I have a request to build a "Survival" themed fishing rod. The rod needs to be a 3 or 4 piece packable spinning rod. The customer wants to incorporate survival gear into the rod. Things he mentioned are, a firestarter, knife, water purification tablets, paracord, extra hooks. I'm kind of at a loss as to how to incorporate these items into a fishing rod. Does anyone have any ideas on how to work these in. The only thought i can come up with is to do a hollow grip, like a tex tube, and wrap it in paracord, then put the rest of the items right inside the grip. Thanks in advance for any ideas that you might have!

You could make both the butt and foregrip out of "survival" knife handles that have machined aluminium caps. That can be your first section of rod. That way you have two sections of storage.
Seems a little odd, but I can picture it in my head.

Had another Idea...you could cut off the barrel end of a 6 C cell Mag light, and fix the reel seat to it. That should give you about 12 or 13" of water tight storage.

Looks like they discontinued the 5 and 6 C cell Maglights. Longest C cell is a 4, however...I looked at the specs and found that the 4 cell barrel is about 11" long and you can buy it seperate for about $9.00.
I may try it just for kicks.

You could also look into the cylindrical steel flasks/cigar tubes that you could incorporate into the rear grip.

That's really a cool idea. Might need to consider one for myself now.

I have been thinking of making something similar myself..... You could get away with a smaller tube than c cell if you wrap the handle with the paracord, there are a ton of different knots you can do with it and lots of colors. I would love to see it when you are done, been thinking about one for quite some time.

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Super Tight Lines......Don

The C cell barrel is only 1.25" OD, so that's not bad.

Put a pivot , a handle, and a reel seat on a cell phone and use it for a reel.

Craig Mullins Wrote:
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> The C cell barrel is only 1.25" OD, so that's not
> bad.


Add paracord or something else around that and you have a 1.5" grip.....imo a little large.

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Super Tight Lines......Don

do you want to survive or worry about handle size

Bill - willierods.com

bill boettcher Wrote:
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> do you want to survive or worry about handle size


true....there I go again thinking about aesthetics

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Super Tight Lines......Don

What about the rod in a case And the knife on the outside of it With a pouch holding all the stuff needede to survive

If the world comes to an end on December 21 he may need a nice rifel with a scope ???LOL

Bill - willierods.com

How big are those "I've fallen and I can't get up" devices? One might fit in the reel handle.

What about the hot handle type thing from Steve Gardner? Its a big open space and very light. A flashlight housing is going to be very heavy.

This is almost an inch ID Cheap
[www.mudhole.com]

Bill - willierods.com

In addition to the rod I would think about the travel case as well as the case could store or incorporate some of the "gear".

A 3 or 4 piece rod would be around 17in - 21in when broken down so even with a bit longer case your still talking very "packable".

Just a thought,,,,

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

I think you have to decide if you really want the survival equipment to be in the butt of the rod or stored in the rod tube.

You can get the Clear Creek PVC/Nylon rod tubes to suit for example, a 4pc 6ft or 3pc 6ft6in or 7ft (Batson RX6), which will also have heaps of space left over for storing the other equipment
Having the rod packed in a solid tube makes it just about indestructable.

Dale

Hobart, TAS
AUSTRALIA

With the longer tube you could have a large knife in it's sheath on the outside of the tube Might look cool
Then a separate section to hold the equipment with each end to unscrew so the rod only can be taken out or just the survival stuff

Bill - willierods.com

bill boettcher Wrote:
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> With the longer tube you could have a large knife
> in it's sheath on the outside of the tube Might
> look cool
> Then a separate section to hold the equipment with
> each end to unscrew so the rod only can be taken
> out or just the survival stuff


Lol, nice.

Call it the Rambo Rod.

Firestarter, knife, water purification tablets, paracord, extra hooks - these are all replacable items, pretty heavy as compared to a typical fishing rod. Fitting those inside a hollow handle mgiht prove diffcult - find out the "size" of these items from your customer. He may have something specific in mind that precludes a hollow handle solution - then the case remains the only option.

PS - I doubt anyone wants to cast with things ratttling around inside a hollow handle! And storage will be limited, so the length of time "surviving" might also be limited.