Bankbeater

A couple of years ago I had a Premier spinning rod break just the way you described. I used it for about 1-1/2 years. One day I had it laying on the table, running line through the guides, and snap. I was holding about 8" of broken rod in my hand. I'm still not sure what happened.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I went out and purchased another Premier spinning rod. This second one has been going strong for going on 3 years now.
The only thing I can think of is that I did something when I was running line that caused the rod to break.

I've got 2 m/f procaster-s spinning rods.  I got them used around 2006 and retired them about 3 years ago.  My guess is that they are from sometime in the 90s.  I used one for small moving baits and the other for weightless plastics.  They are good rods, nothing spectacular, but they will get the job done.

Black Grape by Zoom or Creme Scoundrel in Grape. 

Wow you were lucky. I’d try a Mr. Clean magic eraser on the cork. 

Around here it seems like it's more about how much the temps warms up during the day.  A 20 or 30 degree spread usually shuts the bite down.  If the morning low is close to the afternoon high I do better on the water.

I want it cloudy, maybe sprinkles off and on, calm wind, and the temp not to move much.  Some of my best fall days fishing was when the low temp and high temp were no more than 10 degrees apart.