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enzyme

Repaired Tip = Altered Action & Power?

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Last year I met a guy that bought broken rods in bulk from places like BPS and Cabela's and fixes them as a hobby and sells them for almost nothing. I bought about four from him. He told me the ones I got were broken near the tip and he that he just put top guide down one so in all, one less guide and 2-4in. shorter.

My question is.... Assuming he has done a good job at repairing them,

1) Do the rods lose or gain any power?

2) I'm certain the (tip) action has been altered. Is it correct to assume they are now faster than what they were rated for?

The one thing he told me that confused me was.... the rod is a mr walleye series 6'6 ML fast. He said after fixing it, it should be more like a medium than a ML. Does that sound right?

Edited by enzyme
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It will depend on the rod of course, how much of it was broken off, etc. A heavy rod with a sensitive tip that looses 3 inches will just be a heavy rod after that. On the other hand, if it was just a heavy rod then no big loss. Amazingly a light or medium light spinning rod that loses a few inches off the tip won't lose much at all except a few feet of casting distance with light lures. I usually remove the guide after the tip top if it will be too close to the new tip, so it won't be too stiff from the wraps.

Your question though is so generic as to be almost unanswerable. You need to check each rod and see how it feels to you and think about what you would use it for. You need to judge it not by what it says on the blank, but by how it feels in your hand. That's a good thing even with brand new rods. I told a guy a week or so ago almost that same thing. "I can tell you what I like, but I can't tell you what you like."

Heck, the hen scratchings on the side of most rods aren't worth much to begin with. LOL. St Croix is the only manufacturer I have found who's speed and power ratings are consistent, and then only if you compare them to other St Croix rods.

The short answer is, "Yes you might find some rods you like in his pile, but you have to check them for feel yourself."

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Trimming from the tip will increase the power and make the action more moderate. Action is impacted less than power is.

I measure all of my incoming blanks. I mount each blank on the wall horizontally by capturing the butt section between two staggered padded pegs. They're about as far apart as the length of a typical handle. Then I hang weights from the tip of the rod blank to deflect it a percentage of its working length. With a small level and a protractor I can measure the angle that the tip is at to give me a picture of the action. Mod-Fast, Fast, or Ex-Fast aren't very descriptive. 60°, 66°, or 72° is much more descriptive. I put the weights on a scale and weigh them. Medium, or Med-Heavy aren't very descriptive. 12.455 ounces or 20.387 ounces is much more descriptive. And those numbers aren't open to interpretation. Fast, Ex-Fast, Med-Heavy, Heavy are all different with St. Croix than they are Loomis, or Rouge. Even the same manufacturer can change their definition based on the type of blank. I also put the blank on the scale and weigh it. All that information gets plugged into an Excel spread sheet and some formulas calculate other details for me. With all of that information I can get a very good picture of what a rod blank is really like. And most importantly, compare different rod blanks against each other. When a customer wants a blank that has a little softer tip...or a little more moderate action...I have a much better chance at actually finding the right blank.

That being said, I can use this to measure at points on the blank which allows me to find the changes that will happen after cutting the blank, without actually cutting the blank.

Recently I had a customer that wanted a crankbait rod that was between his Loomis CB783 and CB785. I found a blank that was equal to the CB845. I found point on the tip to cut which put its power dead center between the two and then cut the remainder of the length from the butt. Effectively giving him a CB784.

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