This makes 3 for the year! And some of y’all may remember that I had never broke a rod before this year.

This one snapped in the middle when I set the hook. Must have been a big fish. Ended up with 12-13 fish but nothing over 2 pounds, so no pics but the broken rod.

It was an old  one anyway. Now I’m using a 3rd string rod on a first string reel!!

Oops

It’s looking more and more like a new  rod is on the radar screen!

A bowfin broke my favorite rod yesterday. A replacement rod is on my radar too.

4 hours ago, Grim_Reaver said:

A bowfin broke my favorite rod yesterday. A replacement rod is on my radar too.

Rule 37... NEVER lend your rod to a bowfin, they are known for braking rods.

Your forearms are looking bigger these days.

I'm no stranger to broken blanks, but what impresses me most is that no one called a bowfin a 'mudfish' 

This Jurassic creature will strike any lure meant for bass, and pound for pound, tow a bass around the boat  

 

Roger

 

 

19 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

This makes 3 for the year! And some of y’all may remember that I had never broke a rod before this year.

This one snapped in the middle when I set the hook. Must have been a big fish. Ended up with 12-13 fish but nothing over 2 pounds, so no pics but the broken rod.

It was an old  one anyway. Now I’m using a 3rd string rod on a first string reel!!

Just curious.... What's the specs on that rod and which rod is it exactly?

 

Also, if you live in Florida, you said you haven't caught anything over two pounds with it.  It's kind of surprising.  Most of the bass I use to catch at my family's place in Ellenton were about 4lb+ and a few bigger monsters occasionally.  The only issue was staying away from the alligators.  I have definitely caught some big ones down there. 

12 hours ago, RoLo said:

what impresses me most is that no one called a bowfin a 'mudfish' 

I had never heard of a “bowfin” until I saw a picture of one with the name. Mudfish is all I ever heard it called in Florida.

@FishTankThe rod is a shimano 6.6. The specs are worn off the rod, since I’ve had it since the early 90s. It is a medium with a light tip. I used it while cat fishing ponds mostly. This year it became my finesse bass rod after the other 2 breaks. So I haven’t used it for bass very long .By the way, I didn’t say I had never caught a fish over 2 pounds on it . I just said nothing over 2 on the last last trip( on any rod). I agree that we definitely have plenty of fish over 4 pounds in Florida . I know there’s plenty in my home lake alone.

 

47 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I had never heard of a “bowfin” until I saw a picture of one with the name. Mudfish is all I ever heard it called in Florida.

We call them grinnel in my part of the country.

Dogfish? 

 

I think when rods get broken by fish (rather than car doors, being stepped on, etc) it is due to some sort of misuse by the fisherman.  Whacking it onto a gunnel setting it up for later failure, high sticking, things like that.  For me, whacking it on the gunnel will most likely be how I will break one.  If it's due to a manufacturing defect in the rod, it will break early on rather than after a number of years.

This is the first rod in my life that ever broke from setting the hook on a fish.

I think it was Aaron Martin ( maybe ) that broke 2 rods in one MLF tournament on fish ,  and I’m sure they weren’t low-end rods like mine was...

17 hours ago, RoLo said:

no one called a bowfin a 'mudfish'

I thought about that after I posted. I was wondering why I didn't call it a "mudfish" myself.

Never say "Never", it's the kiss of death.. lol   I never broke a rod then last year I broke 2 in three outings.  Haha. Just to keep from breaking another one I'm putting this out there................I'm SURE I'll break another one soon.....

10 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

@FishTankThe rod is a shimano 6.6. The specs are worn off the rod, since I’ve had it since the early 90s. It is a medium with a light tip. I used it while cat fishing ponds mostly. This year it became my finesse bass rod after the other 2 breaks. So I haven’t used it for bass very long .By the way, I didn’t say I had never caught a fish over 2 pounds on it . I just said nothing over 2 on the last last trip( on any rod). I agree that we definitely have plenty of fish over 4 pounds in Florida . I know there’s plenty in my home lake alone.

 

Got it.  I should have looked at your avatar.  That thing's a beast. 

13 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

I had never heard of a “bowfin” until I saw a picture of one with the name. Mudfish is all I ever heard it called in Florida.

Here in South Lousiana, they are "choupique" in Cajun French. Nobody would know what you're talking about if you called it a bowfin.

At least you broke it on a hookset....i broke my first rod ever yesterday,  tatula ags spinning shut in van door.... yeah pretty smart. Doubled down my recklessness and ordered a glx 852s to replace it. 

13 minutes ago, BayouSlide said:

Here in South Lousiana, they are "choupique" in Cajun French. Nobody would know what you're talking about if you called it a bowfin.

I loved that reality show about the bait store in Pierre Part. The owner of the bait store has a choupique bite his hand. I have to admit his reaction made me laugh. wonder what Choupique means in french? Teeth?

Today I looked through my excess rods and found one thats perfect for my finesse reel. It had a little split in the guide that allowed the line to slip out. Not having a guide that size, I just put a little tape on it. Nearly as good as new!! 

On 5/19/2020 at 10:58 AM, N Florida Mike said:

This is the first rod in my life that ever broke from setting the hook on a fish.

I think it was Aaron Martin ( maybe ) that broke 2 rods in one MLF tournament on fish ,  and I’m sure they weren’t low-end rods like mine was...

He was using Enigma rods (I think) and it seems they have a breaking history. Some guys break rods on fish and some never - nothing to do with size of fish.

2 hours ago, frogflogger said:

He was using Enigma rods (I think) and it seems they have a breaking history. Some guys break rods on fish and some never - nothing to do with size of fish.

99% is just an accident.

High sticking is probably #2.

 

I had one friend that set the hook and it snapped an Ugly stik. He got a free replacement, of course.

Fish don't break rods anglers do.

The rod looks to be a spinning rod using mono or FC line not braid so the rod wasn't over powered. If you bend a rod more then 90 degrees is could break, don't high stick!

Long term use wears rods out. You can only flex graphite rod  a certain number of time before it fails. Add handling, dropping, stepping on it and transporting the rod damage occurs.

You now have perfectly good tomato stakes.

Tom

 

Someone posted great article by a rod maker on another thread showing all ways a rod can break. 90+ percent is due to angler caused issues (damage, high sticking, etc). They said if a rod is going to break due to a manufacturing defect it will usually break during the first few outings. Damage by striking an object or an object striking the rod (lure strike) sets most rods up for failure down the road.