ShareThisBy THOM GABRUKIEWICZ
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
It's a conversation-starter, this little backpacking rod, what with its pistol grip _ and its stainless-steel rod with pigtail-like spring coils.
"You're going to fish with that?" is often the first question addressed when unpacking an Emmrod Mountaineer.
Inevitably, the question turns to, "Hey, where'd you get that?"
From Duane Markley of Spokane Valley, Wash.
"It's just a great product," said Markley, a former realtor and property liquidator who patented the distinctive Emmrod design 4 1/2 years ago. "It's just really enjoyable to fish with these things.
"It's not you, the fishing pole and the fish, it's just you and the fish."
The 24-inch Mountaineer, equipped with a seven-coil steel rod tip (to change tips, anglers just press and turn the rod 90 degrees from a compressed spring in the handle), has the action of a six-foot rod. Even a pan-sized brook trout will feel like a monster.
And it's practically indestructible. The rod _ the steel piece comes in casting, spinning and trolling models that fit into any of the company's handles _ features just one stainless steel eyelet.
"That's exactly why I came up with these," Markley said of the rods, which were designed using 3-dimentional, computer-aided design. "I'm a horse packer, and getting my horse and my rod into the backcountry, I'd always have a broken rod tip somewhere. It was either that, or I'd use one of those telescoping rods, and by the end of a trip, it wouldn't telescope anymore, and just be worthless."
The secret to the rod's action comes from the coils, which add flexibility and some serious sensitivity. Markley said he came up with the Emmrod's distinctive design by copying his uncle's ice fishing rod from the 1930s.
"You couldn't cast it, but it had a steel spring," he said. "I got all the kinks worked out and just ran with it."
Just add your favorite reel and you're good to go. Just be ready to hand it off to folks who'll want to try it.
"Its size and packability clearly make it appropriate for backpacking," said Leon Nelson of Redding, Calif. who tested the Mountaineer recently at Paynes Lake in California's Russian Wilderness Area (but decided not to give up his four-piece pack rod). "Having accidentally broken many traditional fishing rods, I am impressed with the fact that the Emmrod appears to be almost indestructible.
"I was pleasantly surprised when fishing with a eighth-ounce copper Kastmaster while using the Emmrod. On my third cast, I was reaching distances comparable to what I could achieve with my trusty rod."
Since being introduced at Spokane's Big Horn Show in 2004, interest has exploded, Markley said.
"When we started, we were selling 250 to 350 a month," he said. "Now, we're selling 1,500 to 2,000 a month."
Not bad for a product line that is still finding its distributors, but can always be purchased online.6
The company now has several handle and rod combinations, including a fly rod and a double-tipped rod that Markley said can handle fish up to 50 pounds (on the Web site, there's a picture of an angler who used the twin-tipped Gulf Master combination to reel in a 57-inch, 58-pound sturgeon).
Prices range from $49.95 for the basic Packer up to $99.95 for the Stream Master fly rod. Markley recently introduced his premium package line, where anglers get a handle _ and up to nine different rods. The Mountaineer package, which includes a handle and eight rods to catch fish from pan-sized to 25 pounds, sells for $193.65.6But it all started with the 22-inch, 8.5-ounce Packer, which breaks down to a puny 13 inches and fits in the glove compartment of most any vehicle. Both the Packer and the Mountaineer _ which breaks down to 15 inches and also weighs 8.5 ounces (consider that a can of soda weighs 12 ounces) _ are great for backpackers, kayakers, airline passengers or anyone who feels the need to fish at a moment's notice.
But leave it to the bass anglers to come up with an exceptional use for the Emmrod. The flexible steel coils allow anglers to shoot their favorite lure like a slingshot under brush, docks or lily pads, where the big bass lurk.
"Different is good," said Markley, who regularly wows trade show crowds by slingshotting a practice plug into a trash can from across a room _ nearly 100 percent of the time.
Which brings us to the Stream Master fly rod. This isn't Izaak Walton's fly rod _ and traditionalists who favor eight-foot, six-inch 5-weight rods will balk at the Stream Master's 33-inch, stainless steel construction. Sure, the length, and one eyelet, doesn't lend itself to a lot of line mending or super-long casts, but at Paynes Lake, I was casting floating line with a No. 16 elk hair caddis on 4X tippet 20 to 25 feet from shore.
"I don't know much about fly fishing, but that (cast) looks pretty good to me," said Tom Sellers of Sacramento. "I just don't know if I could do it."
The Stream Master _ it weighs 8.5 ounces as well _ has a short learning curve; I actually prefer it, in tight situations with a lot of brush or boulders, to my Gloomis eight-foot, six-inch rod. And I've seen Gary Graham of Escondido, a fly fishing author and holder of two fly fishing world records, pop off a 60-foot cast with shooting line.
"In the backcountry, you don't need to cast very far," Markley said. "The fish are never very far out anyway."
For more information on Emmrod fishing rods, visit www.emmrod.com.6
