A friend, who was about to move south, gave me a half dozen old rods he found in his basement. Most are broken in one way or another but among them is a rod named the Little Jewel Model LJ11 from the B&M Company of West Point. MS. There are no guides on this 4 section telescoping 11 footer. The reel seat system consists of two spring clips about 7 inches apart. I have never seen a rod like this before. How does it work? My guess is this is some sort of crappie rod. I figure it's an inexpensive rod. I would guess it has never been used as it still has the sales bar cod on it and a green sticker announcing the "New Improved Action". The clips have some rust and there are a few minor bruises on one wrap holding a clip in place; otherwise it is like new. I appreciate as much information on this rod as any of you kind people can offer. Thanks, Dave

B&M is a crappie rod/reel company Dave. Their products have always been available at Bass Pro Shops for as long as I can remember. They make little miniture knuckle buster baitcasting reels also just to hold excess line.. Sounds like you may have a doodling rod, they use them from a boat or canoe with about 4 to 6 ft of line out from the tip and use the long light action to pick a brushpile,overhanging trees and other structure apart by just dangling the offering over likely spots.

I checked out the ones Bass Pro sells now. Mine must be an earlier model. Upon closer inspection I see there is a tiny tip-top on the rod. So the line obviously goes through that and runs guidelessly back to the reel seat area. I guess I could just remove the clips and add a reel seat; or even just tape a reel on. I could also add a guide at the front of ech section. It looks like a fun rod for playing sunfish on. There are no Crappie up this way as far as I know. Thanks Spencer. Dave

Dave,

From my youth I recall how these types of rods were used, at least by the southern side of may family. Maybe other ways, but here's how my kin did it:

You placed your line through the only guide, the tip top, leaving about one rods length hanging out. At intervals, you tied it around the blank, working down to the clips. My uncles, who showed me how but I've long forgotten, used a special knot to do this, one that held under load but could be easily pulled free when required. Some type of slip knot, I'm sure. Basically these knots distributed the stress along the rod.

The extra line, they all used some type of mono, pretty light, as I recall, was wrapped around the clips. If you were unlucky enough to get hung and break off too much line, the knots were untied, the line advanced through the tip top, the knots retied, and back to fishing. Took about two minutes to do this. Fish were swung in if they were little, if they hooked a big 'un, they played the fish until it seemed played out, pulled the rod in hand over hand, then fought the fish up to the boat with just the line.

After a day of fishing, the knots were undone, the sections slid into each other, and the line wrapped around the clips. They left the rig in place, usually a bobber with either a hook for a minow or a small jig, and just wrapped that around the rod and hooked the hook into the base of the clip.

Very simple, and extremely effective way to fish for 'gills and crappie. I watched them catch some unusually big bass, too (which got thrown back, no one liked to eat them..). They caught litterally hundreds of panfish in a days fishing, enough to feed forty or fifty folks after church on a Sunday.

The addition of a reel and guides would, of course, make this type of rod more efficient. They prefered the plain old rod with just the line. No idea why, they could of certainly afforded whichever kind of gear they wanted. Plain old jon boat to fish from, too.

Good Luck!

Buddy

Dave,
I live only 15 mi. from West Point where the B&M plant is located. I have seen hundreds of the rod you describe. They are used for crappie and bream(sunfish to you), Buddy has the correct method of use. Lots of people here use them with jigs to fish the stumps and brush piles.
I have repaired a few and even put a reel seat and eyes on one. It made a great rod for 1/16 th oz jigs and small spinner type baits.
I tried once to purchase blanks from B&M but they import the rods and only sell the completed product. They are a little heavy but very tough rods and come in lenths of about 8 to 16 ft , in 2 pieces or telescoping.
Enjoy it and fish it, modify it any way you like as it will make you a nice rod.
Sam Fox
Foxrods

Another thing they're very good for is to make a sleeve or insert from them when repairing a broken rod. I have seven of them, four still intact. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.