Can we discuss "rod breakage"?

[bassboogieman]

I've seen this complaint way too many times and it was mentioned in another thread recently. So stepping out of character and NOT hijacking another guy's post, here we go...

Y'know it's probably just the result of my mind not working like everyone else... but the subject of "broken rods" (aka " rod failure) seems much more common since the advent of the light weight graphite rods that everyone loves because they are light and sensitive. Certainly the modern graphite rod is not as durable as our ancient 'glass rods (in most instances) and those that came before, but they are definitely lighter and sensitive which is what we want.

The other factor (to my brain) is the current love of fast and extra fast actions on our favorite sticks - especially with plastics - all the shock of a slammer hook set (or worse - flipping a large fish aboard with both hands on the rod's handle) is absorbed in a short section at the end of the rod. Now we all love our light, sensitive rods and we want to be able to feel everything we can't see via the line transmission of vibration and what is the best? braid! My feeble brain tells me it's only logical when you match a graphite rod with 30# braid (or more commonly 50# +) and the rod may be rated for 20# line (more or less) that may be a problem. I really believe "rod failure" would be far less of an issue if we were still all using mono in a test comparable to the rating of the rod.

Now throw in an eye crossing hook set (not to mention a heavy gauge hook) and when you're on tippy toe, slamming that hook home with every muscle in your body - that's a lot of stress on the rod - SNAP? Should we really be surprised? Is it really a defect in the rod? I know there are defective blanks in virtually every brand of rod available, but I always want to know ALL the particulars when I hear someone complaining they snapped a rod. Hey! I've done it but on the very few that have snapped - I really believe it was my fault, not the rod. Broken rods happen but I don't believe very many are actually due to a rod defect especially in a quality blank - the bargain sticks, well cheap isn't always the best buy. That's just my opinion as I haven't done any scientific research into the problem.

So your thoughts...