Woke up early to finally get out my Loomis IM6 9weight flyrod to fish the harbor. Get into the parking lot, setting up as I go. I am feeding line through the guides, not putting much bend in the rod and KKKRRRAAAKKKK....... the rod folds in two.

Now I know what you are thinking, what are you doing Marco, 'high-sticking a flyrod'? but the break was about 8 inches from the joint, not anywhere near the tip.

I seem to remember that Loomis has a lifetime guarntee????

Who and where do I send the rod to?

thanks......

MoonDoggie
Santa Barbara, CA

Just say you were fighting a fish when it broke.

http://www.gloomis.com/contact.htm

seems everyone thinks that if you have top of the line stuff, it won't ever fail. i fish with garcia, quantum, berkley, and shakespere. all middle line stuff, no junk. this tackle has served me well for many fished hard years. i have never had my tackle fail me when i know it probably should have. i take care of my stuff and it has taken care of me. just kind of funny how you can spend $250 on a rod and have a $29.95er outlast it. lol. i do hear that the loomis warranty is a lifetime warranty but its hard to get a broken rod warranteed, if it weren't, i'd probably buy one.

That's because higher quality (stiffer and lighter) graphite is much more brittle than softer graphite or glass/graph composite blends. Any high quality graphite rod will break much easier than most cheaper rods. I think Loomis does have a lifetime warranty, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting a replacement.

TL,
Adam

JMO but "fragile" does NOT equal high quality when it comes to fishing equipment. Granted, fly rods are different animals. If Loomis won't replace it I would look at other makers.

Fishslayer

It all depends on what you're after... There's no way in hell I'd buy a "fragile" high modulus graphite bait stick for fishing yellows - gotta go fiberglass for that kind of stuff. In the same way, I would hate to fish a soft fiberglass stick in the bay with 6# test when I'm trying to feel the difference between a blade of grass and a spottie breathing on my plastic.

Higher quality graphite is generally considered to be graphite with a higher Young's modulus and lower tensile strength. In other words, it's stiffer (therefore you need less of it to make a certain stiffness or a rod) but has less tensile strength. The chart below might explain it a little better.

http://www.leonadivide.com/adam/stress-strain.gif

TL,
Adam

Here's my theory on Loomis rods. The only reason I would want a Loomis rod would be GLX for fishing worms, or finnesse of some type. Other than that, I really don't like the action of Loomis rods, and there are stronger rods out there that are more cost effective. I don't want to pay a bunch of money for a Loomis jerkbait rod, where sensitivity isn't really needed. IMO there's no point in buying a GL2 because there are other companies that make better rods than GL2 Loomises, and for less money. Lots of people (Brian #2) disagree with me and fish Loomis anyway just because it's Loomis, but it's like paying the extra $20 for the Nike name. And, as a direct contradiction to Kelly's post, I do indeed like Castaway rods... I haven't had a problem with workmanship or anything like that, and I think they make a great rod.
-Brian

They have a couple options. One is to send them the rod which they will inspect and will replace if it was defective. Option 2, if you broke it high sticking, car door, threading and bending (LOL), they will sell you a new one for $28, I believe. If you want speedier turn around while they inpect it, you can prepay the $28 and they will refund it if it turns out it was defective on their part. If not, you paid what you were gonna anyway but got your rod quicker. Just call them up for the details. they are a nice stick, I had one hold up thru 8 years of party boat fishing before it went.

Seems like they break too often. Even if they are guaranteed for life I like to have confidence in my gear while fighting a fish. You know what I mean?

Kiyo
www.baytubers.com

No rods should break if you take good care of it. But I don't think Loomis rods break any more frequently than other rods. Don't equate volume of rods breaking with the percentage of these rods breaking.

If 1000 people use Loomis rods, and 1% break, thats 10 rods (I think). If 100 people use Shakespeare rods and 1% break, thats just 1 rod. You'll likely hear 10 complaints of the Loomis rods breaking and just 1 about the Shakespeare. The same percentage of Shakespeare rods probably break too, you just don't hear about it because: 1) not as many people are using them, and 2) you expect a Shakespeare rod to break, so those people probably won't post their complaint on here.

Moondoggie, post follow-ups to let us know how Loomis' customer service deals with your problem, I think we'd all benefit from your experience.

