The line or the tippet is the "fuse" in most fishing tackle: they will break before the rod or reel breaks. Line manufacturers always (mis)state the breaking strength of their line, as in "The strongest ten-pound-test line in the world." (??!) It would be helpful if manufacturers stated the breaking strength of their rod blanks at, say, a 45 degree angle to the strain. No sense in using #30 line if your blank will snap at #25 - and make it a lot easier to assemble a balanced fishing outfit of rod, reel, and line instead of treating each as a separate, stand-alone element.

Phil I use P line CXX on a couple of my rods, bass not fly. But 12 pound CXX will break at or around 28lbs. Sure does make one wonder how line manufactures come up with the line ratings .

Tom

don,t most nylon fishing lines have two strengths...dry and wet..dry is much higher.

Lines rated as "class" will break at or below the listed weight. Lines rated as "test" will break at or above the listed weight. So you could have a line that will sustain a steady 40lbs of load correctly listed as 10b test.

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For the higher pound tests, it really doesn't much matter since the drags on most reels used for most of our fresh water fishing top out much lower than many of our lines' breaking strengths. Different case when you get into the heavier stuff, of course.

For me, the pound test of my leader/line has nothing to do with the rod breaking strength. It's more about the most effective presentation and castability.

I don't think you will be getting any rod/blank manufacturers to take you up on this proposal any time soon. No real up side for them, and would expose them to warranty risk, especially from those not so honest about what happened.

Wait a minute. Don't most of us use a static load test to determine or verify guide locations and those load tests stress the rod well beyond 45 degrees (more like 90 degrees) and the rods do not fail. My point is we could hook up with a whale using a logging chain for the tippet and a 2 weight fly rod would not fail PROVIDED the rod is not over stressed by the fisherman, who is the real cause of the vast majority of rod failures. Frankly, I'm not in favor of line manufacturers keeping my rods safe - that would be my job as the user.

I never put any real thought into the breaking point of a rod. If the rod has a chance to break then I am doing something way wrong as an angler. The reel is meant to take the bulk of the strain of the fish with the drag that is set by the angler. If the angler chooses to set the drag too high then the rod has a higher possibility of breakage. If your line doesnt give, but the rod does then you are using a line rated for a much heavier rod.

I do not believe, from talking with blank manufacturers, that any blank will break at the same amount of stress or lbs of pressure consistently from a precise measure of force. It should be a range of different amounts within a "window". If the manufacturer has done there job in an ideal consistent manner then the rods that they make should constantly break within this window. I think the biggest problem they have is. as far as quality control, is the formulas of the prepreg and the reproduction of the same formula over time. Small changes in resin formulas will affect the strength / elasticity of the blank. Much of this is beyond the control of the blank manufacturer and falls into the responsibility of the chemical / resin supplier. A rod blank can be made that will not break but would you want to buy one, most likely not due to weight or other physical attributes. A lot of us, as an example, are using 40-50lbs braided lines on rods that rated for 6-12lbs mono. There needs to be a way to break the line before the rod breaks but this usually will only happen if the drag is too tight or the fish has spooled you and you are trying to turn it around with the rod. I think if you are using over weighted line (braid) and heavy leaders then don't expect the rod to stay in one piece in this situation. Now we come full circle and my excuse is to the shop, builder or the manufacturer is; "It broke while I was fighting a fish".

When I was preparing the article on rod breakage, and broke something like 200 rod blanks, in batches of the same model and from the same manufacturer, I found that they did indeed all break within a very small margin of each other provided you loaded them to failure in the same manner. We'd talking about differences in mere ounces, not pounds. Check the chart in this article on deadlift strength for more about the subject: [www.rodbuilding.org]

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I'm not sure I've ever thought of putting 10# of drag on 10# test line. Or 50# test drag on 50# test line. Heck, I dare you to tie into a rod pulling 50# of drag and try to hold on.

Take for instance my 30# gear. The drags are set right around 10#. If I changed nothing, at half spool the drag would increase to 20# on it's own. That's still far from the 30# breaking strength of the line. In a perfect world anyway...

