Again, thanks for all the thoughts and suggestions that have been added. Perhaps I should have stated this earlier but my interest lies in using the lightest rod that I can get away with while still being able to handle most of the fish I hook. My initial foray into this style of fishing will be in the Wisconsin Driftless area and if that stokes my fire I’ll be heading to the Black Hills and Cypress Hills some time in 2023. Anything beyond that is in the hands of my fortune teller.
Well Cappy, I followed your advice. Ordered a Hellbender with the hope that I’ll be able to fish my home river a bit without inducing a major pucker factor.
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Smaller tippets definitely aren’t a guarantee of rod safety in my experience. I have broken rods in the lower sections of the rod even with 5x tippet just because of bad angles. I broke an Oni Honryu rod that way simply because of force when a fish much larger than I should’ve been catching on it ran and I was pulling away at just the wrong time. Now I have a spare handle and a lower section. I think the speed and angle will have an affect regardless of the tippet setup. Of course it’s still a good idea to not go larger than needed tippet wise. For the most part I rarely go above 6x since I’d rather lose the fish than repair a rod. It is a different skill set when playing large fish on a tenkara rod, and I’ve had times when I had to point the rod to the fish and let it snap as I could literally hear the handle of the rod making cracking noises and knew it wasn’t going to go well.
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I have broken multiple rods on larger fish, a few rods unfortunately. After you do that a few times you get to know where the angles are that will cause it. I almost always use 6x tippet and did even when breaking rods. 6x flouro is surprisingly strong and is not a guarantee that it will protect your rod. So I agree that even an 18” fish can break your rod. It’s also heavily rod dependent. Some rods are just more brittle. Some of my Nissin rods for example seem more brittle and prone to breaking. I don’t really chase larger fish as much and prefer getting away from crowds and fishing smaller streams where the breaking usually comes from branches and pulling on snags which are obvious don’t dos.
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