Hello -

Thought this might be the place to ask. Today whilst casting with my favourite little 4 weight Sage SLT I felt a slight hingy feeling on my backcast, and on my forward cast, the rod came apart at the 3rd section from the bottom (the 'middle' ferrule on a 4 piece rod).

To my dismay, I found that that the finish around the rim of the female ferrule had become discoloured (turned lighter) and there were some pretty obvious cracks in the flexcoat (hard to tell if in graphite itself). The discolouration is about 1/8" all the way round the rim and a couple of the cracks in the finish run 1/4." I can't see any obvious cracks in the blank itself, but its difficult to tell.

I know this sort of thing is a common break for spey rods when sections come loose. I'm wondering if I should send it in to Sage now (warranty is in my name), or if I might get another season out of it?

This particular ferrule has a guide just above it, so there's about an inch of thread wrap, which to my mind, should make it very difficult to actually break. For that reason, I'm not even sure Sage would think it needs to be repaired. I've got a big fishing trip to the USA coming up in 2 weeks and I really don't want to be without this rod whilst it is being repaired!

What do the rod building guru's think? If it does need repair, is there someone in the UK that I can send it to to expedite repairs under warranty, or does it have to go back to Washington US?

Thoughts?

<M

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Contact David Norwich.
Superb craftsman.
Top Conker

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Used to be an angry young man, now I'm an angry old man.

You can bomb people into pieces but you cant bomb them into peace.

If somebody else touches it without prior approval from Sage you run the risk of voiding the warranty .

Contact Gary Coxon ( Sage ) and let them sort it for you !

Best wishes

Steve P

Thanks Steve and Conker. I was aware that having someone else do the work would void the warranty. I'll get in touch with Gary and see what he says, but I think I'm gonna wait till I get back from the states to send it in....I'll tape up the joint good so it doesn't come loose again and hope for the best. I fished with the rod for the rest of the day yesterday and it didn't get any worse. As I said, the cracks are under the 1 inch thread wrap, so I'll just have to hope it holds!

Going to be fishing the BWO's in colorado and utah for 7 days. Can't be without the 486 SLT! I'm probably setting myself up to have the rod break on the fish of a lifetime...

<M

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