Boys Toys – III (Reprise)

Pocket Pen Rod & Reel

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

It was on sale at CVS for a mere $10 – half the price of the previous one. It looked heftier, had replaced the baitcast reel with a larger spincast one. Out of the box, I had trouble testing/setting the drag and then things went downhill.

I tried a socket wrench to separate the drag wheel from the handle when it fell apart in my hands. Weeks of on-again/off-again trying to fix it, I finally managed to get it together and took it on a trip to Florida. The stupid thing can’t cast. Yes, at least the spool works, but getting the line to hit the water was near impossible. Even tried just a drop line from a pier. The one improvement is the gear ratio must have been turned up a notch, as I could reel it in with no problem – just couldn’t cast the damn thing.

At least it didn’t break like the last one – yet. It’s a $10 mantlepiece conversation starter at best.

Boys Toys - III

Pocket Pen Rod & Reel

I will start by saying the rod is broken. It snapped halfway along the rod. No idea how. That may be the good news, because it means more stuff I can throw out and simplify my tackle box.

For all the traveling I do, I thought this might be neat – or at least cute. After putting some braid on, I tried casting with it. Nothing happened. So it turns out one has to hand pull it out – just like a drop line, but not as convenient. Perhaps at a small “tourist” pier, with 6’ to the water.

But then looking at the reel and trying to reel line in, you can feel right away you will get carpal tunnel syndrome for the tiny amount of leverage you have on the reel. It is smaller than a spool of thread, maybe the diameter of a dime. This is way beyond ultra-lite.

So in the spirit of Mythbusters, I have to say this is a WoM – waste of money. It might have worked if they had chosen fibreglas and a spin reel, but this is really a toy.

For travel, the best I have found is a Rhino 4-piece rod that packs down to 22” and expands to 6 feet. I have an old $10 Shimano spin reel I use; so the whole thing cost me $5 more than this toy.

N.B. – I have looked on the web for the same Rhino rod I have and have NOT found it; instead there is a baitcast rod with a trigger grip. I bought mine last year at Dick’s Sporting Goods, but have not seen them since.

Probably a distant second would be the Pocket Fisherman, with which I was able to cast, but unfortunately, was unable to change the line without it no longer working ... actually, just could not get it back to together.