Goture//Telescopic Tenkara Fishing Rod Kit//Ultralight Travel Fishing Rod,Portable Collapsible Bass Crappie Rod, Carbon Fiber Inshore Stream Trout Pole 10 12 15 18 21 24 Free Tip Set(Top 3 Segment)

I purchased the Goldlite 5.4 rod to fish for carp. I didn't want to spend $300 on specialty rod. On a recent trip to my favorite carp spot I hooked a sizeable carp using a top brand fluorocarbon 6 lb tippet. Even with a healthy bend in the rod for cushion the fish just kept on going and snapped the tippet. I re-rigged and it soon happened again. I decided to put this rod to a real test. I re-tied directly to the main line which was 20 lb fluorocarbon. I hooked up again. The fight was on. I fought and landed this fish after about a fifteen minute battle. This was an exceptionally strong fish. The rod handled this abuse with absolutely no damage. I was able to collapes the sections when finished with no problem, even the tip section. I do not recommend using a line this strong but this shows the toughness of these rods. I now own three sizes of the Goldlite series of rods. These rods are true Keiryu rods. The tips are very flexible and the remainder of the rod is fast action. I did some very thorough and exacting tests listed below, which will show the actual rod weight without the plug, measured length, the Common Cents System and the Rod Flex Index test results. Goldlite 6.3, weight 230 gr, 8.1 oz, length 19 ft 8 in, CCS 45, RFT 7.5 Goldlite 5.4, weight 193 gr, 6.8 oz, length 17 ft 8 in, CCS 48, RFT 8.8 Goldlite 4.5, weight 124 gr, 4.4 oz, length 14 ft 2 in, CCS 49, RFT 11.4 I have one minor complaint. While the butt caps are very nicely machined and anodized the thread fit is too loose. To keep from losing the cap I installed o-rings betweenn the cap and the butt of the rod. When you tighten the butt plug against the o-ring you will get a secure retention that will not loosen. This complaint aside I find the workmanship to be outstanding.

Yes, you read that right! I bought this pole to use as a portable antenna support for ham radio applications. I was on vacation, and decided to take my radio with me to try operating "portable" using a battery for power instead of house mains and a collapsible, portable antenna. The tip broke on first use -- I didn't even have a wire on it yet! -- but that's okay because I didn't really need the very tiny overly-too-flexible tip anyway. I was able to hook (and tape) a pair of 24-AWG solid conductor wires to the tip, and another pair about halfway up, to use as the radiating elements of a dual-band, 10-and-20-meters ground plane antenna. While my implementation could have been better, I was fighting a number of variables in my first "portable" setup. I'll do better in the future, and this pole is perfect for this application. In the collapsing stage before heading back home, another part broke further from the tip, but still part of the set of segments that come as spares. I'll try mending it first (should be easily doable) but if that doesn't work, there's still the spare set that it came with.

This is a very nice Tenkara pole for a fisherman new to the Tenkara style of fishing. I got the 21 ft model to use for large mouth bass fishing. It comes in a nice self contained tube and has an extra tip with the short string to attach your line. It is all carbon fiber and weighs only 8.7 oz. You can take this system anywhere , take the supplied top cap off, attach your line and lure and start catching fish, if there are any in the water you are fishing in. The rod is very flexible, yet it handled the 4 lb bass I caught easily. The system comes in nine lengths, so there is one for almost any need. It is fun to attach a jig to 10 ft of line and move it around in front of a fish and watch the fish hit the jig. It is a fun fight on a rod this long. On a small trout stream you can just reach across and use it like a fly rod, but you can be really precise with your lure placement. The finish is excellent. Take care when putting it away to start with the largest section first , otherwise you will be taking it apart to get all the sections back in sequence.

