Keeping rods untangled

How do you keep a bunch of rods untangled that have to ride in the trunk of a car? It’s not unusual to have a dozen rods in my trunk and they almost always wind up in a big mess. I do have a few of them in rod cases and that helps but it would cost a fortune to buy cases for all my rods. I have used large rubber bands to hold the sections together but I’m always having to replace the rubber bands.

Does anyone make a decent system for keeping rod sections together that holds up over time and is easy to use? I’m thinking either velcro or that rubber they use in chuck key holders.

Put less rods in your trunk! You can only use 1 at a time anyway’s!

You need some rod socks. Google up “Rod Sock”, lot of companies make them. St. Croix Rods makes them too.

-J.

bolt a couple berkley rod holders to the inside of your trunk lid.

Go to Home Depot in the plumbing section. Buy some foam pipe wraps for like $2. The rods slide right in and stay untangled great. I have up to 20 rods in my rod locker, and this works great!

Line wise, assuming you have line running up to the tip, then back down to the reel or little hook thingy, if you start in the middle of the rod, grab the “loose” line (the one not running through the eyelets) and wrap it around the pole until you can’t wrap it anymore, ususally like 4 times or so, it will keep all the line snug and tight to the rod, works great, I do this all the time if I’m carring my rods else where, since they normally stay in my rod lockers. I Picked up this tip off fishing show.

That being said, rod socks are probably the best choice, since it appears a high quality graphite rod does not like to be scratched or stressed any more than possible, I think a lot of rod breakeage come from mishandling rods. Fortunetly for me I’m cheap and so are my rods

Just buy a boat with rod locker storage

wooo hooo !!!!

Try some of those plastic tubes the you find at a golfing store that go in golf bags. I re-did my rod locker so that the last 3-4 foot of my rods go in them.. Works great, they are big enough that you can leave the poles rigged and they never get tangled going down the river..

There are some good ideas here but I am with Jon on this one.
Rod socks are cheap and easy.

Ron

Beckman makes some reel (pun intended) nice rod socks. I have several for my boat and they serve me well. They cost about $6-$7 apiece and are available at Fleet Farm.

We use MN-RST-RIDER’s way. It has always worked great we almost never get tangled up. It doesn’t work as well with superlines as it does mono.

After you wrap the line around the rod sections a few times,
what keeps it wrapped? Do you hook the loop over an eyelet ?

Try this. I use this whenever I am going to have a bunch of rids together in storage, transport, or in the boat. Hook the hook on either a low line guide, hook keeper, or a bar that goes horizontally across your reel. Reel in the tension until the rod tip is snug because of the line tension. Take the line that goes from the rod tip to the hook in your hand, pull it away from the rod a few inches and turn the rod clockwise a few rotations of the rod, (counterclockwise might work too) LOL. This is how I keep rods free of eachother when I have ten to twelve rods rigged and ready under the rod straps in the front on my boat. This will no harm your rods, especially as much as pulling them to get them apart when tangled, and tangled lines have never yielded much fun for me. I hated the Rubick’s Cube though also.

“pull it away from the rod a few inches and turn the rod “

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Ok but do you make sure that the line hooks over a guide to keep the line from untwisting as soon as you let go of it.

yes

Quote:

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After you wrap the line around the rod sections a few times,
what keeps it wrapped? Do you hook the loop over an eyelet ?

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yup you got it

rod socks

A word of warning about rod socks.

If your boat has shelves on the sides that you lay the rods on when going to the next spot then be very careful with rod socks. If the tip of the rod (while in the sock) is pointing toward the bow and a wind catches it, the rod can easily fly out of the boat at just 30 mph. I have a Lund Explorer tiller and you don’t have to ask how I know this.

For friends that use socks, I now have bungee cords that go across these shelves to hold the rods (that are in socks) from flying out.

Dave Gulczinski

Those rods socks can make custom G. Loomis rods fly out of pickup beds in the same manner – then you have to hope like my lucky son that 1. Someone in the truck sees it go down so you can stop and retrieve the sock and rod… 2. Hope the transom strap catches the reel and holds it while the truck stops… it could have been Loomis graphite all over the road otherwise! And yes – I have had them try to fly in the boat too… I knew graphite was used in the space industry but that doesn’t mean we have to put up with our fishing rods trying to fly Chuckles

WOW, a big thanks to everyone for sharing your ideas.
Initialy I think rod socks it is for all my one piece rods
and cases/socks for at least half of my multi piece rods.
I don’t want to spend $100 or more on rod socks,
so I’ll probably go pick up a couple yards of fabric
and see how many I can make myself for like $10.

Plus I’ll start doing the line twist thing on all the multi piece rods
just to help make it a habit. That will be a real handy tip
for when you have to walk a mile with a fist full of rods.

Remember NEVER hook a hook into the eyelet that your line goes through. Always hook it in the support that attaches to the rod.