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Where to buy a (long) telescoping fishing rod with hook?


MSSFRD

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Hi,

 

There are several high caches near me that require a fishing pole to reach as the trees/poles cannot be climbed - this is generally even advertised in the cache description. I've seen lots of posts/pictures of 'cachers with telescopic rods with hooks on the end, but I cannot find these anywhere. Are they custom built or bought from some hard-to-find store? Any help or advice on how to go about getting one would be much appreciated as I've Googled quite a bit and have come up blank. I'm in Finland if that matters :)

 

Thank you in advance!

MSSFRD

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5 hours ago, MSSFRD said:

There are several high caches near me that require a fishing pole to reach as the trees/poles cannot be climbed - this is generally even advertised in the cache description. I've seen lots of posts/pictures of 'cachers with telescopic rods with hooks on the end, but I cannot find these anywhere.

 

I wouldn't bother with a "fishing" rod.  Something like a light bulb change extension rod, or a painter's extension rod should work fine.

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Thank you, Cerberus & Hugh. I hadn't thought of other functions for telescopic poles but those look much more sturdy! All caches with them seem to refer to fishing rods over here, which is probably why I was hung up on that terminology. I'll look into this! Many thanks!

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I've used a telescoping fruit picker to retrieve and replace elevated caches before. I've used telescoping painter poles in another context. Both would work for many elevated caches, depending on the final length of the pole, the height of the geocacher, and the height of the geocache.

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If these type of caches are common where you live, I think it's going to be useful to find out what's standard in your area. Where I live it's a specific 8 meter fishing rod with the thinnest section removed. Anything shorter and you're going to have a bad time. Caches where that rod isn't long enough are rare, and generally have warnings in cache description or by previous loggers.

 

Regarding the hook, you can literally just duct tape a hook from a coat hanger to the end of the rod. There are more durable and more elegant solutions of course, but this generally works well enough.

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I would think the 'business end' is what would matter. 

 

A telescoping pole is a telescoping pole, but on the far end, do you need:

  • A hook to lift something off a nail and put it back?
  • A basket to carry something down and put it back? (My Dad had a basket on a pole with wire 'fingers' over it to grab and pull peaches or apples off a limb and fall into the basket.)
  • A forked device?
  • A magnetized device?
  • An imaging device? (THAT would be cool - take a picture twenty feet up to read the next stage's coords!  Hmmmm; I feel a multicache growing ion my head!)
  • A nudging device?
  • An angled device?
  • A grasping device?

 

Anyone else? Add to this list.

 

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Just to let you know that I've created something I'm optimistic about working. It's an 8m telescopic fishing rod with the last pole sawed off. The hook is created from a single tent peg bent into shape, so it should be sturdy enough for most PET/bison tubes, and is wired and taped into place. It's not pretty, I know, but I'm going for functionality over style :)

Thank you again to everybody that replied offering their advice.

WhatsApp Image 2021-08-09 at 12.08.37.jpeg

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4 minutes ago, MSSFRD said:

Just to let you know that I've created something I'm optimistic about working. It's an 8m telescopic fishing rod with the last pole sawed off. The hook is created from a single tent peg bent into shape, so it should be sturdy enough for most PET/bison tubes, and is wired and taped into place. It's not pretty, I know, but I'm going for functionality over style :)

Thank you again to everybody that replied offering their advice.

WhatsApp Image 2021-08-09 at 12.08.37.jpeg

You're handier than you thought then! :)

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1 hour ago, MSSFRD said:

It's an 8m telescopic fishing rod with the last pole sawed off.

 

Why did you saw it off? You might need the additional length sometimes.

We usually use a very light rod (~8 metres long) which is quite thin at the top but that's perfectly fine for PETlings in trees. If the cache is heavier we simply do not extend the first part of the rod so we have a shorter but stronger rod.

That way we can use the full length if necessary.

 

In addition we have another much longer (~12 metres) and more stabile rod but we don't want to carry it around if we do not need is as it is heavier. As we like to ride the bicycle a good bag is important for both of the rods.

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On 8/5/2021 at 7:33 PM, TeamRabbitRun said:

Anyone else? Add to this list.

 

I purchased my first telescopic fishing rod over 10-years ago to elevate my GPS receiver in the woods. It got a much better reception 10m above ground. Hooking a cache in a tree was the second function for the device. The first cache I made using this technique is still hanging there with the original bison capsule.  https://coord.info/GC2JRXQ

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On 8/5/2021 at 12:33 PM, TeamRabbitRun said:

I would think the 'business end' is what would matter. 

A telescoping pole is a telescoping pole, but on the far end, do you need:

  • A hook to lift something off a nail and put it back?
  • A basket to carry something down and put it back? (My Dad had a basket on a pole with wire 'fingers' over it to grab and pull peaches or apples off a limb and fall into the basket.)
  • A forked device?
  • A magnetized device?
  • An imaging device? (THAT would be cool - take a picture twenty feet up to read the next stage's coords!  Hmmmm; I feel a multicache growing ion my head!)
  • A nudging device?
  • An angled device?
  • A grasping device?

Anyone else? Add to this list.

