How do you mount your rod/reel to your pack?

I use a ULA Circuit. I break down my pack rod to 2 sections about 24 in long. Rubber band the top ends togeher then place the handle in the side waterbottle pocket and the rod under a side compression strap.

I'd put it through the shock cord on the side, into the side pocket. My pack has shock cord on almost all of the front (side facing away from you when worn). I just run the rod through this area. I usually also loop the shock cord around the rod in a two places for extra grip.

Perhaps not the answer you want, but I use a 4 piece ultralight rod ($30 on eBay inc. reel) and then I store that inside a plastic tube with caps designed for those long florescent light bulbs (available at any decent hardware store). Then it just goes inside with the reel located elsewhere (usually in a small cheap Tupperware style container with my lures).

Dan, what kind of rod is yours? I was looking at some Tenkara on ebay the other day but it was all around $60, a $30 rod to play with would be sweet!

Putting your rod on the outside of your pack is an easy way to trash the rod, especially if you push through some branches. Not a big deal if it's a cheap rod. Personally, I would try and get a rod that can fit inside your pole.
When I do carry a rod on the outside of my pack, I put it in the side pocket and strap it down with the side compression straps.

"Putting your rod on the outside of your pack is an easy way to trash the rod, especially if you push through some branches."

Yeah, I pretty much agree ater trashing three rods like this in about 30 years. I never do that with fly rods. A colapsible pack rod is slightly awkward to set up and doesn't have the smoothest action, but at least it is airly safe.

For shorter UL rods and trout gear along those lines, I generally just rubber band them together with the tip and handle firmly tied together. I think this was mentioned, already. I use my compression cord to hold it on the side of my pack. On three hard hikes I lost three poles. Mostly this was bushwacking into a smaller pond. So, it is not an infallible methode. Mostly, the loss was time. Parts were easy on my pocket book since these were made from tips purchased from a distributor that had several damaged blanks one time. Corks, grips and eyes were not all that expensive. What bothered me about it was the loss of use of the rod that trip.

Tenkara rods are pretty tough since they compact into the handle. I have an Iwana and I just put it in the side pocket and strap it down. It's seen plenty of bushwhacking and no problems. Light and tough is a pretty good combination. Extended is a whole different issue.

Tyler,

My rod is a spinning rod. It's a Quantum UL graphite 5 foot , 4-piece rod with the Quantum xtralight 3 ball bearing reel for 3.1 and 5.4oz respectively. I'm not sure if there's any on eBay now, but mine was $30 last summer.

Dan-I have the same rod/reel- it’s a great rod/reel for the $- I’ve got mine lined w/ 2# test so I can zing a 1/32 oz Panther Martin- a good distance, it’s a nice light setup and the action of the rod is very lively

packs small (that’s my tackle “box”” lying next to the reel)- the aluminum tube in w/ the rod is my grill :)

some how I was even able to land this monster w/ it

Nice Rainbow!!!

Wow nice fish Mike. Thanks again for the suggestion for this rod. It was your post a year or two ago in the 'fishing' section that led me to it.

Last month I was up in the Canadian Arctic doing some geological exploration work and I fished a few lakes that virtually never get fished. Hundreds of miles from the nearest road (around the arctic circle). I caught a lot of smaller lake trout (ie. 12-16") but it was the one that got away that really stunned me.

I was fishing off this point in some deep water using this rod/reel and 6 lbs test line. I put on the 6 lbs stuff because I figured there was some huge fish in there and that's the strongest the reel is designed for. The fish biologists doing fish surveys in this area said the big ones are 20-40 lbs in these lakes. Anyways, I set the drag as tight as I figured I could without risk of snapping the line. Around dusk I got a fish on and it started pulling out line like crazy. The line was screaming out of my drag while I was basically helpless because I didn't want to crank it tighter for risk of snapping it. For about 10 seconds the line unwaveringly screamed out my reel. Then with an anti-climatic pop the fish hit the end of line and snapped it. Serious disappointment.

I had lost some line due to a few snags earlier, so I was left wondering about what could have been if only I had more line. I'm home now but going back to the arctic in 1.5 weeks so I'm loading up on lures and hopefully I can even the score.

Mike, that is totally unfair- you get to go places us "normal" guys can't/don't. Was this a noramal place or one you Fish & Wildlife guys took you to? Then again it looks like a big enough lake.
Last week I was fishing a high mountain lake up in the Lolo NF above Thompson Falls. The biggest we caught or saw swimming was 17".
I was using a fly rod and dry flies.

Dan- great story! I remember fishing the Middle Fork of the Flathead for the first time, very light tackle- caught a few decent cutthroats and soon after had something hit my little spinner so hard it almost yanked the pole out of hand! Turned out it was a big bull trout- not sure how big- as my story ended the exact same as yours, but I now know there are 10-15# bull trout in there :)

Tad- this is a lake that is just off the CDT a wee bit, doesn't get a lot of traffic, but there is FS trail to it :)

17" is nothing to scoff at- that's a good fish in my book!

Mike