Them The Breaks - Lou Zambello

Anglers break fly rods in endless ways and it is always frustrating and often expensive. Here is a list of the most common ways fly rods are broken and how to prevent it.

1. Tips are snapped off while being carried through a doorway and door unexpectantly closes. Screen doors that automatically close are often the culprit. The best way to prevent this is not to carry fully rigged rods through doorways. Having a second person watch the doors is also helpful. Try carrying your fly rod by grasping it in the middle! It then goes through the door approximately when you do.
2. Car doors are death to fly rods. Never prop your fly rod against your vehicle ever. Never try to pull your fly rod out through any passenger door. If you are transporting fly rods fully rigged, make sure they are secure or lying flat on the floor in the middle of the car. Sometimes, someone exits the car, the fly rod shifts and the tip sticks slightly into the edge of the door, the person gets back in and closes the door, and voila, broken tip.
3. Fly rods are placed on the roof of the car, forgotten, and when we start driving off, they fly off of the roof. This one is the author’s biggest bugaboo. The solution is simple: Never put a fly rod on the roof. If you want to get it away from around the car, place it on the windshield. It will be safe there, and if you forget about it, you will see it when you get in the car.
4. It is too easy to step on fly rods when they are lying on the ground because they are most often green or brown and are camouflaged, especially if it is twilight. Solution is never put a fly rod flat on the ground. Always elevate the tip on a rock, branch, etc. But it must be secure. If it slides off or the wind blows it down, you have the same issue.
5. People lose their balance in boats. It always happens. And when they fall, if a fly rod is nearby, they will often break it as they crash down on it or try to break their fall. That is why guides keep rods in rod tubes in boats when not in use. Never step over rods when getting in or out of a boat, move the rods out of the way first. Never stand in a boat with a fly rod at your feet.

Finally, if you have a flyrod in your hand as you are walking and you trip on something and feel yourself going down, toss the fly rod away from you. The freefall to the ground of the rod will not break it, but it often breaks if you hold onto it and slam it into the ground or fall on it.