Repairing Fishing Rod

It's been a tough season for my not quite fulfilled fishing hobby.  To clean for Pesach I moved all my rods to the car, some trunk, some back seat.  I lost one rod and reel which slid off a pier as I was packing up to go home.  One ultralite rod got caught in trunk door, snapping off the tip.  It was an inexpensive one, so I harvested the reel, tossed the rod and replaced it, unaware that a tip can be replaced.  Another rod, a more costly one, never used, still with receipt attached, met a similar fate with a car door.  This one being less disposable, I contacted Cabela's which confirmed their service at rod repair.  I can take it over for an estimate, but likely not to be cost effective.  What I learned, though, is that replacement tip eyelets can be purchased for a few dollars and do not seem all that hard to install, which would have been nice to know before tossing the ultralite rod.

My new ultralite rod, purchased at Dick's for about $30, seems a little lighter than the one I discarded.  It did not come already spooled, so I bought some #4 clear monofilament which turned out to greatly challenge my near vision and finger dexterity, but I got it spooled.  At the pond, threading it through the full extent of eyelets, then tying a jig with plastic grub challenged not only my dexterity but my patience.  Once done, I had a pleasant half hour or so casting from a pier and learned something from the junior high boys who had better vision than me.  They could see a fish, targeted it with a live goldfish as bait, then hooked it long enough to see it flop around at the surface before divesting itself of the hook, which was either not adequately set or unbarbed.

I returned with my all purpose rod and reel, only to find the line tangled when I tried to thread it through the eyelets.  I had spent a good deal of effort adding a fluorocarbon leader to this one.  No fishing, back to car to home to remove the tangled part, then see if I can relearn to do a blood knot to attach a new leader.

And I've still not hooked a fish, but not ready to abandon what has been good time by myself.