Freak accidents–they happen. My favorite fishing rod is a St. Croix Pearl Avid Spinning rod. I will admit that I don’t know a lot about rod maintenance and repair so I have to make sure to take care of them.

Back to those freak accidents. This summer Arkansas temperatures not only hit triple digits but held a blistering level for days on end. It’s this weather pattern that I’ve chosen to bear the majority of the blame for the accident that caused the injury to my precious St. Croix rod.

While driving down a stretch of interstate, my back window exploded, and the rod was in the back seat. In the aftermath of the explosion, I noticed that the ceramic ring of my tip-top was gone. Luckily, I have a friend, Dan Johnston, who is a regional sales representative for St. Croix Rods. At a recent conference, I asked him how to repair my rod. I filmed him explaining how to make the repair. Check out the video below to watch how to repair your tip-top.

Image courtesy Dena Woerner