Unfortunately, the seller has listed all these rods in the same single listing. So I purchased the 12' Red Fox model and found it to be excellent for the price and reviewed it as such below. Then I also purchased the 18' (yes, 18') Seeker model and found it to be really bad. Unfortunately, the reviews have to be combined into one and the rods can't be reviewed separately, so I'm going to have to go with the bad review in terms of star rating. Goture should really separate these models into different listings. Review of the 18' Seeker Rod: ------------------------------------- Nowhere near as nice as the Red Fox rod, even though it costs more and is supposedly the higher end model. The rod section materials seem inferior. When the rod is fully extended most of the weight/pressure seems to be on the 3rd section from the handle and by "on" I mean it bends at that point significantly even without any line or a fish on the pole. I highly suspect the first fish I catch on this pole is going to break that 3rd section. Also the fancy gold band on top the handle is poorly fitted and the sharp edge cuts into you hand/finger when moving your hand(s) up and down the handle just using the rod (see photo). I didn't even try to fish with it. It's so bad I just immediately put it back in its sleeve and back in the shipping box. Review of the 12' Red Fox Rod: -------------------------------------- I purchased the 12' Red Fox rod, and for $16 this is not only an incredible deal, but also a surprisingly good "Tenkara" style rod. I put that in quotes because it's not really a Tenkara rod, but it's still a really nice rod and actually a pleasure to use. Although the rod casts well, it is a little off-balance and "middle heavy" resulting in earlier fatigue that with a well balanced Tenkara rod. The grip is too small and not shaped well -- it's actually "in the way" when holding the rod Tenkara style, and it would probably be better if there was no grip (although that would likely make the rod even more middle/top heavy). While using this rod for ~20-30 mins my hand started going numb, so the grip design isn't the best. However, 20-30 mins of Tenkara fishing is actually a long time, and most times you'll switch locations after about 10 mins, so most people probably won't experience this. The rod isn't quite a 7:3, but it's also definitely not a 6:4. The flex when fighting a fish was actually very good and the hookset isn't too stiff or too soft. Another negative about this rod is the lillian doesn't spin, although I didn't really encounter many (if any) tangles or wrapping because of this. I realize this is an expensive rod, but this really didn't surprise me as I have now purchased quite a few inexpensive "Tenkara" rods and they all have had spinning lillians. Another negative is that it's rather large when collapsed down. From what I noticed, even the shorter models end up this same size when collapsed, so this is definitely not a very good portable/pack rod. This would be an excellent rod for a beginner to be introduced to Tenkara style fishing. It would also be an excellent "guest" rod, especially for children. I was very surprised by how lightweight it was, as most inexpensive Tenkara style rods are rather heavy (relatively speaking). I ended up returning it because I simply didn't need it in my rod collection and doubt that I would use it much, but it's a surprisingly good rod and Goture could easily get 2-3x the price they're currently asking.

I used two of the 24 ft. Goture 720 GOLDLITE, Black rods for the “V” supports of my homebrew Portable 20M Delta Loop Antenna. I used only 11 of the rod sections making each of the rods telescope to 20’-6” long. SWR is very good on both the 20M Band and the low end of the 10M Band. I tested this antenna only on 20M. Using my 100W HF radio in my shed with a battery, I made 39 SSB contacts one afternoon (58/59 Signal Reports from CO., MO. [20W Station], IL., AL., LA., CA., Manitoba CAN., PA. Mobile, WI., TN., SC., North FL., NM., IN., MD., OH., KY., VA, El Paso, TX., FL., Ontario CAN., MN, [3W QRP Station], IA., Vermont [mobile] and NY.). While this antenna is designed to be resonant on 20M (14.2 MHz with 1.52:1 SWR), the SWR is even better on the low end of the 10M Band (1.23:1 at 28.2 MHz). I’ve only tested it on 20M so far but this should be an easily portable HF antenna for POTA excursions. It worked superbly well on 20M and actually should work even better at the low end of the 10M Band without a Tuner. The feed point Balun is my homebrew 4:1 Transformer/Choke Balun. The two FT-140-43 toroids (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0178IABXW/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) are in an 83mm x 53mm x 33mm Junction Box (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JJ2MPT8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1). They are bifilar wound as two 1:1 Choke Baluns connected together to make a 4:1 Transformer/Choke Balun – (i.e., a smaller version of the M0PZT design). The antenna wire is ~65.8’ of POLYS-22. For testing I simply used Electrical Tape to attach the wire to the outside edges of the carbon fiber fishing rods and a small Zip Tie (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01018DB2E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) at each of the two rod tips. 1st Photo is the two Goture 720 telescoping fishing rods in their cases, the boom assembly (all glued) from left to right is 1” PVC 45° Elbow-1” x 6” PVC-1” PVC Tee- 1” x 6” PVC-1” PVC 45° Elbow and my homebrew 4:1 Balun. When assembled for operation, the two 1” x 8” PVC pieces are stuck into the open ends of the 1” PVC Elbows and the 8” pipes hold the large ends of the fishing rods. I used a 1” x 5’ piece of 1” PVC as the mast putting the bottom part of the “V” at about 5’ and the top part of the “V’ at about 25’. The 2nd Photo is the antenna as it was set up for testing (a 1” x 5’ PVC pipe “mast” was duct taped to a T-Post). The extra wire seen below the tips of the fishing rods in that photo is part of my homebrew 585’ Loop Skywire antenna in the background. The 3rd photo is my Antenna Analyzer displaying the antenna’s SWR Chart for the 20M Band. The 4th photo is the Antenna Analyzer displaying the antenna’s SWR Chart for most of the Ham Bands (note that the antenna’s SWR Minimum is at 1.23:1 SWR at 28.2 MHz on the 10M Band). These are great rods for supporting Amateur Radio antennas.

