Hi all, Used to go fishing a bit when I was a kid, and now have the desire to get back into it, although in the context of while backpacking/hanging out by the sea having a break from climbing. Does anyone else carry a rod when they go walking? Have had a look at a few collapsible rods in my local fishing shop, but does anyone have any recommendations for makes and models? I'd be using it for a bit of sea fishing (mainly spinning or light bait fishing from the shore) and possibly a bit of the same inland. Ultralight would be good! Cheers, JP
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 Telescopic rods are light & cheap but pretty crap to fish with IME, I like the look of some of the multi piece rods like the hardy smuggler spinning rods but they're pretty expensive, Abu make a 3 piece spinning rod that is more or less stowable and they are good quality and reasonablely priced. Right now I use a 2 piece rod (shakespeare ugly stic) and just carry them (lost the bag years ago) or strap them to the side of my pack, they're 4 ft long and make you look like your're carrying a RT but they don't get in the way there.
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| Edited: 30/04/10 12:03 |
 I saw a telescopic fishing rod in TK Maxx last week. Each section had a line loop, and it had a reel as well. It was £8, I think. I did buy a 4m simple telescopic section rod that had no fittings at all, simply to get the light, strong GRP tube sections. It was £4...* Poundland have very lightweight 8ft telescopic fishing rods at the moment, too, but the end section might hold a tadpole (not being a fisherman, I'm not familiar with rod strengths, but it looked very feeble). I bought a few for potential pole sections for a lightweight bivvy tent design I'm working on; the pole sections I'd use would weigh 14g. The entire rod weighs 44g. * Turns out the TKM price wasn't that much of a bargain: Fladen Clipper 59kr, which is about £5.30
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Poundland have very lightweight 8ft telescopic fishing rods at the moment, too, but the end section might hold a tadpole (not being a fisherman, I'm not familiar with rod strengths, but it looked very feeble). Telescopic rods are feeble, ease of stowing and carrying traded off against casting & playing performance. OTOH they do work after a fashion and pack away to nothing so are an option, cheap reels though really are useless, there's plenty of good basic open face reels in the £30 - £40 price range from the likes of Abu & Shimano that I would suggest are a minimum spec if you want them to last.
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| Edited: 30/04/10 14:43 |
> there's plenty of good basic open face reels in the £30 - £40 price range from the likes of Abu & Shimano Fishing (like cycling & outdoor) seems like another good way of spending lots of money... I suppose there's 'fishing' and there's 'fishing'. At one end, there's a bit of string and a bent pin on the end of a stick, and the other end, there's some amazing piece of technology made out of pure unobtanium...
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Fishing (like cycling & outdoor) seems like another good way of spending lots of money...
Ooooh yes.... 
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 Sea kayaking friends fish quite a bit. Not only are you guaranteed some water to fish in, but you can take large amounts of stuff for the job. (I don't usually angle, but borrowing lines from pals I've caught white fish on the Shetland coast and eaten them after cooking them on open driftwood fires on the beach, a wonderful evening meal). Of course, getting sea kayaking is abit non-trivial... Pete.
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 I have a couple of shimano stc travel rods, have used them for light spinning and float. The small telespins are extremly compact, and come small case with room for a small reel. They do have to be fished with care, especially if you get snagged up, but the action is pretty good. heres an example on ebay TELESPIN
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| Edited: 30/04/10 16:58 |
 I have a 9' telescopic spinning rod made by Daiwa, bought almost 20 years ago. It's far from rubbish, in fact it's my favourite rod. It's nice and light and the reel sits fairly close to the butt making it balanced and easy to use. I've caught loads of mackerel and pollack on it by spinning and float fishing, mostly round the coast of Anglesey. It's fair to say that if you hook into a big pollack, say over a couple of pounds, you're probably not going to land it. But most pollack are small and are far more enjoyable to play on lighter tackle, same goes for mackerel. I've also had plenty of small jack pike on the same rod in the Leeds Liverpool canal, including a 4 pounder under a motorway bridge. I once hooked into a (easily) 10 pound plus monster pike under another bridge, but that shook its head, sprang both treble hooks open, and escaped. I don't go fishing any more, but if I did I wouldn't hesitate to use my telescopic rod again. I should imagine that you could buy much better now, but do go to a tackle shop and get advice on buying a decent one.
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 Benco you lucky so and so, you have some of the biggest sea trout in the world down there dont you? How would he know  ?
