Maxxon's Ramblings from the OG: Bruising and Rod Breakage

Welcome to another edition of Maxxon's Ramblings from the OG. Fact, opinion, some truths, or just BS; you decide. Last time we talked about short arcing a rod and rod breakage. I want to expand this time and talk about another reason that we see a lot of rod breakage. Once again, this is not due to manufacturer's defects or materials. What this is talking about is things that we may do to our rod that will damage the rod and many times not even be aware of it.

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What is Bruising the Rod?

Basically, it's hitting it and creating some kind of trauma to the outside blank that will result eventually into rod breakage. Just like if something hit your skin really hard, you'll get a bruise. That's done a little trauma and damage, and you need to heal up. The difference with a rod is it doesn't heal up. It takes that trauma and damage, and you might get small little fractures. As you continually work the rod, those fractures will expand and get bigger and bigger until finally the rod will break.

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How Traumas Happen

We get guys that say, "Hey, I was just casting my rod. I'm just casting it, and all of a sudden it breaks." Well, that's because that rod somewhere before took a thump from the following:

• A beadhead nymph.
  

• A conehead streamer.
  

• Banging it on something.
  

• Dropping your rod.
  

• Putting it in the boat and letting it tap against the gunnel as the waves hit the boat.
  

You created a little bruise, a trauma that eventually will turn into a break. A lot of times there's not a lot that we can do to avoid that. We don't hit our fly rod with a bead on purpose, but it happens.

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Caring for Your Rod

Think about just caring for your rod and trying to eliminate as many possible traumas to that rod as you can. Remember the construction of a fly rod: it's tubular. Its wall strength is strong on the overall arc, but it has very little strength on the short arc. Also, it cannot take a lot of abuse. The hoop strength or wall thickness of that graphite is very thin, so it can't withstand a lot of trauma.

My Tips:

• Be careful with your rod.
  

• Try to avoid any trauma, bruising, or thumping.
  

• Reduce the breakage and get more use out of it.

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Our Warranty

We do cover rod breakage and those traumas in our warranty. Very seldom do we ever have a manufacturer's defect or material flaw because of our quality control. Usually, it's the cause of someone bruising or applying trauma to the rod. But if you have a Maxxon rod and you do break it, get in touch with us because we'll take care of it and we'll warranty the rod.

Ready to file a claim or learn what's covered? Read the Full Maxxon Warranty Policy, including our $35 flat-fee repair program.