Rod Care !?

[croixflats]

Are you cautious when storing your rods?, Gently feeding each rod into the limited space they call rod storage.

Do you do that hurredly thing, thinking it went in smoothly with minimal resistance all is fine thing or do you leave the rods out in a place not to be in the way or stepped on and ignore the storage but still being in the way.

We all have those fishing rods we want to take special care of, lets hear those stories on how we learn and the stories how we learned but still got bitt in the butt would be great.

Lets keep this away from manufacture defect and on toppic of our own ??????????????????

[LMITOUT]

Happy Birthday!

I'm in the "gently feeding each rod into the limited space they call rod storage" camp at the end of the day. I'll pull out the rods I think I'm going to use right away and then go from there. I typically don't try to have many rods out at one time just to avoid the clutter and potential of one getting accidentally stepped on or something else happening to cause one to get broken.

[JohnMickish]

I store all of my rods in the Cabelas rod socks. At $6 apiece it's pretty cheap insurance. This type of sock keeps things from getting tangled and really helps get the rods in and out of the locker. The rods that I don't have in my locker are stored in my garage, and yes, I'm carefull with them.

[bucketmouth64]

I bought some rod slicks at the sports show and they make a big difference storing. No more tangles or worry damage to rods when sliding them into storage. Now I wonder why I never bought these earlier when they came out.

[croixflats]

A late thank you to ya LMITOUT. I tend to only bring 4 rods with in the boat and I usually leave them out in between the driver seat and throttle area. I like easy access to them when switching presentations. Now that I have great fishing rods like the 8.3 Limit Creek I am constantly looking over them so not to damage them. I guess I'll do the same thing but its still worrysome when ya always got in the back of your mind trying to take care of quality goods in the boat.

[solbes]

Snapped a St Croix Premier while getting it out of my old boat's rod locker. My first decent rod and lots of memories on it. Not the rod makers fault, I had to bend them pretty good to get them through the opening. Gave me an excuse to get an Avid with lifetime warranty.

Which 3 weeks later I broke in our storage building up north. While getting the lawn mower out I bumped the weed whacker. Which then fell over and snapped the new Avid in two.

So I take very good care of them now. I'd like to add the rod tubes to the starboard side of my Lund so they don't get tangled. But I can already see I will need the rod socks to keep the guides from getting scraped and bent.

[Musky_Madness]

I too use the rod sleeves from Cabela's. Excellent product and adjustable to fit all rod sizes. Haven't had a single issue and keeps everything nice and tidy.

[Wanderer]

When I'm in the boat, it looks like I'm standing next to an erector set all time!

Probably because I don't ever go out with less than 8 rigs. They start out snapped in the carrier but eventually wind up next to another that had just been cast.

Sometimes a rod will only get cast once in the day - but dang it - I want it close when its time for that cast!!!

The rod sleeves sound good but they'll get in my way eventually. I reduce tangling by putting the hook in the hook eye or first eye foot, then wrap the open line section around the rod a couple twists. It helps alot.

How many have I broken? I have noooo idea. I don't have enough fingers and toes to keep track.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I'm lucky enough to have a fairly large boat. I keep my top 9 starters in the rod tubes on the passenger side of the boat rod locker. I then keep the rest of the rods in rod slicks and put then in the driver compartment.

[FinsandFeathers]

I also use the rod socks, and because I'm a bit anal, I also use the different colors to know whats in them. I fish mainly for walleyes so the blue socks are my jigging rods, red ones are my rigging rods and white socks are my cranking rods. This system really helps me with the time of knowing what rods are in my rod locker. Age and memory are so much fun

[norma]

The more you spend on equipment the better care you tend to give it. Spend $15 at wally world for some sunglasses and then go pick up a pair of Costa Del Mars with 580 glass for $250 or so, which will be set down without thought or cleaned with your shrit tail?

In the boat I use Cabela's rod socks whenever a rod goes in the locker. No snarls going in and you don't have to take tem out as a solid mass. When the rod comes out, the sock comes off, they act like a kite in open air with the boat speeding across the lake..

At home, I have damage resistant storage. I took two 1x4 pine boards 8' long, screwed 6" long sections of 2" PVC pipe to them on 6" centers, and screwed the two boards 4 1/2 feet apart on the ceiling of my garage. I feed the tip thru the front section, then slide the butt back thru the rear section. Storage for 17 poles that are safely out of harms way. The only danger to this is, rod racks are like gun safes. Any empty slot is reason to fill it. Which reminds me, I need to make another rod rack and buy a bigger safe .

[Daze Off]

Like most everyone I use the rod socks (BPS) which helps immensely when getting them in and out of storage. Unfortunately all my rod storage is on either side of the rear of the boat on my Lund so I tend to get most of what I want for the day out at the beginning to keep from bugging someone in the back of the boat.

I am almost afraid to jink myself by saying it but I have never broken a rod - cheap or expensive....dumb luck more than anything I'm sure.

[EBass]

It depends on my mood. Most of the time I'm gentle, but if I'm having a bad day.....LOL

[CALVINIST]

I have my own homemade vertical rod storage system for the garage. Very easy to make and you can fit alot of rods in it too. You will need some sort of plastic tub, let's say 15"x15". Next, cut some 2" PVC pipe into appropriate lengths. Then grab a bag of cement, mix it up, and fill up the plastic tub several inches and insert all the PVC pipe into it, make sure they are vertical. You should be able to fit quite a few into that 15"15" square. Let it set and it's done. Storage is a snap!

Rod storage in my boat is a problem. I usually bring 5-6 rigs out fishing. I usually lay them down on the seats and off to the side. It gets scary when they end up laying this way and that. Guess I need a bigger boat!