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Daiwa fishing rods like the Procyon and Tatula offer excellent performance for anglers running the gamut from the greenest of greenhorns to the saltiest of deckhands. The one catch is that these rods, like other high end tackle, are not always cheap.

Which means that if you want to get your money’s worth, you have to care for them properly, and part of proper care means not doing anything ill-advised with them, too.

With that in mind, here are 7 things you never want to do with your Daiwa fishing rods.

High-Stick

High-sticking refers to the process of pointing the rod tip up at the sky. It also refers to the process of horsing a rod up under a load. In this latter instance, the tip might actually be bent down at the water, with the grip of the rod angled upwards.

Putting a sharp parabolic bend in a rod like this, for instance when you are fighting a very strong fish, or even caught on a snag, is a quick ticket to a snapped tip or worse. Frankly, tips can be repaired but many a rod has been snapped in two big pieces by high-sticking, and that’s impossible to fix.

The solution? Don’t high-stick, ever.

Transport Them Loose in a Vessel/Truck Bed

Whatever you do, do not transport your rods (or reels) loose in a truck bed or on a boat. Make sure they are either in a safe, secured location or transport them in cases or rod bunkers.

Pretty much everything out there, from boots to just other rods, can easily break off eyelets and snap rod tips.

Do the wise thing and make sure you transport them snugly and securely.

Lay Them on the Deck or Dock

It can be tempting, when you’re pulling up to the dock, or when you’ve just gotten a fish boatside, to lay the rod down at length on the deck or the dock. We’ve all done it, but the truth is that it should never happen.

Laying a rod down on the deck just means it can get trapped between the boat and something else that can (and will) break it, and the dock? That’s where people walk. Make sure you never lay your Daiwa fishing rods down on either.

Use a Rod Eyelet Guide As a Hook Keeper

High-quality fishing rods, like Daiwa rods, have eyelet/rod guide inserts made from ceramic, oxides, or stainless alloys. These offer excellent permanent dry lubricity and are very smooth, enabling long casts and smooth fighting performance,  even when horsing in big fish.

But they are very fragile. Using the eyelets/rod guide as a hook keeper (as opposed to the actual hook keeper, which your rod almost definitely has) is going to scratch them.

Scratched rod guide inserts become abrasive, and over time will create microabrasions on your line - which means you get less line life, and frankly, are more likely to break off when you load the line, either when casing or when it counts most, during a battle.

Just don’t ever, under any circumstances, use the rod guide inserts as hook keepers. Your rod has one. Use it.

Attempt to Lift a Fish with the Rod

Swinging a fish over the gunwale is a massive red flag. Don’t do this ever.

Look, we’ve all caught a bluegill or two or a little snapper and used the rod to flip it boatside. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a low-IQ move. It was, and it will always be.

Even small fish should not be lifted in this manner, not only because it is harmful to them, but because it places a lot of stress on the rod. Even a little fish can snap a stout rod if you lift them in this fashion. Lip the fish or grab a net. It’s not that hard.

Leave the Rod Outside

Storing rods outside, specifically, in the sun, is not a good move, for several reasons.

UV light is a fishing rod killer. First, it will destroy the clear epoxy coating/clear coat finish on your rods, which will result in cracking which is not only ugly but which will damage the rod over time.

If that weren’t reason enough, UV light will also degrade the rod seat and the rod grips. Both cork and EVA foam, which are commonly used in Daiwa fishing rods, are not UV stable, and will deteriorate if left in direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time.

Store Somewhere Hot

The other problem with storing Daiwa fishing rods has to do with temperature swings. Even if you don’t store them in the sunlight (which is advisable) you must also make sure you don’t store them anywhere they will be subjected to big temperature swings or high temperatures.

High heat can damage the adhesives that hold the rod components together, and can be particularly damaging to the eyelets. The solution is easy enough; just store the rods somewhere that they won’t be subjected to massive temperature swings.

Here for a New Daiwa Fishing Rod?

Did you fail to observe one of the maxims contained in this post? No worries. You can get yourself a new Daiwa fishing rod here. Just make sure that when you do get it, you heed these warnings so you don’t end up with two halves of rods, and back in the same boat.