I Hate it When This Happens!

Fly rods are inherently fragile.  They are made to be lightweight, flexible, and to have a taper that gives the tip of the rod a very thin tip.  Over the last year, I had the misfortune of breaking three rods.  With one rod, the tip was broken when a gust of wind knocked the rod to the ground.  The rod hit with just the right amount of force in just the right place to break the tip.  On the second rod, I closed it in my front door.  I had the rod in two sections and was in a hurry.  I didn't notice that the tip had not cleared the door before I closed it.  That was a heartbreaker because the company that produced the rod went out of business a few years ago and it is irreplaceable.  Earlier this month, Waylon (my dog) and I were fishing in my boat.  I had a rod laying across a couple of seats.  Waylon chose to sit directly on top of the rod that was extending beyond the seat and snapped the mid-top section into two mid-top sections.  It was my Echo Base 6 weight and while it doesn't have much sentimental value, it is a tool that performs a specific function.

As I have gotten more into streamer fishing, I have found myself moving towards a bass fisherman's mentality.  I have certain rods with certain reels that contain certain line.  I have an 8 weight with floating line and an 8 weight with sink tip line.  I also have a 6 weight with floating line and a 6 weight with sink tip line.  Waylon broke my Echo Base 6 weight that was paired with floating line.  After getting over the initial shock of having yet another rod break, I debated whether I was going to contact Echo in regards to their warranty program.  While I don't use the rod as much as other rods, I decided that I needed to replace it in order to have my full arsenal of streamer rods back in order.

Echo was great to work with in terms of communication and customer service.  They were polite, efficient, and the steps I had to take as part of their warranty program were simple.  I did get a little bit of bad news though.  Since my rod had been discontinued, they could not send me the replacement part that I needed.  Instead, they offered me a 50% discount on a new rod that was comparable which is the Echo Lift.  The price of the rod is $110, which ended up costing me $55 dollars plus $15 in shipping.  This seemed a little expensive to me but I guess it could have been worse.  I didn't have to pay full price for a new 6 weight, which was good, but I sure didn't want to shell out that money because my dog did something dumb.