Always take more care when buying pole 'furniture' ie. bungs/bushes/connectors etc. In fact go and check your top kits, put a length of line on your connector and then slowly try and reproduce the motion your connector goes through when you lift into a fish. What a lot of anglers don't take into consideration is that the bush/connector relationship is not always what it seems as they come with a lot of different shapes and profiles. Usually even under slight tension your stonfo will stick straight out from the pole tip, and with a 'fish on' that stonfo has turned through roughly ninety degrees. The aim is to get to that point with a fish on every time and not miss or bump bites. Some connectors have a tapered end cap and these can try and enter the mouth of the bush ever so slightly. Some bushes have a radiused exit hole and some have a ninety degree or even acute inner edge. Get the wrong combination and the annoying click becomes even more annoying when it costs you fish on the bank. Even some spider/crows foot knots can jam if you don't get it right, far better to make the effort to learn about the use of dacron connectors and you will never encounter any of the above problems.
Never use foam end caps as they actually drag carbon particles back and forth and when wet it acts like a grinding paste which will speed up wear of your joints. Better to use the plastic ones but make sure they are glued in securely. Also take care when using the drennan nose cones in conjunction with bungs which create an air tight seal in your top kit. Sometimes your top kit may want to 'pop' off! Either use a winder bung or slice the end off the nose cone.
Drill a series of small holes in your pole end caps to aid drainage if you do pack it away wet, and do the same with your end caps for your protective tubes.
When your pole is clean and dry, spray it with armourall dashboard cleaner and leave it for 30 mins. polish it off and it gives it a brilliant 'speedshipping' finish.
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