Every angler I know has a version of the same story: the day the tip snapped, the reel started grinding, or the drag went loose right at the start of the one trip they planned all month. The trip does not have to end there. A backup rod and reel combo that collapses down small enough to ride in a truck cab or a four-wheeler box is the cheapest insurance on the water, and I have carried a PLUSINNO telescopic combo as my spare for a full season to prove it.
I am Bo Whitfield. I fish the rivers and lakes around the Ozarks year round, smallmouth on the river, crappie in the early spring, catfish on jugline nights in the summer. My spare rides in the rear box of my four-wheeler on every trip, whether I plan to use it or not. Here are the ten reasons it has saved more days than I can count.
The Spare That Rides in Every Box
A packable PLUSINNO telescopic combo that stows behind the seat and fishes better than a spare has any right to.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It Turns a Busted Tip Into a Ten-Minute Fix
When the tip snaps on your main rod, most trips have two endings: you fish a shorter rod for the rest of the day, or you pack it in and go home. I have watched both happen to other people. With a spare the fix is easy. Open the box, telescope the PLUSINNO out, tie on whatever you had tied on, and keep fishing. The broken rod rides home for a repair or a trip to the shop, and the trip you planned still happened. The last time it happened to me was a May morning on the Current River. A smallmouth wrapped me around a log and the rod loaded wrong, and I heard the snap before I felt it. Ten minutes later I was casting the spare from the same gravel bar.
It Packs Where a One-Piece Rod Never Will
My main river rod is a six-foot one-piece, and it only rides in the truck when nothing else is in the bed. The PLUSINNO telescopes down short enough to slide behind the seat, under the back seat of a crew cab, or into the rear box of the four-wheeler without a second thought. That is the whole difference between having a rod with you and leaving it at home because there was no room for one.
It Keeps You Fishing Through a Bird's Nest
A wind knot or a backlash in mono at the worst moment costs twenty minutes of picking line on the bank while the fish keep biting somewhere else. When my main reel goes into a tangle, I do not rush it anymore. I set it down, grab the spare, and keep casting while I untangle the mess in the shade. Fishing time is fishing time, and the spare is what keeps it fishing time. A gust off a gravel bar put a wind knot in my mono on a June evening, and while I worked it out in the shade the spare put three bluegill in the cooler.
It Makes You the Hero on the Bank
Every kid and every first-timer wants to cast. Handing them your good rod is a gut check, and handing them the spare is the move. On a May crappie trip my nephew out-fished me for two hours on the PLUSINNO while my main rod sat in the boat. The spare caught the fish, the kid caught the bug, and I went home with a fishing partner for life.
Two Rigs, No Re-rigging
When the smallmouth bite dies and the crappie move in, re-rigging your one rod eats twenty minutes of daylight. With the spare, I keep a Ned rig on the main rod and a hair jig on the spare, and I switch between them without taking my eyes off the water. Two presentations ready all the time means I fish the change in the bite instead of watching it happen. On a late April morning on the White River the smallmouth shut off at nine, and the crappie were already hitting the hair jig on the spare by nine fifteen.
You Do Not Have to Baby It
A spare that lives in the box takes the abuse you will not put a good rod through. I have leaned it against a tree, dropped it on gravel, let a dog step on it, and used it to poke a snagged bobber loose from a brush pile. It is a working rod, and working rods catch fish. The first scratch on it is a relief, because after that you just fish it.
It Fixes a Reel That Quit
Seals and drags fail, usually at the worst time. When my reel started grinding mid-morning on a jugline run, the spare was the answer. Same with a bail spring that pings off into the grass, a frozen drag, a wobbly handle. The spare is a second reel, already spooled and ready, and it has ended more trip-ending problems than I can count.
It Carries a Second Line Weight
Braid on the main, mono on the spare. Or ten-pound on one reel and four-pound on the other. When the water clears and the fish go shy, a lighter line on the spare is the difference between bites and silence, without a re-spool on the bank. You are not switching rods, you are switching presentations. On a clear July morning on a lake I know, the ten-pound braid on my main came up empty while the four-pound mono on the spare put three keeper crappie in the boat.
It Saves the Trip for the Whole Crew
On the trips where someone forgets a rod, or the camp has one rod for five people, the spare keeps it a fishing trip. It has been the loaner, the camp rod, and the just-in-case rod on a hike to a backcountry hole where a rod was not supposed to fit in the pack. A spare is the difference between a trip where everyone fishes and a trip where someone watches.
It Catches the Fish You Remember
There is something about the spare. The fish that make a trip are the ones that hit when you were not expecting to fish at all. The PLUSINNO has put a couple of my best smallmouth of the season in the net from a stretch of bank I only fished because the spare was in the box. The rod you almost left home is the rod you remember.
How I Pack the Spare
Here is exactly where the spare lives: the rear box of my four-wheeler, wrapped in a shop rag so it does not rattle against the tire iron. On truck trips it slides behind the seat, out of the sun. It takes about thirty seconds to telescope out and another thirty to tie on a lure. That quick access is the whole point. A backup you have to dig for is a backup you will not use.
What I'd Skip
Do not buy the PLUSINNO expecting it to cast like a seven-foot one-piece or to fight timber-fighting catfish all night. It is a backup, and it is happiest as one. If you only ever fish the same boat with the same rod, a spare is nice to have and you might never touch it. Buy it for the trips where the alternative is no fishing at all.
On a May crappie trip, my nephew out-fished me for two hours on the spare. The spare caught the fish, the kid caught the bug.
Stop Borrowing, Start Carrying
A packable backup combo is the cheapest fishing insurance you will buy. Stash the PLUSINNO in the truck or the four-wheeler box and stop watching trips end early.
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