Never I Have I Ever......

[FishTank]

I have broken rods, lures, gears in reels but........

 

Never I have I ever seen this happen to a reel while bringing in a fish and keep in mind, the rod is in perfect shape......

 

 

The base of the reel just broke right off when I was bringing in fish.  Luckily I got a hold of Quantum and they are sending me a new Smoke S3.   

Anybody else have this happen?

 

[roadwarrior]

Never seen that before.

[garroyo130]

I can see that happening if its not seated properly and the top foot slides out placing all stress on the lower foot ... although honestly even then the rod would go first I would imagine.

[Born 2 fish]

Wow never seen that.

[Skunkmaster-k]

That’s crazy 

[Deplorable Fisherman]

I've had the bail arm on a Lew's spinning reel blow out. It was insane...I was reeling in a fish and I heard what sounded like a firecracker go off and felt a sting on my hand. The assembly just blew apart on me. 

[Bankbeater]

Dang, I've never seen anything like that.

[FishTank]

Just in case, the fish I hooked into was about a 5lb carp so nothing crazy big.   I was just pulling it in, the carp came right at my kayak, I took the slack out of the line, lifted the rod and it popped right out.  The reel is pretty new.  It had not been dropped as far as I know and I have only caught a few fish with it.  It seemed pretty flawless until this happened.  

[galyonj]

Wild.

 

Absent damage, maybe there was a bad spot in the metal when it was molded.

[Bird]

I broke the entire handle off a reel fighting a fish, only once and it happened to be a......Qua****.

[GRiver]

Must have been a production problem if they are sending a new one. 

[813basstard]

Was it a Tuna??

 

Sheesh

[GreenPig]

Wow! Should've worked hardened that Smoke with 3 or 400 smaller fish. I mean you can't just jump on 5 lbers like you can with Shimano's. ?

[bulldog1935]

I don't know, I've seen so many broken alloy feet on 1930s Medalists, a broken reel foot doesn't seem crazy at all.  

 

What does seem crazy is how far the manufacturer went to lighten that already light metal reel foot.  

Looks like it started cracking at stress risers, where the thickness changes from too thin to thick.  

 

19 hours ago, FishTank said:

...

 

The base of the reel just broke right off when I was bringing in fish.  Luckily I got a hold of Quantum and they are sending me a new Smoke S3.   

Anybody else have this happen?

 

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by bulldog1935

[MyKeyBe]

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

 

What does seem crazy is how far the manufacturer went to lighten that already plastic reel foot.  

Looks like it started cracking at stress risers, where the thickness changes from too thin to thick.  

 

You sure about that being plastic?

[bulldog1935]

not at all, but I'm sure its been thinned and cut out to extremes in design.  

 

The two stay fractures that are visible in the photo, the one on the right looks like progressive crack growth, covering about 1/4 of that cross section.  The one on the left is final tearing (the chevrons).  I'd still think the one on the top that you can't see went first.  

 

Reading the fingerprints of fracture has been my career - done it about 5000 times, and taught it in seminars.  Creating stress-risers to shave weight is all too common - there's one on Shimano bicycle deraillers that has followed their design since the 70s.  Not every one is going to break, but every one has reduced damage- and critical-flaw-tolerance that can kick them over the edge.  

[bulldog1935]

no, I would guess a casting flaw in just the wrong place - statistical bad luck

[PhishLI]

Slight flaws might exist in any casting, forging, etc. It occurs every day in manufacturing. Older guys here may remember Magnaflux testing. I doubt a reel manufacturer is going to any length beyond visual inspection which would only expose superficial problems.

[dodgeguy]

Seen it on graphite body reels.