Before my trip down to the keys last week. I spent many an evening inspecting, cleaning and greasing my equipment. I retied all knots and replaced all my leaders. I wanted to insure that if I lost a fish it would not be to equipment failure. On the second day I hooked into a 110# tarpon which shattered my 3 piece 12 weight at the first ferrule and cleanly stripped off the tip top guide. After luckly breaking the fish off, saving my fly line and backing. I inspected all the knots in the system, everyone of them was intact. My guide mentioned that either the tippet or one of the knots should have snapped well before the rod did. I wish there was away of inspecting graphite for worst case.