BPS Microlite spinning reel

[Dennis Park]

Anybody have experience with the BassPro Shops Microlite spinning reel? Last time I bought a non-Shimano reel, I later found that it created horrible line twist over time.

[te – wa]

i have last years (discontinued?) "tinylite" and the anti reverse broke after one use. no line twist tho, using 2lb trilene.
good thing, the tinylite cost was low, @ $16

i think i'll purchase the Microlite next. It seems very capable for the cost, comparable to the Pflueger and Shimanos that run $60 or higher.

[James DeMonaco]

Just ordered a TinyLite to give it a shot. I went into BPS yesterday and they didn't have any for me to look at, although I did see the MicroLite. It was small and light (duh) but the man at the counter told me the TinyLite was even smaller and lighter. I'm not sure if I believe him though as he didn't seem to know much about other things I asked him.

We'll see in a couple days when I receive it. I'll post my initial thoughts, hopefully this next weekend I'll be able to get out and do some fishing and post results after that as well.

I'm really hoping it isn't built as cheap as what it cost me, haha. I know it doesn't have true anti-reverse, so I'm hoping this won't be an issue as posted above. Only time will tell!

My grandpa (who took me fishing all my life and showed me everything he knew about fishing) recently passed and while the family was going through his belongings to clear his stuff out of his house, they came upon his fishing gear and told me I could take whatever I found. I didn't find much, but what I did find was an extremely light weight telescoping rod (not sure of brand as it isn't listed anywhere) that seemed at least 20 years old. It was rusted in some parts, so I took it home and cleaned it all up, it now works like a charm and folds down no problem.

I bought this TinyLite reel to accompany this rod so we'll see how well this combo turns out! :)

[Mike Spain]

http://www.gofastandlight.com/Ultralight-Pen-Fishing-Rod-with-Spinning-Reel-COMBO/productinfo/FI-PCOMSTF/

Has anyone tried a pen fishing rod? The one at go fast and light dot com is $20 and you can choose spinning reel, baitcast or fly reel. The spinning reel combo backs down to 8" and is 55 grams. I was think seriously about getting one just cause of the cost and trying it out.

[James DeMonaco]

I've debated getting one of these for awhile. If I have a little extra cash at the end of the week I might pick one up.

I read the description and it says the spinner rod combo weighs 202grams though which is a little over 7 ounces. I'm pretty sure my full length spinner and rod combo I pieced as stated above is around that… but this pen rod does compact down and store much better. If you get one, let us know! I'd be interested in how it works out :)

[todd]

I bought the one from gofastandlight.com and can vouch for it. Spinning reel, that is.

I took it on a trip thru the Holy Cross Wilderness in CO last year and caught quite a few fish. It completely blew away my expectations for quality and performance.

The length of the rod (or lack thereof), to no surprise, is the biggest drawback. As the post above said, though, the size is what makes it shine.

As long as you don't expect everything you get from your favorite rod and reel you will not be disappointed. It even casts far better than I expected.

Todd

[Nate Powell]

Just thought I'd also mention the Daiwa Minispin. For $50 it's a pretty cool setup. The rod breaks down into 5 pieces that are about 10" long I'd say. The spinning reel it comes with has a nice feel to it. The two weigh just over 9oz on my scale. Not too shabby and worth checking out.

[James DeMonaco]

I'm expecting to get the BPS Tiny Lite in the mail today.

I also just ordered a penrod with spinner combo. I'll let you all know what I think (w/ pics) after I've had a chance to try them both out.

[Steve O]

My cheap 3/4wt 7'6" fly rod weighs 8oz with reel and all the line. Doesn't pack as well as a pen but it's worthy of comparison.

(its an Albright Topwater outfit)

[BER —]

I have not tried these rods or reels, but in researching, I note that the makers of the pen rod have two longer versions, the extreme and the Goliath. Marginally heavier.

See site: http://penfishingrods.com/shop/index.php

Frustrating site design…
Oddly, they don't sell the original pen rod on their site.

[James DeMonaco]

I checked out that site as well. I like that they extend much bigger, but I don't think its worth the weight and the price. For what I'm going to use the penrod for (stream fishing and light alpine lake fishing) it should be fine, and in some cases beneficial, to have the smaller rod. We'll see when it gets here! haha

As for the TinyLite, didn't show up today, hoping for tomorrow.

[todd]

James,

The shorter size is PERFECT for everything except long-distance casts. You're spot on in your thinking.

I love that I can cast from the bank and be very close to trees/shrubs if need be – without getting tangled. I can cast from many more spots with this rod than others I own. Makes it much more enjoyable.

All in all it's well worth the compromise for most of my backpacking trips.

