It's neat, but I think a telescoping rod would be more effective and take up the same amount of space.

 

I’ve got a telescoping rod that works great, just thought this might be another option.

 

On foot my preference is a little ultra-light ice fishing rod/reel.
Easy to use, weighs about nothing, fits in a back pack with ease.
Gives you a lot of casting distance control & accuracy - when casting.

 

On foot my preference is a little ultra-light ice fishing rod/reel.
Easy to use, weighs about nothing, fits in a back pack with ease.
Gives you a lot of casting distance control & accuracy - when casting.

LOL...I have basically that same set up only the rod is white with cork handles. I picked up the rod at a gun show for a buck and a half from a misc/odds and ends dealer.

 

I have been using multi piece pack rods and telescoping rods since 1985. The first one was expensive and tough to find. I bought from a company called Fenwick, and I used it for fly fishing at high altitudes for 32 yrs, then passed it down to my grand nephew.

Rods manufactures have gotten much better at building these type of rods, and they are now available everywhere at low cost. I pickuped up a Shaekpear Telescopic spin rod at Wall Mart the other day for around $20. It is very light and compact and works great on small farm ponds.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shakespe...399&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwOLQxfrK4gIViLjACh1MQwGjEAQYAyABEgLghvD_BwE

 

As one that has had a cheap Shakespeare telescoping rod break, and had cheap spin cast reels die....I’d say it’s not a bad idea to have one of these in the system.

It’s limited in certain ways, but then, so is every other option. This is, at least, less likely to break.

 

6-1/4” and 1/4 lbs in weight means it won’t take up a lot of pack space. Made in USA always a plus.

Yep. I’m gonna have to get one

 

Looks interesting and cheap enough to experiment with.

 

Screw it..... I ordered one this morning

 

The only sure catch when it comes to fishing is my wallet...

Looks interesting enough and price isnt bad so I'll try it.

I keep a telescoping rod with a keychain float container that has little extra line, hooks, sinkers etc attached to it and couple yo yo's in truck as it is. If you haven't looked at the speedhooks check them out to for your kit, just search military speedhooks.

 

I have four speedhooks, six yo-yo's, a telescopic rod, 2 readyman fishing cards and 2 readyman wilderness cards in my BOB and soon a Ka-bar Kaster in my GHB

 

For those of you thinking of trying this thing I would really suggest you stick to surface baits. Hula Poppers, Jitterbugs, rubber frogs, plastic frogs with rotating legs, even some spiders and dry flies with a casting bubble.

The reason is that you wont be able to reel it smoothly, so unless you want to "walk the dog" with a Rapala or other stick bait you are going to want something that can be used in a jerky or twitchy action.

 

I keep my poles suspended from ceiling of my back porch with bicycle hooks, they are up out of the way and easily accessible. Living on a river it seem only natural to have them handy. I use the shorty for brook trout as trying to use a full sized pole in the brush alongside a mountain stream is futile. I've used both the shorty is better for navigating through the brush. With the shorty I spend less time getting untangled and more time fishing.

 

Ok, it arrived two days ago and I took the time last night to look it over, add line and bait, so here's my first look thoughts.

It's light, under 1/2 lbs. It's comfortable to hold, although I am concerned with it slipping out of my grip when wet, it does have a lanyard hole at the end of the grip so I will be adding a lanyard.

It has a small space in the handle that can be used for weights, hooks, small bait etc..

It's tough, I can't see anyone breaking this without putting a good amount of effort into it. It's certainly strong enough to survive being shoved in a backpack while hiking.

It has a small raised seam where the two halves were put together, not a major deal but I was concerned about it cutting through line while in use so I took out my knife and whittled the little seam off (got some strange looks at work for that) and after less than two minutes its now smooth.

It holds 110' of 8lbs test line. I put Berkley Trilene Xl Lo-Vis green 8lbs Mono on it then shoved a couple of small lures in it. The lures in the pictures are a 2" berkely powerbait minnow and a 3" storm shad. There's room for more in the handle, probably another 3" lure and some jig heads, hooks and split shot, maybe a small bobber but kinda doubtful.

Haven't tried casting it yet, hoping to get out this weekend and see what it will do.

 

That's kind of cool, reminds me of a pop bottle set up only way nicer...
Looks like you can get one on Ebay for 13.59 and free shipping.

 

Neat idea.

