Hey guys,
Yeah I had the Coral Viper as my spare rod and I would normally lend it to the other angler on my boat. A few months ago, a mate was casting with a bit too much gusto and an errant braid wrap half hitched the 3rd guide from the tip and ripped the rear foot out of the binding, without damaging the binding...
check it out:
We taped it up and kept fishing. About 20 mins later he did it again
but this time the front guide foot snapped when I bent it back straight. Not thinking much of it, apart from the bizarreness of it all, we removed the guide and kept fishing with it.
He did hook a big fish on it and got busted off on a shallow reef point - no obvious signs of damage to the blank but it must have been under the binding. Still, I would have expected it to break as soon as it went under load. I got it rebound a few weeks later and hadn't used it since then.
Sam, here is the pic you were talking about... I was pretty quick to stick it up on Jono's facebook wall