Hands Up If You've Broken A Rod Tip

[Deleted]

My hands at this stage are staying firmly by my side which is where I'd like to keep them. While researching tenkara I read many stories and watched a few videos about tip breakages, it put me in doubt of how strong the rods were.

Advice on using light tippet to save the rod tip from breaking on a sizable fish also made me question this. I always fish a light tippet anyway but it's never been to save my rod before.

So, have you ever broken the tip of a tenkara rod and how did it happen ?

[custheyder]

I'm not sure how easy it would be to break a rod on a big fish. Certainly not a tip because they straighten out to point down the line. Breaking the middle of the rod on a big fish... perhaps there was already some damage on a section. Putting a tenkara rod down on a rocky ground *might* bruise a section and set you up for a breakage.

How strong is the tip? Tenkara USA have a video on knots but just watch the first few minutes for a demo of tip strength.



I can keep my hands down because I always protect the tip in the rod when attaching and detaching a line. As the sections collapse I hold close to the joint both sides and free the joint before it disappears into the rod. Extending the rod I use short strokes at the tip, a few inches, and gradually extend the strokes near to the base where the rod is stronger.

So who's going to tell us how their tips snapped?

[gary]

I'm not sure how easy it would be to break a rod on a big fish

I landed 2 large chub (around 5lb each) tonight with my T rod, with no concerns about the tip breaking. Rod was perfect!

Photos on River Nene thread

Cheers

Gary

[paul1966]

I notice when Steve broke his rod recently pulling out of a snag the rod broke at the 4th section.

I landed a fresh run sea trout of over 5 1/2 lbs on my rod it charged all over the pool, the rod handled it no problem ( Iwana ). The only worry I had was landing the fish as the rod would have been at a very acute angle as the fish came over the net. To net it I put the rod down on the bank and hand lined the fish in.

I wouldn't recommend targeting big sea trout on a T rod the fish I caught came along when I was targeting wild brownies, I very nice surprise.

[Deleted]

We have rods broken all the time by clients who are careless with the gear because it does not belong to them. They bang rods on rocks, trees, yank the shit out of them on snags, and over-extend the sections and jam the segments together. I have one of those to fix today.

In the guide business it is just part of the way things go. We carry multiple tip sections of our demo rods in the vehicles and use them often. Luckily Tenkara USA repair parts are cheap.

Between our personal fishing days and "work"days we average around 250 fishing days combined per year between the three guides and clients. Our gear gets used a lot and so far all breakages have been from abuse and misuse. We have never had a rod break on a fish when the rod is used correctly in landing large fish. We have had rods break on fish because the client reached up above the grip section with their other hand and created a hard leverage point on the rod where the rod is not designed to have one and the rod broke where the upper hand was gripping the segment.

My personal largest fish was a 28 inch long 8lb carp caught on a Tenkara USA Amago with 5x tippet. Properly handled neither the rod or tippet was in danger of breaking.

The single most common breakage point we see is caused by people extending the tip segment to attach the line and pulling down on the segment breaking it where it is leveraged against the grip segment.

Tenkara rods are very durable when treated correctly.

Tapered leaders come in varying breaking strengths for the same reason of protecting rod tips in western fly rods. You can overpower any fishing rod by using too strong of a line and using improper landing/fighting techniques. Would you take a 9 ft. 5WT fly rod surf fishing and just load up the reel with 12 wt line and salt water big game fish leaders? Sure formula for a broken rod.

All fishing rods have limitations.

John
Tenkara Guides LLC
USA

[Deleted]

Where i would pull a line tight, in line, to snap off a snag that would not clear i only do that by hand with my T rod. I agree with john you have to treat all rods differently. Just make sure you have something to protect the skin on your hand before you try and snap a tippet. It hurts .. and bleeds !!
When i get a fish on hook i lift the rod back and high until i can hand pull the line, i normally push the rod into the top of my thigh waders while i do this.
At all times i try to reduce stress on the fish and the rod.
I have recently received a Wizz 360 rod.
The instructions, in Japanese, have clear pictogram's showing all fish to be landed by hand not by the rod.
All of these actions protect the fish and the rod from 'damage', i believe.
I net all fish, irrespective of size for this reason.
Hand pulling the line will prevent tip breakages and it seems that's how its done in Japan..... unless you know differently ?

[Deleted]

Regrettably, I have both hands up.

I broke one solid tip section (13" Ayu) when the line got snagged ducking through riparian zone coming off river. Completely my fault and result of not taking rod down first.

I've broken a series of hollow tips (4.5m Allfishingbuy Unagi) both accidentally and purposefully. You can read about it at Tenkarabum's website.

I think that's it. I don't baby my rods but I wouldn't say I abuse them either. I have NO reason to believe they (solid tips anyway) would break with a fish on or because of a snag. I could be wrong, but I just don't worry about that. It will take alot of convincing for me to buy another hollow tip rod of any calibre or make.

[custheyder]

Interesting report on hollow tips. Could you post the link please? I couldn't find the report.

[cm_stewart]

I think this is the report that tnitz was talking about

www.tenkarabum.com/allfishingbuy-universal-tenkara-unagi-4505.html

I have fished with hollow tipped rods from Shimano and Daiwa and have never had any problems with them. I have not tried to break off successive bits of rod like tnitz did, but I do know that they are less flexible and thus less forgiving than the solid tips found on the less expensive rods I've seen. In exchange for having to take a bit more care, you get wonderful sensitivity and it is much easier to make pinpoint, tight looped casts. They are also better, in my opinion, if you want to make particularly long casts.

I suspect the problem tnitz faced is specific to that particular rod, not to hollow tips in general.

[custheyder]

Thanks for the link. The review seems to be in conflict with your opinion about hollow tips and sensitivity. I'm not making a claim one way or the other. Just interested.

[cm_stewart]

A rod tip that is a bit stiffer will transmit information that is absorbed by the bending of a softer tip.

A major consideration, though, is that I was referring to the tips on premium rods like the Daiwa LL36SF or Shimano LLS36NX and tnitz was referring to the tip on a "universal tenkara rod" from AllFishingBuy. He lent me that rod. There is a world of difference.

My review of the rod is here: www.tenkarabum.com/allfishingbuy-unagi.html

[custheyder]

Ahhh... that clears it up. I'll be sure to compare high end rod tips.

[gary]

Yup, gone and broke my rod tip yesterday on the River Ise...Boo!

Completely my fault, where I frantically tried to collapse my Eso 410 after snagging a branch, clumsily not ensuring the 2nd top section had released properly, and cracking it! I was so pi**ed off I ended up accidentally snapping an inch off the rod tip too! disaster, NEVER to be repeated

The brook was far too small and far too overhung to be fishing my longer rod, to be honest... Lesson learned

Thankfully I have another T rod which can be used while I sort out replacement tips with Cust

Tight lines

Gary

[Deleted]

Bad luck Gary, at least you can get some replacements from Esoteric. Plus you have the ST360 so you can still get out for a cast. I'm probably more careful than is necessary with my tenkara rods but I've read a lot of stories about people snapping the tips and it has to be a pretty lousy way to end a session.

Hope you get a replacement soon, Chin Up!

[custheyder]

Rod tips for the 410cm ... No problem Gary. These things happen. Drop me an email to sales @ esoterictackle. co. uk (without the spaces, to avoid spam bots) and I'll get you sorted out.