My issue of Rodmaker came in mid-week. The first night I went down in the shop and cobbled together a rod rescue device of my own, pretty close to the one in the article. Put it in my 'loaner" rod and went to bed.

Dad-in-law called this morning, wanting to try fishing a local pond since the weather was warm enough through mid-day. Sure enough, on the second cast he stumbled and tossed the rod and reel in the drink. But! It was the loaner rod I put the rescue device in. Not having had time to test it I got worried after about ten minutes. Dad-in-law kept saying "what are you looking for, it's gone!" I told him that inside was a rescue device and we would see the marker any time. But I was beginning to have doubts!

Long story short, it took about fifteen minutes but we saw the float up and on top of the water about forty feet away. Trolled over and retrieved it and saved a couple hundred dollar outfit. Dad-in-law was impressed. He never even knew the rod was equipped with such a thing because it was hidden inside the rod. Needless to say I am going to work on this device and offer it as a selling point to my customers. Score- custom rod builders 1, factory rods 0!

As the article stated, due to the great differences in rod blank diameters, it's best to thoroughly test your device before putting absolute trust in it. Glad yours worked, of course, but any future ones you make really need at least one good test before you get too confident (take the reel off and just dunk the rod).

The idea came out of a desire to help the guys building rods for kayak fishing, a sport where tossing a rod overboard is fairly likely at some point. The idea of tethers and leashes never appealed to me but an hidden internal device did. I think this is another area where custom builders can offer their customers something that the commercial rod manufacturers cannot.

Make sure you read Charlie Smoot's ideas in the sidebar - he's been working on similar devices for a while now.

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very nice - but, as soon as it goes over well, just like the micro guides, the factories will grab it and run. I would not be surprised to see micros and that device on factory rods next year.

Bill might be right, but we're dealing with different target markets. Either we're ahead of the game for a while, or we're at least offering what they finally catch up to. Either way, it's an extra-cost feature we can use as a selling point.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

Re rods going overboard, Okuma have their Baidarka kayak rods that according to their blurb floats even with a "large overhead reel attached". Has anyone tried making rod that flat like this? I wonder how much floatation needs to be built into a 5' jigging/trolling rod wearing a trinidad 16 and if its the combination of the sealed blank and grip materials that makes it happen

The problem with trying to make a "floating rod" is that you're almost certain to have to alter the rod in such a way that you affect how it fishes. Anything that you add to make the rod float is likely to be somewhat obtrusive.

Even the commercial rescue devices that we've talked about on this forum over the last few years had to be added to the outside of the rod, where they may possibly snag a line or get knocked off.

What I have always sought is something that wouldn't change the performance of the rod or require the fisherman to "give something to get something." Something that is totally out of sight and mind, until needed. We've done it.

The device in RodMaker can't be seen, can't be felt and the user doesn't even know it's there - unless he or she tosses it overboard. The amount of weight added to the rod is less than a 1/4 of an ounce and that weight is at the extreme butt end of the rod where it does the least harm and may even help with rod balance, if you're interested in that type of thing.

As the article stated, this isn't the last word in rod rescue devices. And it may well be that the RodMaker device can be improved upon. The thing I wanted to do was get the idea out there with a working version of such a device and then see where others could take it. Custom rod builders could have a real leg up on an important rod accessory with something like this.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2008 10:51AM by Tom Kirkman.