XPEDITE PRO Portable Telescopic Casting and Spinning Fishing Rods, 24T Carbon Blanks & Solid Carbon Tip, Cork Handle, Travel Rod, Short Collapsible Rods

I was planning a multi-week National Park vacation to the mountains in western United States and Canada and looking for an ideal rod for me and the family to take along on long hikes. My goal was to have something small, sturdy, and quality, but not be out a lot of money if it got broken. Our target fishing was mostly trout in out of the way streams or rivers in Glacier NP, Yellowstone, Tetons, and Idaho. I’m an avid fisherman, and prefer solid graphite rods versus two-piece or telescoping especially for trout and bass. After researching I came across the these rods and decided for the price I’d give it a shot. I purchased a 6ft and 7ft to try on my local Smallmouth streams first. The feel of the rods was good with the cork handle, but a little less sensitive of course than I’m used to (Note the rods say they are targeted for 8 lb -14lb test on the rod specs). That said, I wanted to use lighter line so I set the 6ft with a Shimano and 7ft with a Daiwa reel both with 4lb Berkley Trilene Smooth casting line. On first two trips I caught several small smallmouth , and one nice ~16inch small mouth (pictured). The rod did great, nothing broken or stressed even with that fish, so figured it was ready for the vacation trip.The size was nice and packed down well to about 17 inches in size. It packed perfectly in the outside loops of my Dakine Heli-Pro snowboarding backpack (pictured) or in my kids backpacks which could zip. I preferred the outside so I could protect the tip and reel from getting smashed by other gear, and I always kept the plastic protector over it when hiking. I even did some rough off trail hiking down into back country in Idaho and Montana though chest tall brush and had no trouble with anything breaking.As far as ease of use, once you get to your destination you can have it unpacked and ready to go in about a minute. I generally had best luck leaving a small snap swivel hooked to my rod, and when arriving taking off the plastic tip cover, and extending rod from bottom thicker extensions first and gradually working towards the top being careful especially with the last 2 extensions so they don’t break and are lined up.Overall these rods were perfect for what I was looking for. They caught over 40 trout, a northern pike, several smallmouth and panfish since we’ve had them (over three months). Most importantly they gave me more opportunity to fish on our vacation by being sturdy and packable for the hikes, and a great price! Definitely recommend!

It feels like a really good rod to me, but I don't really know much. I got the 6.5' one without thinking about it much and it was bigger that I thought. It feels strong though. And it collapses down really small. Easy enough to just throw in a small backpack.

This rod would be perfect if it was a 4 foot rod.Very compact and great for traveling.

I know a lot of guys are real anal about their fishing gear. And while I admire that and I see their point I have caught the biggest fish on children's rod and reels. That's just the truth of it. This is a nice rod and I am so glad I ordered this length. Upon careful inspection everything seems to be fastened straight correctly and looks great. I matched it with the Zebco Bullet 30 MG Spincast. I will be using this for backpacking and so I needed something light but effective and efficient. I think this will work out fine. I caught an 8 lb catfish on a child's telescoping Pole. And it didn't break. Maybe I should have just packed that. Lol. Life is just full of Little Wonders isn't it? But this is a good looking Rod it's well made and well priced. And it shipped extremely fast. The six and a half foot long rod compacts down to under 17 in and fits in the pack.

I took this rod with me to Grenada on vacation and fished in many places with it. There are many options for telescopic travel rods and purchasing one can be a difficult decision. I landed on this one because of the reviews and I was not let down! I put a 2500 size Shimano reel on this with 14lb braided line and it held up well against the saltwater fish. I caught various sizes of fish from shore and it held up well and was easy to extend and retract. Relatively speaking, it is well built and can withstand most shore fishing, however, If you caught something very big you might have some trouble.