I recently noticed my ultralight TFO rod has developed a very worn rod tip. This rod has only seen a couple months of use and I run 4 lb. mono. The rod tip insert/ring is metallic (stainless?) and I checked all my other rods and they showed no wear with their ceramic rod tips. 
 

I assume I caused this wear by occasionally feeling a 1/16 ounce crappie jig all the way to the tip. But on the rare instance I do this I am not applying gorilla pressure so I am surprised to see so much  wear. I am wondering if this has as much to do with the rod tip materials they use as much as my sometimes reeling a jig against it?

Yeah that would do it. The steel of the eye is harder than the stainless eyelet. You need a new tiptop and to stop reeling lures up into the rod tip. 

I wonder why they chose a steel eye? All

my other rods have a ceramic eye and show no wear after 10 times the usage. 

Send your photos to TFO nothing we can do about a soft tip guide ring!

Tom

Is this rod from the 80s or something? I haven't seen this being a thing even on Ali rods sold for $30.

No it was purchased 2 years ago.

9 hours ago, wasabi_VA said:

I wonder why they chose a steel eye? All

my other rods have a ceramic eye and show no wear after 10 times the usage. 

 

Price and weight.  I have a bass pro ultralight that has them also.  Mine is a cheaper rod and the guides are just fine.  They are light weight because instead of inserting a ceramic ring (and the cost of the ring plus the cost of forming the frame) it is more or less just a polished frame that you can do in one step.

That’s an amazing amount of damage. Looking at your pictures gave me the heebygeebies. 

Yes I know it looks like a child abused it repeatedly but that isn’t the case. I am sure I allowed a jig to contact it only a few times. I crappie fish a ton and just don’t jam a jig into the tip like that. I really have to wonder what quality metal was used. 

3 minutes ago, wasabi_VA said:

Yes I know it looks like a child abused it repeatedly but that isn’t the case. I am sure I allowed a jig to contact it only a few times. I crappie fish a ton and just don’t jam a jig into the tip like that. I really have to wonder what quality metal was used. 

 

I think your spot on on your analysis, Wasabi.  Tungsten jigs? Send TFO the pic's, maybe your get another tip top for free. Or go buy one and replace it.  Fuji has the three packs of different sized tip tops I see from time to time in Academy or Wal-mart and they include a stick of hot melt glue. Other thought would be to find a rod builder/repair guy in your area.

Good luck!

FM

it looks a lot like an SSR from amtak.

 

https://mudhole.com/products/crb-ssr-light-duty-tip-top-guides-model-xlt

Wow! That’s a lot of damage! Never seen anything like that before.

Cheaper to replace it then lose a bunch of lures.

Great job capturing pics of the damage.  

I use the SSR guides but always a ceramic tip top.  I've seen that with an SSR or Minima tip top.

Wow. That is some serious damage. Give. That you are using mono, the only two things I can guess to do such damage is:

 

1) perhaps that rod tip was not properly tempered to make it more durable. 
2) the water is extra silty and that silt while on your line is digging into the rod tip. 
 

I can’t see a crappie jig doing that much damage. Just develop a habit to stop retrieving well before the lure can even have a chance to hit the tip. 
 

Fortunately, replacing the tip is fairly easy and straight forward. I had to do this for my own UL rod. The Fuji or BPS rod tip kits should have one of the tips fit just right if you don’t want to go through the hassle of finding the exact one that is probably going to have the same thing happen if it too is not properly tempered. 

On 3/21/2025 at 10:39 AM, Fishingmickey said:

 

I think your spot on on your analysis, Wasabi.  Tungsten jigs? Send TFO the pic's, maybe your get another tip top for free. Or go buy one and replace it.  Fuji has the three packs of different sized tip tops I see from time to time in Academy or Wal-mart and they include a stick of hot melt glue. Other thought would be to find a rod builder/repair guy in your area.

Good luck!

FM

Or, for the price (or close) to that Fuji kit, you could just buy a nice tip top instead. Fuji Arawana in SIC are what I usually use. Never a problem.

put a plastic bead on your line, that stops the same problem i have by always reeling up all the way.