I understand what TillrLife is trying to say. I have seen it happen. A guy casts a heavy jig and you hear it hit the rod as it flys out. The next cast it snaps at the spot where the jig hit the blank. He is pissed because his rod snapped for no reason. Well it snapped because it got damaged and as soon as enough stress was put back on that spot it gave. Blanks are just fibers and epoxy. The lighter the rod, the thinner the blank is and the easier it is to bruise it. Another issue is after you pass the 45 degree bend mark you start to add stress to the blank. When fighting a fish this is called high sticking. Swinging your rod into the air to lift a fish into the boat will do the same thing. One would put a lot less stress on the blank if you left the fish into the boat while keeping your rod handle horizontal. This way the rod doesn’t bend into the danger zone.
I always had good experiences with St. Croix rod and their blanks when they used to sell them. It is too bad to hear that their customer service is not where it used to be.
100% agree.
Hoisting a fish into the boat, is likely putting that rod well above the 45* zone. That puts a lot of stress in a particular part of the rod, which isn’t designed to bend to the extreme it’s at. Can it be done, 100s/1000s of times, yep. Take a piece of paper and fold it in the same spot 100 times, is it easier to tear the paper at the crease, or when the paper is brand new with no folds?
The only rod(s) that I know of that can handle that kind of stress are Ugly Sticks, or other whipping stick glass rods. But fiberglass by nature is much more forgiving than graphite and carbon fiber.
Some of the epoxy/glues that are being developed are really helping to lighten rods, while making them less susceptible to breaks, but they’re still not going to last forever. Even the way they use vacuum systems to drive the epoxy into the fibers of the rods are getting more technical.
Anyways, I guess my original question was answered.
(sarcasm)