Fishing Rod Socks
Fishing rod socks are simply expanding plastic sleeves which can quickly slip on your rod for protection. In reality they’re pretty much just nylon expandable braided cable sleeves like you see on the back-end of servers or on some motorcycle or automotive wiring. Expands to easily insert items and then squeezes down tight when pulled. Being nylon it’s pretty much impervious to fish grime and easy to wash and dry when the stank hits. To answer your question, yes, you absolutely could make your own by purchasing 1-2″ PET sleeves online (such as this) but you’ll also need to sew, melt, and/or shrink wrap each section, not to mention buying the various accessories. You’ll end up sinking $25-30 for a $7-10 piece. If you’re making quite a few of these it could be worth it. Wasn’t for me.
I’ve tried foam tubes and pool noodles and they do work in a pinch but they’re a handful and are rather bulky. Rod holders are nice but generally expensive and somewhat large. PVC can work too but by the time you get a length long enough for the guide the rest of the rod is flopping around which obviously isn’t good.
There are basically two ways to use these: Reel on, reel off. For longer travels I actually take the reel off to be stored safely and then pull the sock all the way over the handle, securing the top and bottom with a strip of Velcro. Any excess length is just folded over. Most of the pictures show the socks with reels on (one coming with a case for the attached reel) and in those instances you just pull the attached lanyard over the reel and cinch it down.
Key to note: Casting rods have smaller guides than spinning rods so you need two different sizes, although the larger spinning sock can easily fit over the casting rod in a pinch, if loosely. The reverse is not true, although you can at least protect the top portion of the rod which would be better than nothing.
This shows the baitcaster size, reel on, non-collapsible pole. You’ll note that I’ve added a strap of velcro on the pole to hold it in place as this style doesn’t have any lanyards to attach to the reel. I don’t like that it doesn’t protect the reel or entire pole but it protects the more sensitive bits just fine.
This shows a collapsible spinning rod, reel removed with the excess length folded over and secured to the pole with some factory velcro and then an added velcro strip at the base to keep the cover from slipping.
Option 1: Two different ends (pointed or flat) and multiple different sizes/lengths. Has option for a loop for hanging storage.
Option 2: Generic “spinning/casting” options but also comes with a reel bag which adds a layer of protection when leaving the reel on the rod.
Option 3: Generic “spinning/casting” options but an affordable choice.
Option 4: I can’t find these on Amazon but I have purchased these from Walmart and while I won’t get a commission if you buy these as of this posting they do bear a mention. They’re dirt cheap and available in single units, some have pointed ends and reel holders, others have hook-and-loop holders and a clip to shorten the length of the item. No choice in colors that I can see and mine didn’t come with lines to connect to the reel, hence the velcro.
