Maxxon's Rambling from the OG: Short Arcing Your Fly Rod

Welcome to another edition of Maxxon's Ramblings from the OG. Fact, opinion, some truths, or just BS; you decide. We get a lot of people calling in asking about a broken rod and using our warranty. With all these broken rods, a lot of times it can be pinned down to certain reasons why we get rod breakage. I wanna talk about one of those reasons right now: short arcing a rod.

What is Short Arcing?

For demonstration, go get a little tube that comes with your WD-40 can, that little red tube. Take that tube and place it in your hand against your thumb and your middle finger. Bring your thumb and middle finger together just enough to start bending that tube. You'll notice that it starts to bend in an arch type of way.

Short arcing is when you get a sharp bend. If you bring your thumb and middle finger together further, it gets to a point where it'll snap. That’s short arcing, putting a sharp bend in your fly rod until it breaks.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

There are a lot of reasons you can be doing a short arc without realizing it:

• Threading the Rod: When you have threaded your rod and fly line and you pull the leader through and pull straight down on it instead of pulling line out on your reel, you've created a short arc in your tip and it'll snap.
  

• Fighting a Fish: When you're fighting a fish, don't pull back and stab him back of you because you're gonna create a short arc.
  

• Improper Storage: If you push your tip into your sock or case tip first and it hangs up while you put pressure on it, it bends in a short arc and you break the tip.

• Leverage Errors: When fighting a good fish, fishermen will bring their hand up and place it above the cork handle, maybe halfway up in that first section. They keep that portion of the rod from flexing and create a short arc because the rod no longer flexes all the way down the length of the blank.
  

Need a proper rod case to protect your tip sections? Check out Maxxon’s rod cases and travel accessories built to keep your rod safe in the field and on the road.

The Construction of Your Rod

If you look at the construction of a fly rod, it is tubular. Toward the tip sections, the material is much lighter; there's not as much hoop strength, and the graphite is not as thick as it is toward the butt. Putting that sharp bend in anything, but especially your fly rod, will result in a break.

What we can do is avoid putting that sharp bend into the rod. Avoid short arcing; you want to make sure you let that rod flex overall. Don't place your hand on the upper portion above that cork handle.

If you do this, I guarantee you’re definitely gonna have less rod breakage. That's not a manufacturer's defect or a flaw in the material—it is just about protecting your rod.

Already broke a tip section? You can order replacement rod parts directly from Maxxon, no questions asked, shipped straight to your door.

Own a Maxxon rod? Make sure you’ve registered your gear to activate your limited lifetime warranty coverage, it only takes a minute.