Fishing Rods
PLUSINNO Telescopic Rod and Reel Combo Review: A Season of Travel Fishing
Eight months, two road trips and a lot of bank fishing. What a packable combo does well, and where it quits.
A plain account of a folding rod that earned a spot behind the truck seat, and the places it does not belong.
Eight months, two road trips and a lot of bank fishing. What a packable combo does well, and where it quits.
Two rods that do two different jobs. One lives behind a truck seat and fishes strange water on a Saturday. The other leans against the garage wall for ten years. Here is how to tell which one you actually need.
Eight months, two road trips, and one rod that lives behind the truck seat. What it does well, and the one thing it will not do.
A plain account of a folding rod that earned a spot behind the truck seat, and the places it does not belong.
Two road trips, two non-resident licenses, and a rod that lives behind the truck seat. What actually mattered, and what I would skip.
Eight months behind a truck seat, two road trips, and a plain accounting of what a folding rod gives up to fold.
Two and a half years of a hard-sided Plano box riding in a jon boat on Lake Barkley: what held up, what got heavy, and who should skip it.
Two and a half years in a jon boat on Lake Barkley, and an honest look at the mornings a soft bag would have served me better.
A retired taxidermist's plain notes on the Plano Angled Tackle System, from the three StowAway boxes to the 15 degree tray angle, and why less digging means more casts.
A retired taxidermist's plain account of the box that ended the morning tangle in her garage.
Five steps I used to get 50 years of loose tackle into three boxes I can actually find things in, plus where this system still gives me trouble.
Two and a half years in a 14-foot jon boat on Lake Barkley. What the angled lid actually does, and the three things about this box nobody mentions.
One camera on one white oak, a card pull every two weeks, and a year of finding out what my own creek bottom does when nobody is standing in it.
One camera on one white oak, a full season of cards to look through, and an honest accounting of what a cellular camera would have done that mine could not.
One camera on one white oak for a little over a year taught me more about the back forty than ten seasons of walking it and deciding what the sign meant.
A retired taxidermist bought one small camera, strapped it to a white oak at the creek crossing, and found out what had been walking the back forty while she sat in the stand.
A retired taxidermist on the one white oak she hung a camera on, the two-week card pull, and what a trail camera honestly will and will not tell you.
A plain-spoken look at what a 30MP mini camera does on one creek crossing, and the limits that do not show up in the listing.
Nell Hardesty bought a TIDEWE rangefinder in December 2024, one month after a clean miss she still thinks about. Here is what nearly two years in a jacket pocket taught her.
I missed a doe because I guessed at the yardage. Here is the honest split between the rangefinder I bought after that and the one everybody else at the ramp carries.
A retired taxidermist on the one piece of gear that turned a 40-year guessing habit into a number, and the two things about it she would skip.
A clean miss on a doe near the far fence taught me more about distance than close to 50 years of guessing ever did.
Five steps, learned the hard way after a miss I am still not over: range from the seat, write the numbers down, know which distance you are reading, read the ground instead of the hair, and let your own limit do the deciding.
Nearly two years with one rechargeable rangefinder, three fixed marks on the back forty, and an honest accounting of what it does and what it will not do.
Two years, three jobs, and a spare that lives in the truck: what a two-pack headlamp actually does for somebody who walks in before light.
Two lights, the same 40 acres, and a plain answer about which one belongs on your head and which one belongs in the drawer.
A retired taxidermist who has walked to the same stand in the dark for close to 50 years on what a headlamp actually does for you, and what it does not.
A retired taxidermist on the fifteen minutes before daylight, the ramp at Lake Barkley, and the two-pack she bought in October 2024.
Fifteen minutes of dark ground between the truck and the ladder stand, and one light that has to earn its place on your head. What I aim it at, what I don't, and where it stops helping.
Two years of dark walks, cold ramps and knots after sunset, plus the one limitation the listing page never mentions.
Eight months, two road trips and a lot of bank fishing. What a packable combo does well, and where it quits.
Eight months behind a truck seat, two road trips, and a plain accounting of what a folding rod gives up to fold.
Two and a half years of a hard-sided Plano box riding in a jon boat on Lake Barkley: what held up, what got heavy, and who should skip it.
Two and a half years in a 14-foot jon boat on Lake Barkley. What the angled lid actually does, and the three things about this box nobody mentions.
One camera on one white oak, a card pull every two weeks, and a year of finding out what my own creek bottom does when nobody is standing in it.
A plain-spoken look at what a 30MP mini camera does on one creek crossing, and the limits that do not show up in the listing.
Nell Hardesty bought a TIDEWE rangefinder in December 2024, one month after a clean miss she still thinks about. Here is what nearly two years in a jacket pocket taught her.
Nearly two years with one rechargeable rangefinder, three fixed marks on the back forty, and an honest accounting of what it does and what it will not do.
Two years, three jobs, and a spare that lives in the truck: what a two-pack headlamp actually does for somebody who walks in before light.
Two years of dark walks, cold ramps and knots after sunset, plus the one limitation the listing page never mentions.