People in the business tell us that most rods that are broken get that way from other hazards than fighting fish. Certainly screen doors have shortened enough fly rods to become proverbial and I suspect car doors and trunk lids could easily vie for second.

We all know that a little more care would prevent most breakage. But probably nothing short of a law stipulating that fishing rods, like firearms, must be transported cased is going to have much effect.

Occasionally some are damaged in other ways. This was brought to my attention again a short time ago. My wife and I were fly fishing Price County’s Planet Lake one evening when I noticed my new graphite rod had taken an ominous set. Closer inspection revealed the ferrule had fractured. I had just netted a 10-inch plus bluegill.

I turned to my wife in the other end of the canoe. "You know only once before have I actually had a fly rod break in use." Years ago a big bluegill broke one for me on Beckman Lake near Browntown.

I guess ten-inch bluegills can be injurious to your fly rod's health.

Most directions for making rod repairs involve inserting a dowel inside or wrapping the outside with fiberglass cloth and saturating with resin, or both.

Actually mending a broken fiberglass or graphite rod isn’t that difficult. For some time I have been repairing my own and customer's rods by merely sleeving them.

Of course, being, to some extent, in the rod making business means I have accumulated a lot of scrap pieces to work with, but most of us can locate a discarded rod or two that sleeves can be cut from.

Tip sections are the most vulnerable and most frequently broken. When only two or three inches are broken off a tip, sleeving usually isn't practical because even a little weight at this point can slow the action appreciably. Just installing a new top guide is most often best. One slightly heavier will compensate for the difference in rod length.

For instance, on a fly rod, replacing the conventional pear-shaped top with a strut-braced one, like some casting rods use, will usually add enough weight to make up for the loss of two inches in length. If not, a few turns of lead wire will.

Further down, sleeves have no adverse effect. They rarely need to be more than a couple of inches long and when the same color as the rod are barely noticeable. if you wish, they can be camouflaged with wraps of rod winding thread.

Blank tapers all seem close enough so a sleeve cut from one will fit snugly over another. If time allows, remove enough guides so the repair can be slipped on from the top down. This automatically insures a good fit. Cement in place with epoxy glue and remove excess with a wet cloth before it sets.

If speed is important, make the sleeve slightly oversize so it can be forced on the upper side of the break from the bottom, shim with thread and use fast-drying epoxy. Check for alignment before the glue sets to be sure guides line up and so there is no "dogleg" where the splice was made.

Shimming is done by laying thread of the proper thickness lengthwise on the rod section then bringing it over the end and back down on the other side. Hold the thread in place by taping down well away from where the sleeve fits over it. Do this again half-way around the rod to give a quartering effect so shimming is equal on all sides.

This is how ferrules are installed also. Metal ones are sold in increments of sixty-fourths of an inch, so thread is used to fit them in the exact location desired.

I have been using this repair method for a long time and know of several rods repaired in this fashion that are giving satisfactory service after several seasons of hard usage.

Cork handles and some reel seats are made from cork rings glued together and dressed to shape. Some times they become gouged or otherwise damaged badly enough to require replacement of some or all of the rings.

To replace just a few rings, first remove the damaged section with a rasp or file. Be careful not to remove any rod material. Finish the two cut surfaces so they are flat and at right angles to the rod blank. Replacement cork rings are 1/2 inch thick, so the cut-out space should be some multiple there-of. if this doesn't appear feasible, the final ring can be narrowed to fit by rubbing on sandpaper held flat on the bench.

Cork rings for handles are available at most tackle stores. They come with various diameter centers and the accepted practice seems to be to purchase rings with smaller holes than wanted and then ream them to fit the rod. It seems to me that it's better to buy them slightly oversize and bush the rod to fit with a few turns of masking tape.

Cut the rings in half with a razor blade. Cork dulls blades quickly so if there is to be much cutting, it is wise to have a little water handy. A wet blade lasts much longer.

Coat the contact surfaces of the two halves of each ring with water-proof cement and fit them around the rod, filling the cut-out portion of the handle. Wrap the rings with cord or masking tape to hold them tightly until the glue is set.

With file and sandpaper, dress the new section down to the diameter of the old. Do this carefully and it will be almost impossible to tell where the new was put in. The old portion can be cleaned with a little laundry detergent and a damp cloth.

Replacing complete grips and cork reel seats is done in a very similar way. You can assemble these out of individual rings or buy ready-made ones. As a rule ready-mades are cheaper than purchasing enough rings to make them up.

Theoretically, these are supposed to be taper-reamed to fit the rod butt and slid down from the top. Luckily, theory and practice can be two different things.

To do this would necessitate removing (and re-installing) guides, hook keepers and winding check. It's easier, and takes no expensive reamer, to start with a grip or seat large enough to be installed from the lower end and use masking tape to make a level base on the rod. Use plenty of waterproof cement and leave gaps between wrappings so the cement makes contact with the rod besides saturating the tape. Ready-made grips can be dressed to different sizes and shapes with file and sandpaper if you desire.

From time to time other materials have been promoted for use in rod grips, but cork is hard to beat. It has a pleasant feel in the hand, is warm in cold weather, and cool in warm. It doesn't retain fish odor and cleans easily with soap and water.

Incidently, the rod broken on Planet Lake is back in service. It now has a metal ferrule rather than the graphite original. The part of the ferrule that broke was the exterior piece on the tip section. By cementing a fiberglass sleeve on the spigot end of the bottom section and shimming with fine thread under each ferrule half, a good fit was obtained. The new ferrule is wound with black thread and looks very nice.

I am sure the manufacturer would have gladly replaced the blank, but it would have taken time. This way the rod was back in service within a few hours.