The Morning a Packable Combo Saved My Camping Trip

Every fisherman knows the feeling. You are packing the four-wheeler for a weekend campout and you get to the rod tube and you just stop. There is no room. You can leave the rods home and spend two days watching water you cannot fish, or you can lash the tubes to the rack and spend the whole trip waiting for a low limb to snap one. Last fall I found a third option: a PLUSINNO telescopic rod and reel combo that had been riding under my seat for a year before I ever pulled it out.

It was late September, the week before bow season opened, and my nephew Clay had the weekend off school. We loaded the old four-wheeler until the springs complained: tent, camp stove, a cooler of venison sausage and eggs, my rifle case for the morning scout, and the cast iron skillet that goes everywhere I do. The only fishing gear that made the cut was a packable telescopic rod and reel combo I had tossed under the seat months earlier and forgotten about. Camp is four miles up a gravel road in the national forest, and there is a beaver pond about a ten-minute walk from the spot we always take.

By the time we had camp set and coffee on, Clay was already eyeing the pond. 'Uncle Bo, you bring a rod?' I opened my mouth to say no, and then I remembered. Tucked under the seat of the four-wheeler, next to the tow strap and the tire repair kit, was the PLUSINNO telescopic rod and reel combo I had bought on a whim, read the reviews, stuffed in the box, and never touched again.

I pulled it out and handed it to him. The whole thing collapses down to about eighteen inches, which is exactly why it had been living in that box. It locks out into a full rod in about thirty seconds, and the reel is already spooled with line, so you are fishing before you would have even found the tip section of a two-piece rod. Clay looked at it like I had handed him a toy, then shrugged and walked to the pond with a worm he dug out from under a log.

That little combo put three bluegill and a ten-inch smallmouth on the stringer before the coffee in my cup went cold.

I finished my coffee and wandered down to the pond to see what he had. The little rod was bent over, the drag singing that thin whine you hear from a good spinning reel. He had a bluegill, then another, then a small bass that grabbed the worm on the fall. The reel is smooth for what it is. Twelve bearings and a stainless bail arm, and it holds up to a fish the way a bigger reel does, just smaller.

We fished that pond for the rest of the morning and halfway into the afternoon. I took a turn with it, and I will be honest: a telescopic rod does not feel like a one-piece rod. There is a little more flex in the joints and a little less feel in the tip. But you do not need a tournament stick to drop a worm beside a lily pad and set the hook on a bluegill. You need a rod that is there, and this one was.

That is the whole point, and I have been thinking about it all winter. The best rod you own is the one that is with you. My good rods live in tubes in the back of the truck, and half the time they never come out because it is a hassle to break them down and set them up again. The PLUSINNO combo collapses and locks out in under a minute, so it gets used. That is the difference that matters.

Since that weekend I have carried the same combo on every trip. It has been in the truck for a catfish jugline night, in the four-wheeler box for a deer camp, and in an overhead bin on a flight to visit my sister in Florida. It has caught bass, bluegill, crappie, and a catfish that had no business hitting a little spinning rod. I have not had to buy another one.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

Here is the plain version, no polish. The PLUSINNO telescopic combo is not a high-end tournament rod and it does not pretend to be. It is a packable spare that folds down small, locks out solid, and catches fish when your good gear is not an option. If you fish from a boat with rod lockers every weekend, you do not need it. If you camp, hunt, ride a four-wheeler, or fly somewhere to fish, you will be surprised how often it saves a trip. The price is roughly what a couple of quality packs of soft plastics run, and it comes with the reel. Check today's price on Amazon and decide for yourself. But if you take one piece of advice from me, keep a rod in the vehicle you actually take to camp. You never know when you will need it.