Best Travel Rod

[bma3]

Hi everyone, 

 

I'm looking for a new travel spinning rod for my birthday and was wondering if you guys had any suggestions within a reasonable price range (maybe $100-$160). Thanks!

[KDW96]

Fenwick has couple. And TW has onethree and diawa.

 

[Jar11591]

Fenwick Methods 

[Paul Roberts]

Search Daiwa Ardito here on BR. In depth descriptions there.

[jimmyjoe]

    What do you call a travel rod? I call a 2-pc. a travel rod, but some people only consider 3 or 4 pc. rods as true travel rods. If a 2-pc. is your goal, you have an almost infinite selection. I chose Shimano Compre Travel. But in 3 or 4 pc. rods, your selection is much more limited. A local dealer had the Fenwick Methods on the rack, and I tried them out a bit. If versatility is your goal in a shorter carry-case, the Methods are almost impossible to beat. They have stainless steel inserts in the guides, but they aren't the cheap inserts like the Eagle line has. I bought the Compre before my dealer stocked the Methods, or I'd have bought the Methods. They're that nice.   jj

[lmbfisherman]

A travel rod = 3-4 pc and can fit as a carry on easily. 

A 2 pc = Trunk beater rod, not easily carried on in a plane..etc.

 

That is my definition. 

 

I own a BPS Extreme travel rod and it has performed well, easily taken on as a carry on with no issues.  I just attached it on my bag and they didn't "count" it as an extra because it was just as long as my carry on bag.  If I had to buy one though I'd get the Fenwick Methods.  A friend of mine has one and it was very versatile because it was two power rods, a medium and medium heavy.  There are high end ones and the one I like to get one day would be the G Loomis Escape - GLX. Especially since my work entails me to travel.

 

[jimmyjoe]

    My question was meant for the OP.   jj

[bma3]

11 hours ago, jimmyjoe said:

    What do you call a travel rod? I call a 2-pc. a travel rod, but some people only consider 3 or 4 pc. rods as true travel rods. If a 2-pc. is your goal, you have an almost infinite selection. I chose Shimano Compre Travel. But in 3 or 4 pc. rods, your selection is much more limited. A local dealer had the Fenwick Methods on the rack, and I tried them out a bit. If versatility is your goal in a shorter carry-case, the Methods are almost impossible to beat. They have stainless steel inserts in the guides, but they aren't the cheap inserts like the Eagle line has. I bought the Compre before my dealer stocked the Methods, or I'd have bought the Methods. They're that nice.   jj

 

I call a 2-pc rod a travel rod

[jimmyjoe]

    In a 2-pc., you have, as I said, an almost infinite selection. I have the blessing (or curse) of having one friend who is absolutely crazy about Fenwick, another who is crazy about St. Croix, and a third who is nuts for Berkley stuff, particularly their Lightning rod and Series One stuff. All these people (and me) own 2-pc. rods. And all of us use them, quite successfully, for anything from crappie to bass to pike. I'm the only one who uses spinning exclusively, the others all have baitcasters as well. I've used their rods, and they mine. We've come to some kind of consensus about certain things. 1) If you use braid with a leader, get a rod with stainless or chrome inserts. Otherwise, you very well might end up with a ceramic insert going bye-bye. Berkely has them, so does Fenwick. The Berkley guy claims to never have had any trouble, and gloats about it. He should; I've seen his leader knots and they're horrible. 2) If you want a stiff-tip rod, try St. Croix. I'm talking about the tip now, not the action of the whole blank. Fast action blanks can have stiff tips or soft tips, either one. If there's any live or cut bait in  the picture, I'd suggest a soft tip. The one I know several guys use is the Fenwick Elite Tech 6'9" ML/XF. I have the Shimano Compre 2-pc, and it's very good. I said I'd have gotten the Methods instead, but only for versatility, not because of less quality. The Compre also has the softer tip. 3)  I'm the only one who likes to stick with 7' rods. All the others, and I mean ALL of them, drop down shorter when they talk 2-pc. Various reasons.  The Fenwick guy has a 6'9" 2-pc. HMG ML/F that keeps up with any of us. 4) I hate up-locking reel seats, even tho I have some. No one else gives a hoot. The Compre are the best up-locking reel seats I have ever seen, bar none. They almost converted me.  Almost.

     All of these are nationally-available brands. All are well known. As far as I know, they are all consistent. They all have good customer service, although I have heard that Shimano is somewhat idiosyncratic. No matter which way you go, I would find a rod in which you are interested and actually see how it feels. I never had much luck ordering stuff sight unseen.   jj

[punch]

That new travel rod Scott Martin has been using in his videos looks pretty sweet.