True story.......

Newell offshore reels are all graphite and I believe that helped quite a bit. The pelagic series rod has a hypolon grip and that probably helped as well. The kink in the offshore fiasco was that the reel was not engaged and when my Cuban friend snagged the line the combo was still in free spool. I thought all was still lost but he insisted that we pull the line in as fast as we could. Between the two of us pulling and very luckily no tide running I did get the combo back. I gave a very loud "thank you Lord" and then I squeezed the stuffing out of the Cuban fellow. The entire episode gained me some fame and I thought about getting a T-shirt made up...> "Yes, I'm the guy who threw his rod overboard"......... I cannot afford what I fish with and I certainly cannot afford to lose it.

The Loomis Muskie rod does indeed float and that with a fairly good sized bait caster attached. I suspect it is because the blank is so big it holds a lot of air. That and it has quite a bit of cork........very nice outfit to chuck big lures all day and not get wore out.

The other outfit was inside the boat I believe during my spill at Isle Royale. I can't remember for sure what rod it was but it stayed with me as well..........so did all my fishing tackle which was in an orvis pack and stuffed under my seat. Even my bailer which I have had since day one a decade ago stayed along for the ride as well. 

Who are you going to believe........some engineer types or the guy who it happened to? Don't believe me? That is your prerogative. 

BTW......I do suggest taking furniture polish to your rods (and so do the engineers at Loomis  ;) ). They will shine up quite nicely and have a little protective coating. Also a little WD40 on a q-tip and apply at the base of your eyelets will help them last longer.