PLUSINNO Telescopic Combo Review: A Full Season on the Water

Every year I lose at least one fishing trip to the same dumb problem: no room for a rod. The truck is already loaded with camping gear, the four-wheeler box is full, and my good six-foot casting rod will not fit anywhere short of strapping it to the roof rack like a canoe paddle. Over the years I have tried jamming a two-piece rod into a duffel, bungeeing a rod case to the rack, and even leaving a rod at home and telling myself I would not miss it. I always missed it. So when the PLUSINNO telescopic combo showed up last spring, small enough to drop in a backpack side pocket, I was skeptical but hopeful.

A full season later I have a clear answer. That combo has bounced down gravel roads in the four-wheeler box, sat on the bottom of the boat through a hundred-degree afternoon, and caught smallmouth, crappie, and catfish on the rivers and lakes near home. It is not a replacement for my good rods and I will say that plainly. But for the trips where a full rod is a problem, it has earned a permanent spot in my gear. Here is exactly what it does, what it does not do, and who should buy one.

How I've Used It

I want to be clear about the test before I get into details. I did not unbox this combo on a manicured lawn and cast it into a swimming pool for a clean video review. I carried it on every trip from late April through September. That means bank fishing for smallmouth on the Current River, crappie in early spring on a lake north of the house, and a handful of jugline nights for catfish where the combo sat out in the dew until well past dark. It was the backup rod, the spare, the one I grabbed when my main rod was in the truck a half mile away.

It lived most of its life collapsed in the front storage box of my old four-wheeler, wrapped in a shop rag so the reel did not get knocked around. When I camped it came along in the tent. When I took the boat out it rode under the front deck as insurance. By the end of the season it had seen rain, mud, dust, and a fair amount of plain neglect, which is the only honest way to test a budget combo. If it survived that, it will survive what most of you will put it through.

The Rod: What That Carbon Fiber Blank Feels Like

The first thing you notice is that the sections lock up tighter than any telescopic rod I have owned. Most cheap telescopics get that wobbly, noodle feel right at the joint, and the tip wanders like it has a mind of its own. This one seats with a positive click as each section locks out, and once it is extended it feels surprisingly stiff for something that collapses down to the size of a walking stick. I caught a 3-pound smallmouth on it in July and the rod loaded through the whole fight instead of folding in the middle. That is the difference between a toy and a tool.

It is a spinning rod, so the guides sit on the underside and the blank is carbon fiber. I will say the blank runs on the stiff side. That is a strength when you need to pitch a light jig a long ways from the bank, and it gives you a lot of feedback on the hookset. You feel every head shake through the blank, which I happen to like for smallmouth. The tradeoff is there is not a lot of forgiveness if you set the hook late, and the rod will not load up as nicely for a delicate drop shot presentation. It wants to fish, not finesse.

The collapsed length is the whole point of this rod. Fully extended it fishes like a medium-action spinning rod in the six-to-seven-foot range. Collapsed, it fits in a backpack side pocket, in the four-wheeler box, or under the seat of a truck with room to spare. I have carried it up a mile of trail to a mountain lake where a rod case would have been a hassle the whole way. If your trips are anything like mine, that portability is the reason you are even reading this.

The Reel: Twelve Bearings and a Season of Abuse

The reel is where I expected the corners to get cut, and honestly it is better than I thought it would be. The 12 plus 1 shielded bearings make for a smooth retrieve, and the stainless steel bail and line roller have not rusted after a summer of river water and sweat. For a combo in this price range, the drag is genuinely usable. I had it cinched down fighting a channel cat around 8 pounds in June and it held without stuttering or slipping. The reel will never be the reason you lose a fish at this price.

The honest knock is that the drag does not have the buttery range of a reel that costs several times more. You have plenty of adjustment for normal fishing, but if you like to finesse the drag mid-fight on big fish, you will notice it is not that kind of reel. I also would not dunk this reel. The bearings are shielded, not sealed, so a swim is going to shorten its life. Rinse it after a trip, keep it out of the river bottom, and it will treat you fine. Neglect it and it will not forgive you the way a sealed reel would.