 

 

 - And just to be clear, it's a good idea to read the description to see if any of these contraptions are needed in the first place.   :)

The OP did say, "There are several high caches near me that require a fishing pole to reach as the trees/poles cannot be climbed."

 - But we haven't seen one yet, so I'd guess this may be location-specific.

Many multis here have been ruined by people prying the little containers off trees, when they weren't created to be removed at all.

A few near us were archived, rather than the CO replacing multiple containers that were attached.

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20 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

 - But we haven't seen one yet, so I'd guess this may be location-specific.

At least in my location this mostly comes across as a "cheap" way to create and find high terrain value caches. Statements from GS employees that using a fishing pole doesn't constitute a high terrain cache have been mostly ignored.

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On 8/9/2021 at 11:15 AM, MSSFRD said:

Just to let you know that I've created something I'm optimistic about working. It's an 8m telescopic fishing rod with the last pole sawed off. The hook is created from a single tent peg bent into shape, so it should be sturdy enough for most PET/bison tubes, and is wired and taped into place. It's not pretty, I know, but I'm going for functionality over style :)

Thank you again to everybody that replied offering their advice.

WhatsApp Image 2021-08-09 at 12.08.37.jpeg

Good work!

 

If you want to make something more detachable you can make something like this:

IMG_20210810_180418132.thumb.jpg.cca084836cd90adc942cee58aa1084e2.jpgIMG_20210810_180514283.thumb.jpg.dce08d1a8bb15d39bc40a700835489a7.jpg

Iron wire folded into shape so that it can be slid over the top part of the fishing rod.

The part between the 2 spirals makes it possible to fix it better. (so it doesn't spin or move)

 

Some people also use Gear Tie...

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23 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

- But we haven't seen one yet, so I'd guess this may be location-specific.

Yes, it probably is a Nordic thing as large portions of the local forest look like the picture attached (note, this exact pic is just pulled from Google). The first branches are waaayy out of reach so it's impossible to even attempt to claim a cache hidden in these without a hook-and-pole or the specialised tree-climbing gear.

finnish-forest-860.jpg

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41 minutes ago, simon_cornelus said:

Good work!

 

If you want to make something more detachable you can make something like this:

IMG_20210810_180418132.thumb.jpg.cca084836cd90adc942cee58aa1084e2.jpgIMG_20210810_180514283.thumb.jpg.dce08d1a8bb15d39bc40a700835489a7.jpg

Iron wire folded into shape so that it can be slid over the top part of the fishing rod.

The part between the 2 spirals makes it possible to fix it better. (so it doesn't spin or move)

 

Some people also use Gear Tie...

Thank you for the tip. If (when!) mine falls apart I'll give this a go :)

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5 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

At least in my location this mostly comes across as a "cheap" way to create and find high terrain value caches. Statements from GS employees that using a fishing pole doesn't constitute a high terrain cache have been mostly ignored.

 

I have heard this kind of statements only from some enthusiastic climbing gear users, not from reviewers or employees (citation requested).

Cheap or not but costs should not affect terrain classification :D

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5 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

At least in my location this mostly comes across as a "cheap" way to create and find high terrain value caches. Statements from GS employees that using a fishing pole doesn't constitute a high terrain cache have been mostly ignored.

I tend to agree that using a pole shouldn't increase the T rating - but should raise the D-rating. I have a cache where you need a magnet on a string to pull a cache out of a hollow pole - basically the same as bringing a pole to access the cache - nobody would argue that the T-rating needs to be raised then?

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2 hours ago, lee737 said:

I tend to agree that using a pole shouldn't increase the T rating - but should raise the D-rating.

That's the approach I'm used to seeing. Special equipment needed to get you to the cache location reflects the terrain rating. Special equipment needed to get the cache to your location reflects the difficulty rating. And one elevated cache indicated that it could be considered T5 or D5 depending on whether you used special equipment to get yourself to the cache location (T5), or to retrieve the cache to your location on the ground (D5).

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8 hours ago, arisoft said:

 

I have heard this kind of statements only from some enthusiastic climbing gear users, not from reviewers or employees (citation requested).

Cheap or not but costs should not affect terrain classification :D

"Cheap" doesn't refer to the cost of the equipment, but to the same kind of thing as using Jigidi to create "high difficulty" caches. Or the recent surge of "it requires going in water so T5 and boat required" caches.

 

jmiettin has provided a citation on the local facebook group:

Quote
Our recommendation would be that the D rating is impacted by the "fishing". With "fishing", we would interpret the physical effort (T) needed to arrive at coordinates as low, while the effort needed to find the cache and logbook (D) is higher.
However, we would stress that HQ does not generally police D/T ratings on physical cache placements, so it's ultimately up to the CO to decide on appropriate ratings.
 
Best regards,
 
Chris
Geocaching HQ

And yes,

1)  jmiettin's personal agenda is also clear, but I guess you can ask HQ yourself if you doubt the citation he provided.

2) HQ is being silly by not saying this somewhere in public.

3) At least some of our local reviewers interpret the situation differently. But as the ratings are up to the CO, does it really matter what reviewers personally think about it.

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