How strong are fly rods?

[RichardCullip]

I just ran across a couple of youtube videos by Steve Rajeff of Echo Rods. First he tortures a short 3wt rod into submission. Then he gets ambitious and tortures a 10wt saltwater rod. Both rods take an impressive amount of force before breaking.


3wt rod

10 wt rod

[Ming Moua]

Amazing how Tim Rajeff can show how strong our fly rods can be......rods are stronger than what we think....cool vid...Ming

[Flyjunkie]

Yeah Fly Rods are Built Strong.. but One can still break them while Fishing... On that 10 wt. Usually if it's gonna break it will happen when the Dorado (or Whatever Big, Saltwater Nasty You've Hooked into) first hits the fly and takes..You need to focus on getting the line on the reel while the fish burns out of there.. Then if That's alright.. (i breath abit easier once the Line is on the reel).. The fight commences.. Towards the end of the Fight, both You & the Fish are Tired.. at the time the Fish is to be landed by Your Panga captain, is often when the rod will break.. It's simple : You are Tired from fighting a Hot fish in the Heat of Baja.. your Brain is tired.. You'll stand a better chance of doing something wrong, resulting in catastrophic Rod Failure... (and it usually happens lightning fast)

All the Rod companies I've talked with Know That most of broken rods returned are the angler's fault.. They are good at figuring what caused the Break, They can spot Rod abuse...
(like someone using too light a rod to fish in the Ocean...). But the Top Notch Companies still warranty their product, with only a small shipping fee at most to get the rod repaired/replaced...


I like Tim's Referance to shooting someone who Holds a 10 wt. at a 90 degree angle while fighting a fish... Couldn't agree more....

[NorcalBob]

Remember that's just a static load test where he's lifting dead weight that's not moving and trying to break his line!!! Real world fishing conditions are quite different!!!!

[fly addict]

Tim's the man.
For the money Echo rods are tough to beat. They are fun rods to fish and cast as well.
Mark

[RichardCullip]

Remember that's just a static load test where he's lifting dead weight that's not moving and trying to break his line!!! Real world fishing conditions are quite different!!!!

I agree that real world fishing conditions are tough on fly rods. The only rods I've broken (3 and counting) have been around the car (a broken tip in car door and 2 broken tips while getting rods out of a rigged&ready cloth bag). Haven't come close to breaking one on a fish yet

[Flyjunkie]

I was thinking the same thing regarding the fact that he's using static weight.. but still, it's educational to watch..
I will certainly agree that going against some of the species out there introduce a whole new can of worms to the situation...

But Tim is a great guy, who does put out some fine Fly rods....

[castaway]

I have been working on getting a 6 or a 7wt steelheading rod for under 200 bucks.

I was looking at..

Winston Accent 9' 7wt
Greys GRXTi 9'6 6 or 7wt
Echo Ion 6 or 7wt



Think I am going to go with the 10' 6wt Echo Ion (under 200 bucks)...next month

Thanks Richard.

[Sasha]

Well I don't want to try it on any of my rods. But I do know my 000wt > 4X (sorry it was an arguement I had on another forum )

[RichardCullip]

Well I don't want to try it on any of my rods. But I do know my 000wt > 4X (sorry it was an arguement I had on another forum )

I fully agree, Those smaller lighter rods (I've got a 00wt) can put a lot of pressure on a fish. With a nice proper low rod angle you can easily apply enough pressure to straighten tiny hooks and break tippet without endangering the rod itself. However, I've found that sliding a big fish into a net all by myself can generate some tense moments and extra stresses on the rod.

[Jim T]

I attended a presentation recently in which the presenter stated how little pressure is actually on the line when the rod is bent significantly. He demonstrated this by having someone hold the end of the leader while he put the normal bend in the rod you would see when fishing. The guy holding the line was surprized by the little pressure he felt and the presenter stated that his arm/wrist would get tired very quickly if he held this much pressure for long.

Try this experiment yourself.

He did state that the greatest stress on the rod is generally when landing the fish, especially if you hold the rod straight up in the air.

Jim

[briansII]

I attended a presentation recently in which the presenter stated how little pressure is actually on the line when the rod is bent significantly. He demonstrated this by having someone hold the end of the leader while he put the normal bend in the rod you would see when fishing. The guy holding the line was surprized by the little pressure he felt and the presenter stated that his arm/wrist would get tired very quickly if he held this much pressure for long.

Try this experiment yourself.

He did state that the greatest stress on the rod is generally when landing the fish, especially if you hold the rod straight up in the air.

Jim

I have had a similar demonstration. The only difference was, to show how much difference the angle of the rod made, to the pressure applied to the fly/fish. I held the fly while the demonstrator(Ken Hanley), lifted the rod tip straight up. Typical trout fighting angle. Like Jim said, very little pressure was at the fly. Once the rod was lowered to the side, with the same bend in the rod, I thought I wasn't going to be able to hold on to the fly. The pressure increase is huge. Reason being, your applying power from lower on the rod blank.

briansII