How It Held Up Over the Season

Let me give you the wear honestly, because that is what a long-term review is for. The rod blank still locks up tight, the reel still turns smooth, and the guides have not thrown a liner. The stainless hardware has held its finish. The one thing that has worn is the reel handle knob, which has lost a little of its grip from sitting in the sun, and the line roller picked up a faint rough spot late in the season that I have not been able to polish out. Neither one has cost me a fish, but I want you to know they are there.

The failures that most reviews warn about with telescopics, sections sticking or the whole thing coming apart in your hand, never happened to me. I made a habit of collapsing it from the tip down, one section at a time, and seating each one with a slight twist as I locked it out. Do that and the lock-up stays clean. I have had zero broken tips, which surprises me given how much this thing bounced around in the four-wheeler box. It has earned the right to be called tough.

I bounced this combo down gravel roads in a four-wheeler box all summer and it still locks up tight enough to pitch a jig off the bank and feel the bite. That is the whole review in one sentence.

Casting From the Bank

I did most of my testing from the bank, which is where a rod like this shines. A full day of bank fishing means a lot of walking, a lot of brush, and a lot of spots where a long rod is a liability. The PLUSINNO collapses down for the walk between holes and locks out in a few seconds when I reach the next run. That convenience sounds small until you have walked a mile of riverbank carrying two rods and a pack.

Casting is where a cheap telescopic usually falls apart, and this one does not. The stiff blank loads up nicely for a sidearm cast under overhanging branches, and the 10-pound braid I spooled it with shoots through the guides with almost no noise. I have put a one-eighth-ounce jig with a curly tail grub into pockets on the far side of the river that I would not have reached with a noodle-tipped rod. Distance is genuinely there when you need it.

Bite detection is the pleasant surprise. The stiff blank transmits the tick of a smallmouth picking up a jig off the bottom better than I expected from a rod that collapses. I have caught more subtle bites on this combo than on a couple of my mid-priced one-piece rods, which is not something I expected to write. That is the whole story in a nutshell: it does not fish like a combo at this price should.

The Two Things I Would Change

If you are weighing this against a full-size rod, here is the honest trade. The telescopic blank gives up some feel on the hookset, and the reel drag is not in the same league as a mid-priced spinning reel. You are paying for packability first and fishability second, and that ordering is the entire point of the product. Any review that tells you this fishes exactly like a one-piece rod is not being straight with you. It fishes like a very good packable rod, and that is a different thing.

The second thing I would change is the line. The combo comes spooled with a basic monofilament that I replaced after the first week. I put 10-pound braid on mine, which is cheap and makes a huge difference in how the reel casts and how much of the bite the rod passes along. Budget for a fresh spool when you order and the combo performs like a rod that costs twice as much. That is the one upgrade that matters and it costs almost nothing.

Alternatives I Considered

I thought hard about whether this was the right packable combo to recommend. The obvious comparison is the Ugly Stik GX2, which has a better-known name and a tougher reputation. But the GX2 is a two-piece rod that is still over six feet long when broken down. If you have room for a two-piece, the GX2 is a great rod and I have owned one for years. If you need something that collapses to backpack size, the PLUSINNO beats it on portability by a wide margin. They solve different problems.

The other route is buying a telescopic blank by itself and pairing it with a reel you already own. That is the better plan if you have a nice spinning reel sitting around, because the reel is the weakest part of any combo at this price. But for most weekend anglers who just want one thing that works out of the box and lives in the truck, the combo is the simpler call. You get a matched rod and reel that travel together, and you skip the guesswork of matching a blank to a reel.

Who This Is For

This combo is for the angler who fishes when the trip is not about fishing. It is for the camping weekend, the four-wheeler ride, the hike to a backcountry lake, all the times a rod case is the reason you almost left a rod at home. If you want a spare that lives in your truck or ATV box and is ready the moment you see water, this is exactly the tool for the job. It also makes a fine first rod for a kid, because it is cheap enough to hand over without wincing and short enough to cast without smacking everyone on the bank.

Who Should Skip It

If you are a serious bass or musky angler who spends every weekend on a boat with a rod locker, this is not your rod. You will feel the give in the blank and the limits of the drag, and you will be happier with a one-piece or two-piece rod you can actually protect. And if you fish nothing but heavy cover where you have to horse a fish out of the weeds, get something with more backbone. The PLUSINNO is a finesse-to-medium tool, not a winch. Buy it for what it is, a packable spare that punches above its weight.