40 foot drop on a pole in Wichita... fish tape snapped

I was pulling a new coax line through a conduit on a utility pole near Kellogg and Woodlawn, and the tape just gave out about halfway through. Had to climb back down, cut the old tape out, and start over with a fiberglass rod instead. Has anyone had luck salvaging a snapped fish tape, or do you just bin it?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakotab131mo ago

A forty foot drop on a pole in Wichita with a snapped fish tape? That's one of those things that makes you want to just sit down on the ground for a minute. I've had that happen before, but not at that height. Usually when mine snaps it's in a short crawlspace or something, and I just throw the whole thing in the trash. Once a tape kinks and breaks like that, the end is always rough and frayed, and even if you try to file it down, it'll just catch on every damn fitting in the conduit. I don't think you can trust a repaired fish tape on a job like that, especially not on a pole. You made the right call switching to the fiberglass rod.

sarah_hart1mo ago

Are you talking about a fiberglass rod that's just as likely to snap on you if it's got a bad nick in it? I've had the opposite luck, honestly. In my experience, a well-filed fish tape end can hold up fine for a few more pulls if you smooth it out right and tape it over with some electrical tape. I've done it on pole work a couple times when I didn't have a rod handy and it got the job done. Your mileage may vary though, that's just what worked for me.