I’ve purchased about 20 of these rods so far (mainly the Red Fox model) . I really live them! Pro- supper light, very quick, easy pitching in heavy wind, great rod pitching minnows for specs. Con- the fourth joint from the tip is a weak point! I’ve broke 10 of these rods in the same exact spot. This usually happens when you try and fight a 2 lbs bass. I’ve broke to many in the same exact spot for it to be anything other than a design weakness. I have not seen a warranty process. I would honestly be happy if I could just order the replacement part that keeps breaking.

I bought these rods to try out tenkara, and they are working so well, I do not feel a need to upgrade. If you are also looking to try tenkara, then pay attention to which of these models you order. I compared the weight and thicknesses listed in the description to the pricier tenkara rods that I was interest in, and chose the model closest to it. For me, it was the red fox models in 12 and 15 feet, though I also bought a 15' jinzhu model to try using for redfish while kayaking the flats in the near future. It is significantly heavier though, and not as effortless to cast as the red fox. I have been using level line (actually, just 10 and 12 lb mono so far, with 4 lb and 6 lb floro respectively for tippet, on the 12 and 15 foot red fox). I will upgrade to flouro for the main line, and may even break down and buy some high visibility actual tenkara level line at some point. So far, I have been able to see the clear mono pretty well though. I had an intermediate background in regular fly fishing, and was able to adjust to the tenkara cast, with the fly hitting the water before the line, pretty rapidly. If you are not familiar, the tenkara cast is done best if you can visualize flinging the paint off of a paintbrush at a 45 degree angle above and behind you, stopping your rod at about the 12 o'clock position, using more of your wrist than you would in normal fly casting. As the line loads the rod on the backcast, move it forward, and stop it at about 10 o'clock. As the fly is about to land, you can drop the tip a bit and follow through. A little experimenting, and you should get it. If not, turn your head and watch how the line performs and loads the rod. Some have said these rods look cheap, but I find them very attractive and well made, particularly the red fox. You just have to adjust to not having cork on the butt, but I like the look and feel of the woven material. There are cheaper brands of this type of rod on Amazon, but i believe they are all fiberglass rather than carbon fiber. I have a lot of rods and reels of all types, and I may fish with them again, probably will, but right now I am fascinated by the simplicity and performance of these rods, and have not used any of my others in the month and a half since trying these out. Highly recommended, and you don't have much to lose for the price.

It's surprising this compact package can extend to such a long length. The last several sections appear to be very thin and weak so I'd be careful about using it to handle much weight. I don't use this for fishing but rather us it for suspending wire up in the air to make antennas for my portable ham radio operations.