Put a Condom on Your Stick
Even if you don’t bring your own rods to a fishing lodge, I strongly recommend bringing a handful of rod sleeves along in your luggage. They’re inexpensive, they don’t weigh much or take up much space, and they’ll save you lots of time and potentially some heartbreak.
Why are you protecting rods, even if they don’t belong to you?
Well, first off, some outfitters or lodges will charge you for broken rods. The rod may have been nicked before, or constant banging on the deck of an aluminum boat can create stress points. Even two rods knocking together as you run down the lake can lead to breakage – graphite on graphite violence is a crime. By keeping the rods separated from one another and from hard surfaces, even slightly, you reduce the chance of breakage, which could happen while fighting the fish of a lifetime.
Breakage isn’t the only issue. If you have five or six rods in someone else’s boat, and your fishing partner has the same, tangling can be an issue. Carrying them to the boat can be bad enough, but wait until you have a topwater bait, a 10XD and a Carolina Rig all enmeshed with one another and schooling fish come up 20 yards away. You want to launch your Zara Spook, and instead you come up with a handful of rods. By the time you get them untangled, the fish have vanished. On the other hand, if they’re in sleeves, you can slide it off in one motion, unhook your lure from the keeper, and you’re in business.
I’m agnostic on which type of sleeves to use. The mesh ones occasionally get hard-to-remove hooks in their crevices, while the neoprene models create more wind resistance. I am, however, a big supporter of color coding your rod condoms. At El Salto and Picachos, I use neon green and my wife uses orange. They’re both bright, so if one flies out of the boat while running it’s easy to find when you circle back. You might want to further catalog your rod gloves – maybe differentiate between spinning and baitcasting; or rods over/under a certain length. No matter what you choose, it’s an inexpensive way to add efficiency and get more casts on your next trip.