So I don't get your point? Me thinks this is something I should never worry about...so long as I don't fish a 10# rod with 30# line. LoL

Jay: My point exactly! How do I know if a rod is a #10 or a 30# rod unless I break it myself? Many of us have seen a novice angler with a light spin rod and reel loaded with #30 Mason mono, or its equivalent, but we would not make that error. Still, I fear I may be making a similar if not so serious error when I really don't know how much strain the rod I'm using can bear. Both novice and experienced fishermen benefit from more factual information about their tackle, and I don't think posting facts about fish rods makes anyone liable.

This became more of an issue with the advent of synthetic lines that offer high break strength low stretch coupled with fine diameter. It was often the culprit, behind a poor choice by the fisherman to begin with, of many broken rods.

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ive found that the line is just another tool in catching/landing fish, which is the whole point in having a specialized rod, in my opinion. different lines can make a blank perfect or completely unsuitable for the application. its really all in how the angler prefers to fish. with the progression of the braided lines, one can put a lot more strain on a fish, with the drag and hook becoming the weak points. too stiff a drag, you can break the rod,guides, reel, or rip the hook from the fish's mouth, too light a drag on the wrong species, and bye bye fish. personally ive become an advocate of braid and lighter action rods, with a fairly loose drag. ( i mainly fish for bass and light saltwater ) all that being said, i hung a 40 # gar on a rat l trap last weekend with a medium weight / action crankbait blank with braid , and it was a BLAST !

Putting a rod breaking spec into a catalog, then adding a warranty that states that manufacturing defects will be covered by the warranty, will certainly get a manufacturer into hassles when that rod breaks. "My 30 pound rod broke with 10 pound test (or class) line! I want a replacement!"

A fishing rod is a lot like an automobile manual transmission clutch. Treated right it will last forever. Treat it wrong and you can fail it in a minute.

Personally...I sort of trust the specs advertised by the manufacturer. If they say a blank is designed to work with 8-17# line...then I'm not sure how far over 17 I'd go. For me, that'd be a 10-12# rod.

Similarly, my offshore rods may be rated for 30-60#...and I'd probably put 50# on them.

I have never seen an instance where I'd put 80# on a 60# blank...or 25# on an inshore rod that specs out for 6-12#.

I am totally confused by the rod manufacturers with labels 10-15lb mono | 30-40 lb braid . . .
I think it is a throw back to when braid used was 3x label lb # of mono line . . because "test" mono (not class or tournament) actually breaks at a higher lb and the original braids would break (especially at knots) at close to or lower lb than label
Donald talked about a static load test . . this is the point at which I add a scale and see how many lbs it takes to fully load a blank
I use this as a point of reference when setting a drag . . . I'd never want to set a drag at 2x the fully loaded amount . . but if I did I'd know to fight a fish only from the reel with tip pointed straight at the fish
You may need to use much heavier lines due to abrasion resistance needs etc., but where you set the drag relative to the rod's strength is IMO most important.

Ignorance of pertinent facts is never a desirable condition. The measured, tested breaking strain of a blank at a certain angle of strain is a pertinent for me. If others would not like to have this information they are welcome to ignore it.

I think it would be too hard to quantify. Break at what amount of pounds? But at what angle? Severe sharp bend in the tip or a 90 degree bend from tip to butt? Those two scenarios will break at a drastically different load. I could probaly snap an ul spinning rod with 8 pound test, or i could load just the butt and pick up a 15 pound weight. I think it depends too much to give a number without some definitions of the rating.

Having that number would change nothing that I do today.

Phil, I'm curious as to what this information will help you in doing. What would you like to achieve by knowing when a rod will break?

Have you called a manufacturer and asked if they have those numbers, and if they'd be willing to share. If they aren't willing, what are their reasons?

Another great point has been raised...the breaking point is very subjective to rod angle (and most likely to several other conditions). It could possibly take half the force to break the rod at one angle, and twice as much force to break it at another.

But seriously, what is the end goal with having this information?

Thanks.