Telescopic Rods

[OpenHand]

Hey Crew,

I am in the market for a couple of new rods as my old ones are on the way out and are pretty limited. 6' Jarvis Walker telescopics from a shop... surprisingly decent for $25!

I know tele's are generally looked down upon, any forum search will reveal hundreds of people saying just get a 2 or 3 piece. And I get that.

However I really love the form factor. Having a backpack with a bit of tackle and two light rods already rigged up and ready to go on the side is a really nice way to fish, even if you only have 15 minutes to have a go.

The selection in Australia is pretty limited but I've looked overseas and it seems in Europe and Japan there are loads of tele options. Lots more travel by train over there so it makes sense. I've found a lot of options online, mostly JDM. Some examples:

• Daiwa CrossBeat (seems to be the entry level)
• Daiwa Mobile Pack (their fancier one)
• Daiwa Lazy / Liberty Club (not sure where these fit to be honest)
• Alpha Tackle TrGr (short for Travel Gear - they have quite a few options under this title from ultra-compacts, to mid and high range)
• Major Craft Solpara
• Out of production models like the Daiwa BBB, Palms Molla and others which seem to be well regarded

There's also a fair amount of cheaper teles coming out of China now, KastKing make the blackhawk, Plusinno have one, Piscifun etc which have plenty of coverage online but lots of reviews are clearly faked or paid for so it's hard to tell the real quality.

Not after a debate on the merits of tele vs multi-piece, but I am keen to hear if anyone has experience of some of the rods above and what they think. a shop Japan has a lot of reviews ranging from great to bad on most models, but obviously plenty of people use these rods every week and they are better than they were ten or twenty years ago.

Cheers!

[dmck]

I have 2 telescopics in my boat.  The original thought was to use them for squid and small baitfish so they are loaded with fairly light line and very small hooks.

I have landed some very good snapper on them, when the snapper come in to the baitfish...   You have to play the bigger fish and use a landing net.... but these rods are not toys.

 

From memory they are Shimanos and came as a combo with IX4000 reels (or similar) for around $35.00 about 6 years ago.  THe reels are cheap but do the job in shallow water.  I've been impressed with them and bought several more for other light rods.  Its hard to knock them when they catch 48cm snapper in 7 metres!

[antonywardle]

I also have one of the cheap ones, Hated the reel, but the rod was ok. I don't use it all that much as I ended up going for a travel rod. I ad been thinking about getting an ISO rod for blackfish. Is 5.2 m too long for you? They seem to be a little under $200 for a cheaper one. 

 

[OpenHand]

Yeah I replaced my reel with just a $50 one after the handles flew off one of mine mid-cast. They've held up well since then.

ISO is really interesting to me, but probably won't start there - too long for general use I reckon.

[TAZ]

I had an Alpha a number of years ago and caught plenty of trout on it. The fish dont know what rod and reel you use. And I have been seriously considering getting another for the back of the car just recently myself. 

[OpenHand]

Thanks for the input everyone.

I just got some feedback from a stockist that many of the nice telescopic rods are too slow for jigging soft plastics - not stiff enough to give any action. What's your experience on that? I was out this weekend with my terrible rods and they definitely aren't great at that, but I figured the higher end models would be better.