I would probably go with a 30lbs braid though. You wont have to worry about the heat killing it like, you do with mono and the braid can be used for some other things...like snares.

I have a 3 piece Fenwick spinning rod that I carry in my truck with a Diawa BG 1500. Spooled with Sufix 832/10lbs braid. I toss small 1/8oz jigs and slay the bass in farm ponds and canals. That braid had held up to 4 years if heat and fish...good stuff.

 

Don't forget about the Daiwa MiniSpin and Minicast sets... prolly better quality

and can be had for $40 bucks....

 

Better quality but doesn’t fit in my pocket. :thumb:

 

I ordered an extra one for the kiddos Scout backpack.

I figured for its weight, size and potential ruggedness its worth it, especially since the scout reservation they normally use is on the water.

 

I wish they had made these when I was in scouts, I hope your kids enjoy them.

This is what I’ve been able to fit in the handle so far... still enough room for split shot and a few extra hooks, maybe a bobber if it’s under a 1” diameter. I could probably even squeeze one more 3” soft lure in

 

Okay, finally got to try out casting with this. It takes some getting used to but after a few tries it's pretty easy to get it out 20-30 or so feet. Enough to fish from a bank on your average pond fairly easily. Didn't catch anything but proved to myself I could use it if needed.
Gave up on adding a bobber to the handle but did add a lanyard, more lures and stuff. Pics below of final version ready to pack away in BOB, or glovebox.

I'm ordering a small waterproof box to add some leaders and other stuff to and will stick a bobber or two in it. (yes I know, the irony, ordering a waterproof case for stuff I am going to throw in the water, it's cheap on amazon)

 

For 13 bucks I decided to give one a try, I put around a hundred yards of 10lb test line (Stren) on the spool, haven't tried it yet but the river flow is dropping so any day now, I'll wander out my back door and down to the river and give it a try. I put a small assortment of sinkers, #6 hooks and swivels in the handle. Mine is set it up for bait fishing.

 

I connected a lanyard to the clip on mine so I won't loose the clip

 

Following this thread in hopes of seeing some fish pics!

 

..Well, here y'ar..

(..hey, Somebody had to do it.. :

@ jf, Thanks for the 411.. :thumb: I'm... rather 'spoiled' by Fly-fishing, hard to get enthused about Any 'lure' fishing seriously anymore, but.. 'Options' are always good..

.02
jd

 

I found some pictures of fish caught with the Kabar Backpack Caster, and a ton of very good reviews. Going there now to read (and probably order one, lol). Pictures are in the review section:

https://www.amazon.com/Ka-Bar-Backp...rds=kabar+backpack+kaster&qid=1596080231&sprefix=K+bar+back,aps,235&sr=8-1&th=1

 

Haha! Well, well, well...I asked for it, didn't I?

When I first saw this thread, the cheapskate in me thought, why not just make my own caster thing from a nice hunk of wood... then I saw the nice price, it floats like wood, and it also has a handy dandy thing to cover the fishing line "spool" part, it is hollow so I can stash fishing tackle, and it's the right size for any bag or pack...

And my tightwaddery finally took a back seat and so I will be ordering this gizmo soon.

Thanks, jfountain for posting this thread.

 

got one for me and the boy each

interested to see how it works out

 

I've got 4 or 5 Eagle Claw rods that come in aluminum tubes. The neat part about the rods is they're 4 pieces that easily fit together and the bottom piece will go on either way, one way being for a bait caster (or small spinning reel) and if you flip the bottom piece over, you can put a fly reel on it. I took a 4" pill bottle and loaded it up with flis and jigs as well as some small hooks and split shot weights. The reel travels in my backpack and the rod travels in the aluminum tube on the outside of my backpack. I've used those combos for everything from bass and crappie in Arkansas to Greylings in Alaska, even a decent sized red salmon a time or three.

I keep one set of rods and reels under my truck seat and another set in my Jeep Wrangler.

I've found all of mine at yard sales and usually get the rod and the tube for $5 or less.

The rods are rated as 7'6" fly rods and will even cast some light lures with my Shimano bait casters. Apparently Eagle Claw still sells them. I googles the ones I find on Amazon and you'll notice the size of the eyelets and they won't work with a spinning reel because the line comes out in large loops off the reel.

https://www.amazon.com/Pack-It-Spin...rds=eagle+claw+trailmaster+spinning+pack+rods&qid=1607376130&sr=8-4&tag=mh0b-20
I think that's the one I have..