Fishing Rod Repair: Tiptop

So you go to your garage to look at your fishing tackle and you noticed on one of your rods, the tiptop guide is broken.

Here is how you fix it.

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Get your rod out and see what happened. This tiptop guide is missing the ceramic ring in side of the metal frame.

Looks like we are going to have to replace it.

BUT I could leave it, but there could be some rough metal or even some left over epoxy that can rub against my line which can weaken the strength and dexterity. And I don't want to lose any fish.

Heat the old tiptop under a lighter, little bit at a time. You do not want to catch the rod, you, or your house on fire.

Grab a pair of pliers (sorry I used side cutters, close thing to where I was at) and pull slowly and cautiously till the tiptop pulls away from the rod.

Big Commercial stores that sell fishing equipment, your mom and pop tackle store, or even the glorious internet sells the kits to repair tiptops. They come in kits of one to three tiptops and it looks like a half or even a quarter of a stick of hot glue, this is a cement stick.

Bring your tiptop with you, Compare it to the ones at the store before you buy them. The one in the picture is just a hair bigger but matches the cavity the rod goes into.

**Be Careful** Take a razor blade and shave some thin pieces of cement stick off to push inside of the cavity of the new tiptop. Once it seems pretty packed, heat it up so you can stuff just little bit more.

Sorry for the pictures, its hard to do this with one hand and take pictures.

Ok, heat up the cement stick and rub on the tip of your rod.

Take your tiptop and slide it over the tip of the rod.

Looking down the eye of the guides you can match up the tiptop to your guides on the pole.

If its not straight and you can't move it, heat with a lighter and recenter, readjust.

After putting on your new tiptop and centering it up, you are should have some excess cement stick that was squeezed out. Clean off the excess ( I used my finger, but note it could be hot) and...

BLAM! YOUR DONE!

Remember practice catch and release, once they're gone, they're gone.

If you gotta eat, keep the little ones, let the big ones go, they'll make big babies.