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 Catching fish has nothing to do with cost. It's how you present the bait and how you handle it when you get a bite. Any telescopic is fine as long as you know it's limits. They are a compromise, so why spend more than you need to on one? Just get some half decent line and use hooks that are good and sharp. Other than that, the fish don't give a shit. 8]
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| Edited: 30/04/10 18:25 |
Not sure why the link isn't working. Google Fladen fishing, and have their website take over the size of your browser, and refuse you provide proper URLs to make links to their products. The website's implemented in Flash. Did you guess? Copy and paste this link http://www.fladenfishing.co.uk/details.jsp?anr=514B Which seems to work at the moment. As does the link above... There's a ghost in the machine somewhere...
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Ed h wrote ( see) Benco you lucky so and so, you have some of the biggest sea trout in the world down there dont you? How would he know ?
Hah! tell me about it, if I don't catch anything in the first 1/2 hour I give up and sit on the bank drinking beer. The missus, on the other hand, usually perseveres and so catches fish like this: a very nice seven pounder, not that big but the best seatrout I've ever seen (or tasted.......gravadlax.....drool) 
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| Edited: 30/04/10 19:22 |
...and the creek where she caught that belongs to my brother in law....so we can fish there whenever we want.... . . for free....... . . . . . ...and the record trout from there is a 16 pounder.....
edit: oh yeah I forgot....here's a 9 pounder from another creek nearby: where we can also fish whenever we want....
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| Edited: 30/04/10 20:26 |
I go fishing when I am walking too, though admittedly not sea fishing though that's something I would also like to get into for the extra sport. I usually take a small rod with me for brown trout fishing, though I have also tried fishing for arctic charr on some pretty high up tarns but not been too sucessful at that. The rod I usually take is only 8' and 4 weight line. It comes in four pieces and goes in rod tube holder that is quite small and will fit into sit pocket of backpack and be secured to side. It's about 28" in length the rod tube. I don't think I would want to be carrying anything bigger in size than that. I still prefer to have it in rod tube for extra protection. If you wanted to take more than one rod you could possibly fit two within the one tube. For sea fishing from beach you usually have a lot bigger rod lengths, but you must also be able to get them in travel rod sizes so more pieces. You should be able to find something good that comes in more pieces e.g. around 13ft in four or more pieces so you'll have them in 3ft pieces app. Like others have said I'd avoid anything telescopic. I'm looking with envy at those sea troooot above ^^^^^ The second one also looks like a sea trout that's been in the river a while? It still has slight bits of silver in it. Benco... I'd love to know what creeks you go up to find those crackers!
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| Edited: 04/05/10 00:41 |
It was in better condition than its colour suggests, nearly as good as the first. I've caught a few that sort of size but on the whole in pretty nasty shape so released. The Creeks are both near Fox Bay, West Falkland, the Arroyo Malo and the Sand Pond Stream....if you're ever in the neighbourhood... 
Edit: fly fishing eh? you've got more patience and skill than me.
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| Edited: 04/05/10 10:10 |
 Benco, is absolutely right. Telescopic rods have all the action of a broom handle. You would be better off with a travel rod. In the flyfishing world, the likes of Orvis and greys used to do 5 section rods.
A telescopic rod may be OK for spinning but they tend to be useless for fly fishing as they are too stiff to load properly.
I've just come back from 3 days' fishing for Brown trout on the River Taw in Devon and I borrowed an Orvis Frequent Flyer 8' 6" 4wt for a day. This breaks into 7 sections and packs into a 16" rod tube. It casts surprisingly well, given that many joints and costs a very reasonable £169. Personally, I think that backpackpacking and fly fishing would go well together; fly fishing tackle tends to be very light and you don't need to take the trunkloads of kit that you see coarse fisherman with. I can see a Dartmoor wildcamp as an ideal way to fish the streams and rivers of the high moor. Just 2 things if you're going to try it yourself - make sure you have an EA rod licence and the appropriate day ticket (almost all the inland fishing in the UK is owned by someone) and use barbless hooks.
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Expensive equipment has its place in competitive conditions, or if quality is important to the person using it, but the reality is it may not be best for the purpose in mind and will always come second place to experience. The purpose in mind is light bait fishing and spinning. Remarkable fish have been caught close in to the shore using these methods with stunning results. I suggest not to get too hung up on cost and perceived performance. Modest gear in the right hands will out fish any 'name'. If it can cast a bait, it can land a fish. Job done. 8]
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 Tenkara style fly-fishing is an option for the UL backpacker, and a few folk in the US are into it. A full set-up can weigh only a few ounces. The TenkaraUSA website is here.
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 Whats wrong with a bit of Line tied to my big toe ... . Finn's the name,Huckleberry!! 
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