P.S.

I did talk to the folks at TFO and they are going to replace the rod at no cost to me. I haven't dealt with a ton of rod companies but I will say for the most part, it's best to spend a little extra money and get the good warranty. The cool thing about Temple Fork Outfitters is that they seem to have a better warranty program than most, (you send them $25 and your broken rod and they either fix it or replace it.) The turn-around time is incredibly fast too and, your initial cost of a new rod is about half the other mid-range rods. I'm not going to say they are every bit as good as a Z-Axis or a Winston or some of these $7-800 rods but I would put them up against any $500 rod that I've thrown. I think 'ole Lefty figured something out a while back. He wanted to get more people out of the office (or away from their video games) and into the outdoors through fly fishing so he started building quality rods at a quality price. I think they are doing a pretty good job.