, I just chuck the repair blank into a variable speed drill and hold the spinning blank against a spinning medium grit sanding belt to roughen and remove most of the repair blank coating. This means, that you need to start with the blank a bit larger in size so that when the finish gets sanded off, the repair blank will still be the correct size.

Note, that when holding the repair blank, use a solid insert into the repair blank to avoid crushing the blank in the holding drill chuck.

Then, one can give a liberal coating of 5 minute epoxy on the repair blank and insert and remove the blank a few times to insure that there is a good glue coating on the inside of the blank. Then, finally firmly insert the repair blank into the rod blank and hold it firmly. When the glue sets up, use an abrasive wheel to cut the repair blank flush with the end of the rod blank.

Be safe