Todd

[James DeMonaco]

Thanks for the replies, I'm more excited about receiving the pen rod now than I am about the TinyLite I just received, lol.

Initial impressions of the TinyLite:

First off, this thing was cheap ($17) and I can't really hold it to the standards of more expensive reels. It came with an extra spool that is "graphite" which may just mean plastic in this case, but it's actually quite a bit lighter than the aluminum spool that was already fitted on it.

It's a 2 ball-bearing system, yet it isn't quite as smooth as I had hoped. However, I don't think this is a bad thing, to be expected with cheaper reels. Its not clunky, just feels heavy.

It's definitely not as compact or light as I had hoped either, which is my main problem with it. They say it's 5.4oz on the site, which I have no way of testing since I don't have an electric scale, but it just seems to be like any other reel. Of course the term "TinyLite" is really referring to the way it handles fish, not a reflection on it's size, but the site played it as being much smaller and lighter.

I spooled it with 4LB test line today and I'm going trout fishing tomorrow in a lake that produces mostly 3lb-4lb trout (and a couple 200+lb sturgeon O_O). So we'll see how this reel deals with the fights, and also my collapsible aluminum rod. This is the first time I've taken either of these fishing so I'm a bit nervous :)

[Dennis Park]

Too bad Bass Pro and Cabella's seems to have discontinued their telescopic rods. These guys collapsed down nicely and if it was kept rigged, one could quickly fish from spot to spot while still trekking along. Anybody else miss those rods?

[James DeMonaco]

I believe eagle claw still makes a rod like what you're talking about. They talk about it in this thread:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=39408

Like I said, I was lucky enough to find a really light weight aluminum telescopic rod in my grandpas old fishing closet, so I'm not sure about these eagle claw models but they seem to be nice :)

[James DeMonaco]

As the subject line states, I didn't catch a thing today (99% of the people there had the same rotten luck). I did see a guy pull out an 11.2 pound sturgeon though! :)

So yeah, My aluminum/graphite telescopic rod with the TinyLite performed great. I really ended up falling in love with that reel.

Weighed it today and it came in just above 7 oz.

Here's a photo of the two all collapsed (The handle on the reel actually collapses down a bit smaller and tucks away in the back, but it wasn't in this photo)

I'm going to fish next weekend (and perhaps sometime this week if work permits) so I'll try it out again.

Also going to try and get in some stream fishing this next weekend with the pen rod if it shows up before then :)

[James DeMonaco]

So I received my Pen Rod yesterday. Initial thoughts? Not so good, so far.

The whole thing just feels kind of cheap (well it was cheap afterall, so what could I really expect?)

So here's what happened. I took my spool in to a sporting goods store (won't name names) to have it spooled with some line on it.

After about 10-15 minutes of walking around waiting, a manager approached me and told me that the spool had been broken after removing it from the machine.

They said that it was a cheap plastic spool, but that they should have warned me before hand that it could have broken. They gave me a Pfleuger minicast 4-bearing reel and said its the smallest and lightest reel they had at the store. They gave it to me free of charge. Of course, this reel won't fit on the tiny brackets of the pen rod, so it's all kind of useless.

So I came home, and checked out what had happened. I was able to glue the spool back together with some plastic cement I had from one of those toy models (this stuff is great to have around). The spool seems to hold together alright, but I'm not sure if I can trust it in the back country.

I spooled it myself with some 4lb test and I'm taking it to the streams tomorrow morning to test it out (also bringing a telescoping rod with the reel they gave me to try that out).

I ALSO let the guy at gofastandlight know that his reel was pretty cheap and the spool broke. So we'll see what becomes of that.

Anyways, here is a pic of the broken spool.

[James DeMonaco]

As you read above, the reel broke while fishing the river today. Good thing I brought my backup :)

If I were any of you, I'd go with the penrod extreme, from what I hear, it's much better quality.

So the river was heavily flooded out, there weren't many pools to fish, but I did find one and managed to snag a single fish from it. So I guess that one is better than nothing :)

Here's a pic of the rivers I was fishing, such a great day!

[Chris Hanson]

I have one that I have used for close to 20 years. It is a sweet little outfit. If the new one are as good or better, you can't lose!

[Nate Lee]

I vote for the pflueger microlite. I use that on a two pc graphite st croix fast action 6'. I throw six lb test. Its a great little reel.

The op mentioned line twist, be sure u have spooled it correctly, it is done differently for spinners rather than baitcasters, and this is a common way to get twist in ur line. Google for spooling without line twist spinning reel.

[Ben Wortman]

+1

I used the Daiwa Minispin on a trip to thw wind rivers last summer. It worked great. I caught a ton of fish with it.

$50 for the whole kit with plastic case was a bargain.

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