Stuck Ferrules On A Rod, What Do You Do?

[Wayne SW/MO]

It helps to use wax as a lubricant. Bees wax seems to work well, its sticky enough to keep the sections from flying apart while supplying some lubrication. I've never tried the premium dubbing waxes, some of them are pretty sticky.

[Ham]

If all else fails, throw that SOB in the Finley, and buy another one.

[Indiana Trout]

I assume it is a graphite rod with non metallic ferrules. Grab each section with opposing hands about 6 inches from the ferrule and push the rods apart. If it still does not work, try squatting, grasp the rod about 6 inches from the ferrule, place under your knees and use your knees to separate the rod sections. If you still have one stuck, grab a friend and do a little tug of war. Ice or cold water on one section, the male end will sometimes cause enough contraction to break them free.

As far as lube, use a little wax that is made for the ferrules or nothing at all. Main thing is to keep the ferrules clean and don't use much force to seat them when you put the rod together. Oil from you nose or any oily lube just grabs more grit and makes things worse. One little grain of sand can really cause some damage to a graphite ferrule or a metal one for that matter.

This has always worked for me.

[RSBreth]

So, can anybody guess what I did to get those stubborn rod sections apart?

Nothing!

I don't mean I left them stuck together, I just put the rod on the front deck of the boat in the garage, and left it there for a couple of days. After it sat there for a few days the sections pulled apart easily. I've done that before on this rod, and it has a history of being stubborn when you use it hard in hot weather - I was throwing medium diving cranks and cranking them hard for several hours.

I keep my ferrules clean and use the little thing of wax St. Croix gives you with multi-piece rods, so they usually come apart every time, but this rod can be stubborn, but it packs so nicely I still use it.

So, there you go, my answer is to do nothing but leave it sit for a couple of days in the shade and cool.

That won't work when you fish your 4-piece Spey rod in Alaska right up to a minute before you have to jump in the bush plane to get back to catch your flight home!