Do you continue to boat flip all your crappie ? I had a rod break for the first time in years on my last outing. Lifting a big one and the rod
broke just forward of the ferrule. 8 ft proangler. I have used these for years and this is the first one ever to break on me.

I am going to make a concentrated effort to use my longer rods more often. Just wondering If I should continue my habit of
never using a dip net.

MO

Keep the fishes momentum coming into the boat. I net customers fish but flip nearly all mine in with an 11’ Jenko Kevin Rogers. Heck Prefishing we flip everything with an X15. On game day we net them though. If you stop and try to lift the fish in the boat that’s when you break a rod. Once you get em coming don’t stop!

My long rod is a ACC 11'. I boat flip most but if it is a big crappie, I'll grab the line and bring it in. If it's a good sized LMB or hybrid, I get the net.

If it's close to 2lb or bigger, the net comes out. As Slew said, a dead lift puts more stress on the rod.

Fished ProAnglers for years and never had one break. Always a first time. Been fishing ACC Crappiestix also and haven't broken one of those. I'm really careful with my rods.

I net all decent size fish. I have seen rods snap on 3/4 pound crappies. The longer the rod the more stress points it has.