San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I bought my first new rod in many years last week. I picked up a 7 foot Ocean Master 3 piece rod with hard case for $170. This is a Bass Pro Shop House Brand Rod and is rated from 8-17 pound test with a fast Taper. So far it seems to fish very well. It goes together solidly and the ferrules are barely visible and the Rod bends smoothly. It has a nice reel seat, bedded into first rate Cork, and high quality guides. The advantage for me is it fits in my travel bag so I don’t need to carry my Rod case thru the Airport or on the Ferry Boat. So much less hassle and no separate luggage costs. The Rod will pay for itself in a couple of adventures. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a quality Travel Rod.

Nice, haven’t seen that one. I spent the dough on a Phenix red eye years ago. No flat spots in the bend. Then I found Daiwa’s version for $120 at the time. It seems like the identical blank as the Phenix for 1/3 of the price. Love them both. I’ll have to check out the BPS next time I’m there. Travels rods are nice and I use them more than just for travel.

I have a couple of old Charkbait's Toro Tamer Surf Explorer travel roods that have done me well in the Caribbean and Baja... Lately I've been looking at Major Craft Crostage travel rods, as well as Okuma Voyager Signature Surf rods, to get a little longer and heavier surf rods... I want a 4pc so it will fit in my checked suit case...
Butch

I bought a bass pro telescoping spinning rod on my last vacation. 16 inches long when collapsed. Telescoping? But wait...the guides can only be at the end of each telescoping segment, so the rod won't have the right bend in it.

Except....these rods have a few guides that aren't fixed...a few are mounted on sleeves that have an internal taper. So you extend the rod...then slide the "floating" guides back toward the butt and they lock into place. Hard to explain, but when you see it, it makes perfect sense. The guides end up being spaced correctly. Used this rod for chucking 1/16 to 1/8 oz spinners and it worked great; none of the sections or floating guides twisted or slipped all day. It's called the aventur1-telescopic-spinning-travel-rod.

There are also some casting models.