travel rod Travel rods and brands advices

[CaptPete]

On May 4, 2018 at 4:34 PM, A-Jay said:

On the subject of Travel Rods - 

When flying Commercial Air - the convenience of 3-piece sticks can not be over stated.

Having your gear arrive on time & INTACT is important.

Taking it as carry-on virtually assures this.

Anything else is a Krap Shoot and frankly one I choose not to participate in.

YMMV.

A-Jay 

What do you do for baits/hooks/etc? Check that in? but atleast you have rod and reel if things do "go missing"?? Curious what has worked best for you.

[A-Jay]

18 minutes ago, CaptPete said:

What do you do for baits/hooks/etc? Check that in? but atleast you have rod and reel if things do "go missing"?? Curious what has worked best for you.

I "carry-on" my reels in a small sling-pack and my rods in the home made travel tube below. 

It's made from a cardboard shipping tube cut down to accommodate the travel rods length. 

I can easily fit 4 travel casting rods in it. 

As for the rest of my gear, I check it all.  But I'm always fishing with at least one friend and unless we both or all lose our bags, there's always enough stuff for whoever needs it. 

Also, when traveling internationally, we break the air travel into two days.  By staying overnight the first day, it allows our luggage to 'catch-up' to us should it get lost or there is some other delay.  Otherwise, I am flying out of Conus & leaving it behind.  Highly undesirable.   Has saved us more than once.

Finally, try not to book 'the last flight' for a day or a weekend when heading to your destination.  If you miss it or they lose your bag(s), it pays to have at least one more flight behind you.  That can be a real trip saver as well.

Good Luck.

A-Jay

[CaptPete]

Thanks A-Jay!

 

Have you carried on line as well? or best to pack that? 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, CaptPete said:

Thanks A-Jay!

 

Have you carried on line as well? or best to pack that? 

First few trips my reels were all spooled up and I never had a problem carrying them on like that.

Then, some of the guys I was meeting at the lodge, that were coming from different parts of the county, were forced to strip ALL the line off ALL their reels prior to boarding.

Gotta love the TSA - where inconsistency is the common bond.

So now, I pack the line and spool the reels during the first night lay over.

Just to take all the BS out of TSA's hands. 

The second day of travel is now always private air. 

Done deal.

A-Jay 

[Paul Roberts]

Really like my Ardito's. I now have 3 of them. 

[Loochy88]

I own a Fiblink 4 piece casting rod I purchased of Amazon (med heavy).  For 40 bucks or so I absolutely love it.

 

I'm considering trying the spinning rod as well.

 

There used to be a 7' med Piscifun spinning rod on Amazon that was a really wonderful 4 piece for 30 bucks.

 

Both were very nice rods.  Despite their low price I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either.

[Kjruiz]

On 5/10/2018 at 10:02 PM, Paul Roberts said:

Really like my Ardito's. I now have 3 of them. 

@Paul Roberts do you have the Arbito combo? It says it comes with 5+1 parts. I assume the one is the case, but it only have 4 rod pieces. Was I supposed to receive 5?

[Armtx77]

UPS delivered my Fenwick HMG Spinning travel rod, Monday of this week.

 

I have two HMG one piece rods in ML-F and when I compare the travel rod, with the ML tip on, it feels more like a M-F and to be honest, I can not see much difference in the M-F tip either.

Not a deal breaker by any means and maybe a "fish on" experience, will help sort things out.

As far as fit and finish, spot on Fenwick. Exactly what you expect for a 100.00 rod.

The carry case is very good. I have to take the handle off on by BG 1500, but you can easily get a 3000 sized reel into the integrated reel pouch. When Fenwick says the case is semi ridged, they mean 80% ridged.

My only real beef, the rod parts are loose in the carry bag, but the bag appears to be pretty crush proof. I gave it to my 2 1/2 YO son(EMPTY) and let him put it through his paces...standing on it, chasing the dog while banging it off the walls and than a toss down a flight of stairs. I would pay 40-50 bucks for the case as a stand alone, if I decide to have a custom travel rod made, sometime down the road.

Im heading to Northern Arkansas for a 5 day fish/float trip tomorrow and will post up my experience with the rod next week.

[Paul Roberts]

On 5/23/2018 at 5:19 PM, Kjruiz said:

@Paul Roberts do you have the Arbito combo? It says it comes with 5+1 parts. I assume the one is the case, but it only have 4 rod pieces. Was I supposed to receive 5?

No, I have three the 3pcers, bought separately. I can tell you that I found the tips interchangeable across my 3pcers. In fact, I found that the M spin and M casting appear to be the exact same blanks. They are interchangeable across handles.

 

Looks like the 5+1 should have:

-spinning handle

-casting handle

-middle section

-and 2 tips, a M and MH.

 

If the rod is supposed to be a 7fter, it appears Daiwa only makes two tips, the M and MH. That would add up to 5pcs: two handles, one middle section, and two tips = 5

 

Would be nice to have the ML tip in there too, but that tip is for a 7'6" model. Might need a different middle piece for that?

 

Call 'em.

 

A CORRECTION: The tips on my three (awesome) Ardito's are NOT interchangeable (See my post below for the details). The M cast and M spin tips are very close, but not exact. Being ferruled, and quite powerful rods, interchanging the tips would not be recommended.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Paul Roberts
CORRECTION!

[Kjruiz]

1 hour ago, Paul Roberts said:

No, I have three the 3pcers, bought separately. I can tell you that I found the tips interchangeable across my 3pcers. In fact, I found that the M spin and M casting appear to be the exact same blanks. They are interchangeable across handles.

 

Looks like the 5+1 should have:

-spinning handle

-casting handle

-middle section

-and 2 tips, a M and MH.

 

If the rod is supposed to be a 7fter, it appears Daiwa only makes two tips, the M and MH. That would add up to 5pcs: two handles, one middle section, and two tips = 5

 

Would be nice to have the ML tip in there too, but that tip is for a 7'6" model. Might need a different middle piece for that?

 

Call 'em.

As per Daiwa customer service agent “The handle is actually three pieces. With the 3 handle pieces, you should have 6 pieces in the tube.” They even included a photo, I guess I was wrong about handle breaking being on piece. Thanks so much for your answer. 

[Paul Roberts]

Interesting. So... it's one tip, 2 mid-sections (cast and spin), one butt section, and a two piece handle: convertible reel seat (cast and spin) and a "fighting butt". Is that what I'm seeing? So, that makes two rods: a casting and spinning in... M? MH?

 

So... I put a caliper to my three Ardito's. It appears the M spin and M casting share the same handle and mid section blanks (different guides and spacing). However, the two tips are different; The spin being very slightly lighter (about a 0.5mm thinner at the tip-tip). On the M casting and MH casting rods, all three sections are different, differing by less than a mm in diameter from each other. Oddly, from a production standpoint, the rods all feel very similar in action and power. I can tell, but not easily, which is the M and which is the MH casting, just by giving them a shake. Same between the M spin and M cast. All three appear to be are powerful XF rods.