MuskieBait
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2013
- Messages
- 567
I love to travel and fish...and I abuse my gear quite a bit.
Finding a sensitive but powerful rod is often difficult when you're talking about 3-piece models. 1-piece and even 2-piece rods are nice...but checking in a rod tube as the second piece of luggage is not often economical...usually $25 per flight segment.
For my trip to Belize, I bought a Tsunami Travel Kayak Inshore Rod. I've also used the same rod on my road trip to Florida. Here's a link on Tackle Direct.
http://www.tackledirect.com/tsunami-travel-kayak-inshore-rods.html
Price: $80
Type: Spinning
Length: 7'
Power: Heavy
Line Weight: 15-25lb
Lure Weight: 3/4 - 2oz
Fish caught: 4lb Horse-eye Jack, 36" Tarpon, 25lb Chinook Salmon, 24" wing span Southern Stingray, 36" Cownose Ray, 7' (200lb) Nurse Shark
Pros: relatively thin blank, sensitive tip, strong backbone, big guides
Cons: silver accent wrapping looks messy and left a lot to desire, epoxy sometimes has fingerprint marks on it
I can feel a tarpon sucking up a live sardine. Casting 50 yards with only a sardine was an easy feat. I've since used
With all the fish (maybe except the Nurse Shark), I had full control of them during the fight and there was not a moment I worried about the rod snapping or being too stiff for the job. It simply felt like an extension of my arm.
I consider the cons as cosmetic only. What matter is that guides are always aligned straight, the epoxy is applied neatly around the guide foot and the cork handle use quality cork.
I love the rod so much that I bought the heavy casting rod (15-25lb, 3/4oz - 2oz) as a "light" pike and muskie rod.
In addition, I added the Tsunami Travel Kayak Boat Rod in the conventional model.
http://www.tackledirect.com/tsunami-travel-kayak-boat-rods.html
The Boat Rod was very beefy. It casting 4oz of lead + bait beautifully with an off-the-ground cast. The guides are big enough for a slim beauty knot tied with 60lb mono to pass through without a hitch. I've so far battled 36" wing span Cownose Rays on it. Time will tell how the rod handles bigger fish. I think it will perform admirably against some tuna and roosterfish in the future.
The only downside is that the rods do not come with a travel case...so you'll have to figure something out. I'm sure PVC pipes cut to size would do nicely. I'm still trying to figure out what to do to carry these in my luggage...
Time will tell how durable these rod may be. So far, I've bang the rods on jetty rocks, concrete bridge railings and metal boat railings. They are still strong as day one. They do come with a 5-year limited warranty. And at the price of $80, it's not so bad replacing one even after warranty. I just hope they don't get discontinued like the TFO rods that I love so much
Check them out if you need travel rod options! They definitely have my seal of approval!
Finding a sensitive but powerful rod is often difficult when you're talking about 3-piece models. 1-piece and even 2-piece rods are nice...but checking in a rod tube as the second piece of luggage is not often economical...usually $25 per flight segment.
For my trip to Belize, I bought a Tsunami Travel Kayak Inshore Rod. I've also used the same rod on my road trip to Florida. Here's a link on Tackle Direct.
http://www.tackledirect.com/tsunami-travel-kayak-inshore-rods.html
Price: $80
Type: Spinning
Length: 7'
Power: Heavy
Line Weight: 15-25lb
Lure Weight: 3/4 - 2oz
Fish caught: 4lb Horse-eye Jack, 36" Tarpon, 25lb Chinook Salmon, 24" wing span Southern Stingray, 36" Cownose Ray, 7' (200lb) Nurse Shark
Pros: relatively thin blank, sensitive tip, strong backbone, big guides
Cons: silver accent wrapping looks messy and left a lot to desire, epoxy sometimes has fingerprint marks on it
I can feel a tarpon sucking up a live sardine. Casting 50 yards with only a sardine was an easy feat. I've since used
With all the fish (maybe except the Nurse Shark), I had full control of them during the fight and there was not a moment I worried about the rod snapping or being too stiff for the job. It simply felt like an extension of my arm.
I consider the cons as cosmetic only. What matter is that guides are always aligned straight, the epoxy is applied neatly around the guide foot and the cork handle use quality cork.
I love the rod so much that I bought the heavy casting rod (15-25lb, 3/4oz - 2oz) as a "light" pike and muskie rod.
In addition, I added the Tsunami Travel Kayak Boat Rod in the conventional model.
http://www.tackledirect.com/tsunami-travel-kayak-boat-rods.html
The Boat Rod was very beefy. It casting 4oz of lead + bait beautifully with an off-the-ground cast. The guides are big enough for a slim beauty knot tied with 60lb mono to pass through without a hitch. I've so far battled 36" wing span Cownose Rays on it. Time will tell how the rod handles bigger fish. I think it will perform admirably against some tuna and roosterfish in the future.
The only downside is that the rods do not come with a travel case...so you'll have to figure something out. I'm sure PVC pipes cut to size would do nicely. I'm still trying to figure out what to do to carry these in my luggage...
Time will tell how durable these rod may be. So far, I've bang the rods on jetty rocks, concrete bridge railings and metal boat railings. They are still strong as day one. They do come with a 5-year limited warranty. And at the price of $80, it's not so bad replacing one even after warranty. I just hope they don't get discontinued like the TFO rods that I love so much
Check them out if you need travel rod options! They definitely have my seal of approval!
