High Sticking

[papajoe222]

I just finished reading a thread about breaking rods and high sticking was mentioned. I had heard that fraze years ago, but can’t recall what it is. 
please school me. 

[MN Fisher]

That's when the rod-tip is vertical enough to put excess strain on the blank. Bringing your rod-tip to 1:00 when fighting a fish is tough enough on it...raising it to 12:00 greatly increases the chance of breaking the rod.

[jimmyjoe]

  If you hold your rod at 45 degrees, you can almost never break it because it will flex completely before it breaks. I say "almost", because you actually can break the rod ... you just need to be errant about your handling.

   But if you lift the rod to a more vertical angle, like 90 degrees or almost 90 degrees, the flex of the tip can't transfer to the body. It can't pull the body down, in other words, because the angle of compression is parallel to the shaft. So the tip takes all the stress and ..... POW!  it breaks. Because the rod's (or stick's) angle is so high when that occurs, they call it "high sticking".     jj

 

P.S. - Dang! Beat by @MN Fisher again!   ?         jj

[GRiver]

Was told as kid to “keep the rod down”

didn’t know it actually had a name…..cool. See I learn something here all the time, love it. 

[Mike L]

Most times it happens when we try to swing a fish in over the gunnels without supporting the rod correctly. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[MickD]

Reaching out onto the rod to "support it" can increase the risk of breaking it - it effectively shortens the rod's working length.  

 

When teaching newbie friends how to handle the rod without putting it at risk I ask them to keep the rod pointed in the direction of the fish.  With properly set drag and keeping the rod generally pointed toward the fish the rod will not get overloaded.

[A-Jay]

8 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

I just finished reading a thread about breaking rods and high sticking was mentioned. I had heard that fraze years ago, but can’t recall what it is. 
please school me. 

I generally don't go straight overhead with my hooksets and I use a net more often than not.

Some of that has served me well when it come to breaking rods but I've still blown up my fair share.

Mostly travel rods though.

In the clip below I 'hooked up' close by and almost directly under the boat.

So a sweeping hookset to the side wasn't really an option.

Still, I went way too far overhead with the tip and totally over loaded the blank.

It failed.  100 % User error.

To add salt to the wound, my giant bass turned out to be not that.

https://youtu.be/1to6ti-tlZY?t=620

A-Jay

[WRB]

Bending the fast action rod beyond it’s ability to bend that far breaks it.

Holding the rod pointed straight at 12 o’clock up is ok as long as the fish is away from you horizontally, not ok if the fish is straight down vertically with a tight drag. High sticking is usually lifting the 3 lb+ bass out of the water over powering the standard bass rod.

MLF you see pros breaking rods nearly every episode  because they can’t net them or bounce the bass into the boat and lift too many bass using the rod.

Tom

[Columbia Craw]

If you watched Joe Thomas two weeks ago on his show Reeling In The Outdoors, he attempts to bounce, or deck flip a fish and reaches well up the blank, angles the rod to near vertical and isolated the stress to the blank blowing it up.  It’s a common user error.

[jimanchower]

19 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

fraze
please school me. 

 

My friend: it's phrase

[bulldog1935]

15 hours ago, GRiver said:

Was told as kid to “keep the rod down”

didn’t know it actually had a name…..cool. See I learn something here all the time, love it. 

 

 

In 1881, Book of the Black Bass, Doc Henshall described keeping the rod low to fight fish (set the hook, etc) as "giving him the butt"

 

Since I'm here, 8'3" Chubb Henshall bass rod, c. 1910, but first described in 1876 article. 

And btw, Doc takes credit for designing the first bass rod under 12'

 

A high-stick break, btw, is a torsional overload.  It results from the guides trying to twist the rod tip around so they're at the "bottom" of the bent portion of the rod. 

In theory, a high-stick set won't break a spinning rod, a fly rod, or a spiral-wrapped bait rod, because the rod spines aren't twisted by the loaded line guides. 

[TnRiver46]

Don’t know about bass fishing  but the high sticking I’m familiar with is how to keep as much floating fly line off the water as possible while drifting nymphs in swift water in order to reduce drag 

[bulldog1935]

...and a snappy hook set won't break the fly rod. 

But if you're holding a straight-wrapped bait rod at the same aspect and set hard, you're apt to break the rod 1/3 from the tip for all the reasons I just described. 

[papajoe222]

4 hours ago, jimanchower said:

 

My friend: it's phrase

Brain fart.

[Vilas15]

The angle between rod and line should always be 90⁰ to maximize rod bend (keeps pressure on the line) and minimize potential for breakage (loads the rod how it's designed and evenly distributes force along the length). If you hook a fish on a topwater out away from the boat point the rod up vertically, or to either side perpendicular to the line. When a fish is either hooked down deep below you keep the rod pointed straight away from you at the horizon since the line is going straight down. While fighting a fish adjust between those two positions as you get it closer to the boat. High sticking is pointing the rod vertical while the fish is at the boat making a very small angle between line and rod. It forces the tip into a very tight curvature that can break it.

[FishTank]

Guilty of it this year.  I was bringing in a fish, held the rod up with one hand so I could reach down and grab it, then fish made a run next to the boat. I pulled the rod straight up and snap.  Broke an NRX 803S.  Still waiting to get my replacement.   They are saying February now.  That's 8 months from the time I contacted them.   

 

[redmeansdistortion]

Keep your stick on the ice.

[newapti5]

I had my share of high sticking error as well. Now when I set the hook, I set on 45 degree, not so hard, and watch how much the rod tip bends, never allowing it to bend over 90 degree to the rest of the rod blank. 

[T-Billy]

When I think of high sticking, THIS is what comes to mind.

This got me thinking.......Instead wearing my Fish Monkey gloves, Maybe I should try put'n on the foil instead.

[MickD]

On 11/28/2021 at 7:04 AM, A-Jay said:

Still, I went way too far overhead with the tip and totally over loaded the blank.

Maybe, but it looked to me like it wasn't severe enough to fail a rod.  Could be the rod had been damaged?  

[A-Jay]

24 minutes ago, MickD said:

Maybe, but it looked to me like it wasn't severe enough to fail a rod.  Could be the rod had been damaged?  

Anything is possible.

That was a Fenwick Methods Travel rod that had been put through the ringer a bit.

It was the lone survivor and the other 3 I had All suffered similar fate.

On much less stress I might add. 

Hear I blew up one of Big Fish Jeff's Rods, same MH stick.

A-Jay

[MickD]

Gotta get you into building your own, so many options, great blanks/guides/components. 

 

I haven't broken a rod in years.  Last two were 1. I stepped on it and 2. I got the tip caught on my boot and grossly "high sticked" it from its position along the side of the boat, not being used.

 

How was your smallie season this year?  How did it differ from past years?  

[A-Jay]

7 minutes ago, MickD said:

How was your smallie season this year?  How did it differ from past years?  

Don't want to hi-jack this thread but

I'm putting the finishing touches on another 

My Most Productive Baits ~ 2021 Edition thread.

I talk about my season in that one.

Should be up in a few days.

Thanks for asking.

A-Jay