** tight lines make all my troubles go away **

I broke a Loomis on it's 3rd trip out called them sent it in and it was replaced for free and sent to me in 10 days or less. I have maybe 16 rods if you count the saltwater stuff and all but 4 are Loomis. A superior product in every respect. I was given 5 Castway rods when I bought the boat and thats just what I did. I gave them away as Christmas presents to some kids I know. I know Shimano bought them but it has not changed anything other than ownership as the craftsmanship is still there. Yes you can fish cheaper rods and save a bunch of money! I'm not a snob I just prefer the action,diameter,finish and in my case durability of these rods. I can gaurantee that you won't have a problem with it's replacement....My 02 cents...

Kelly

i'm not saying that i try to save a few bucks fishing with shakespere. i can afford the top dollar stuff. actually, the only shakespere i have at the time is a tiger rod which i use as a 20 lb class tuna rod.
it's a great light liner because of the soft tip. i think the most i have paid for a fishing rod is $80. i fish with alot of bass pro rods. they are put together very well and use quality components. i have never fished with the loomis rods and i am not knocking them. i just have confidence in the stuff i use because i have never had it fail on me. knock on wood. i even have an old abu garcia colon 7ft spinning rod that i have used for fresh and saltwater for over 15 years. it is tired and i now have better gear, but i wouldn't hesitate to use it as a back up. also to ask the guy who posted the quote about how if you take care of your fishing rod it shouldn't break and then goes to say that you can expect a shakespere to break so thats why maybe no one complains when they do? well, i know for a fact that there are more shakespere rods out there than loomis rods. most people i see fishing are weekend shade tree fisherman. they don't buy loomis's, they buy the combo's from walmart that are prespooled with line! i wouldn't fish my toilet with those! but, i see tons of people using uglystiks. i've owned about five of these rods and never had one of them break. the reason i don't use them now is because you can get better action from a spagetti noodle than an ugly stik. i know what your talking about with percentages. it makes sense. but there are more people who own shakespere than loomis. but that doesn't make the shakespere a great rod, it just makes them affordable. but i'll still pass up a shakespere and use my bass pro rods.

Thats cool. The ugly sticks do work well. Lots of people catch lots of fish with them. Use what you're happy with. Catch lots of fish :-D

** tight lines make all my troubles go away **

I went into the garage and checked and lo-and behold the rods I use for rippin my Rouges are both bass pro that I won in raffles and are perfect for that function. I'm not knocking anybodys product. The Castaways went up to Cachuma with me and I missed seriously 3 fish I should have caught, so I put them under the Christmas tree for some well deserving kids. I've been thinking about this since I left work and it is "to me anyway" kinda like this. I'm a professional Tool and Die Maker and if you hand a blueprint to me or a co-hort we might not start at the same place but the finished product some how ends up the same! What works for you? Kind of like many of the posts on Calfishing! What works for me is my slant on it. We might not all agree on lunar phases or tidal influx or anything for that matter but.....we will try to put you farther ahead with our experiance than you might have been prior....I am stuck,My first Loomis cost so much more than any other rod prior I could hardley justify it until the next outing when I stuck my biggest worm fish to date....I fished tournaments for awhile and won angler of the year out of the back seat in the Santa Barbara Club and well,I quit clubbing and went in search of my next goal.......Bigger......So I started throwing swimbaits and flipping with basically a saltwater stick....then I wanted to go back to my roots and worm again but I needed some new sticks as a boating accident had claimed all of my finnesse stuff. For me it was natural to go back to the girls that had brought me to the dance. In retrospect it seems to me that my timing has been effected by the way the rods resond. If I still had that old yellow glass spinning rod that I used to swear by in the 70's that would be my rod of choice except it was a two piece rod and that my friends is where I draw the line......NEVER again. It's true I don't need a 200 dollar rod to throw sluggos I just do. Try a zebco glass rod with a 33 zebco reel--thats what 90% of the touring pros started with but now they use????
Try them,like them,hate them< Move on....It's only what I Use....You can or not. I Love this post it's so user friendley. Thanxs SwimBait for your tireless efforts. I think you deserve an award of sorts what that might be I cannot speculate but it is deservidly yours <Kelly>

"use what you're happy with"

Sage advice, and no need to knock any company unless there's customer service issues or repeated failures. I'd bet every poster here has multiple brands of rods, some they like more than others for value, action, heft/feel or whatever.

Marco,


hope you got a deal on that Loomis cause if you paid full price you could have bought two Redingtons with the same warranty and still fished a neww rod! Buy a Sage next time. Capt.Carl