Best Telescopic Fishing Rod: Top Picks in 4 Fishing Styles

What’s the best telescopic fishing rod you can buy?

The right answer for you will vary according to your style of fishing and (importantly) your budget. Also, it’s vital to say rod preference is extremely personal. With that in mind, I aim to provide the right insights here to help you make informed, intelligent choices for your own fishing.

Below are my picks for the following categories (with clickable contents links to take you to each):

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Best Telescopic Fishing Rod:  Lure Fishing Super Budget Category

Sougayilang (“Floating” Line Guides Model)

There are multiple telescopic rod models offered by this brand – and BEWARE, their different product lines vary hugely in specification and performance. Some (including this one) have the great innovation of floating guides which are able to slide to just the right position and then snug down firmly BETWEEN the conventional, fixed guides fitted at each section-joint. This has been a game-changer for telescopic rod design – and was first developed and used by premium brands.

With this technology, the ideal number of guides can be added to the rod to hold the line off the rod-blank properly – without having tons of additional, weirdly-sized rod sections.

Since not all Sougayilang models have this feature – it is important to have the correct link to the right product line. In fact, many of their other rod models have simple, metal-reinforced section-joints each with a line-guide attached – which would tend to create poorer performance.

This range of spinning and casting rods have good quality, durable carbon blanks with a remarkable number of features at the incredible price point - and are ideal for general bass fishing and also medium-power pike lure-fishing applications.

A choice of Gold, Blue or Red cosmetics are offered and rod lengths (when fishing) of either 5'9" (1.75m) or 6'9" (2.06-m) are available.

Best Telescopic Fishing Rod: Lure Fishing Budget Category

Kastking Blackhawk II

NOTE – UK buyers could save money by using the US link and paying the extra shipping costs (but delivery might take longer). 

Another remarkably affordable rod which comes with some impressive specifications. As well as the inclusion of multiple floating guides, the 24-ton Toray carbon blanks have a four-layer construction with graphite fibres in the carbon cloth weaves running at 135-degrees, 45-degrees, 90-degrees and 180-degrees (i.e straight along the axis of the rod). 

Those criss-cross weaves create strength in response to vertical compression, distortion, longitudinal stiffness and crack-resistance.That is not where the material science for the blank ends - and why this is a great contender for the title of best telescopic fishing rod in this price bracket...

Through further trials and development, the most recent Blackhawk II rods come with solid glass-fibre tips. This does not make the rod appreciably heavier than with a carbon tip section. At the same time it does provide a durable/non-brittle tip with lots of flex (contributing to a fast-action blank with good sensitivity).

The full lineup has classic black and silver cosmetics and includes an impressive total of 14 different options across both Spinning and Baitcasting configurations:

Best Power-Finesse Baitcasting Category 

Daiwa BBB 636TMLRB

This telescopic rod came to my attention through users of the BFS (Bait Finesse Style) Facebook group run by IGFA representative Alan Ang – and subsequently by a couple of great YouTubers, BCSG  and also Earl who runs the YT channel  It Must Be the Bait . 

It is clearly the result of Daiwa taking telescopic baitcasting rods and pushing the concept to create a seriously good rod. They are using extremely high quality blanks to create a genuine fishing rod (rather than a collapsible gimmick). The floating guides are secured using rubberised rings which grip without damaging the blank. 

Importantly, there do not seem to be the same kind of reports of rod breakages that are heard about the Jackson Bastard telescopic casting rods. It should be noted those reports seem to be confined to the casting (rather than the spinning) models of that particular Jackson rod (which, overall, is a great, super-premium brand).

The ease with which the Daiwa “Triple B” 636TMLRB throws small baits such as the 6-g Whopper Plopper 60 is clear from It Must Be the Bait’s fishing Vlog adventures (and Earl has a whole forest of these rods rigged and ready to go at all times!). However, there is enough backbone to throw heavier baits up to  21-g as the specs for this model show:

This probably puts it into the controversial “Power Finesse” category – as it is just a little too beefy to be throwing 1, 2 and 3-g baits.

 Best Telescopic Fishing Rod: Bait Finesse System Category

Abu Garcia Troutin Marquis Nano Telescopic model #TMNC-485UL II TE

This is a full-on ultralight, finesse trout rod and is available in both spinning and baitcasting/BFS versions. Owners of the Troutin Marquis Nano (telescopic) on the BFS (Bait Finesse Style) Fishing FB group all say they LOVE this rod. 

Probably the only other potential baitcasting/BFS telescopic fishing rod to cast lures for trout in these weights could be the 2021 special Edition Varivas telescopic rods – which seemed to have been made in a very small, exclusive batch. So, although they were/are beautiful, it seems impossible to get them just now.

The next most similar rods would include the Beams Xpan43LTS – which also looks great – rated down to 3-g lures. The Beams is a bit stiffer and more powerful (which might suit your fishing very well of course); whereas the Troutin Marquis is an all out finesse trout BFS rod.

The Specs for the Troutin Marquis model I’ve picked out are as follows:

Super Budget Fly Rod Pick for Best Telescopic Fishing Rod

When it comes to judging the best telescopic fishing rod in the fly fishing category, I decided to allow two picks. I think you’ll see why the “wildcard” option was played here!

Amazon 2.4-m Model (Direct from China)

First up, for the slightly more conventional choice – it seemed important to understand the likely required “user case” for a telescopic fly rod. Here, back-packing or just the ability to have a rod stowed in the car ready to take advantage of any quick fly fishing opportunity are perfect scenarios.

With the typical impression of telescopic fly rods being heavy, slow noodles made with lots of fibreglass – I felt that a fast action, graphite blank was a must for this pick. To give the best chance of preserving a crisp action – and also opting for the best all-round (river/small stillwater) AFTM rating I came up with my ideal trade off:

Fortunately, the “2.4” model (7ft 11”) #5 in the mega-super affordable Chinese-made rod I found hit that spot well – and is the model I’d suggest you go for out of the various options offered. At that price, it is also an ideal "beater" rod to have stowed away for any of those "just in case" fishing sessions.

Best Telescopic Fly Rod: Radical Design Wild Card

Reyr Gear "First Cast" Combo

This one kind of deserves a category all of its own because the design is so radical. Reyr have done away with potentially fragile guides on the outside of the blank (probably important for the intended use scenarios). Instead the line is threaded up the interior of the rod blank itself!

Because of this unique system, the reel, line and leader are all supplied as integral parts of this kit – so you have everything you need and are confident that it will all work together (below). The design is completely focused on a robust, stowable graphite rod being ready to fish in seconds

To be fair, this combo is genuinely completely out on its own – in concept, feeling and operation.

In use, it’s nothing like tenkara (the only similarity is having telescopic, guide-free sections) – but it will no doubt invite comparisons. Perhaps, the closest design could be the internal elastic and “side-puller” setup on European carp/match fishing poles. where you pull the internally-threaded elastic by hand from an opening in the side of the blank in order to draw fish to the net. However, with pole fishing, the lack of reel and fly-casting are obviously big differences.

So let’s just accept it’s in a fly fishing category all of its own.

In terms of specifications, the rods come in a couple of options for Line Ratings:

 The compact aluminium (CNC machined) reel can be adapted for either right-hand or left-hand wind.The rod is definitely not a “noodle” – in fact it has a relatively stiff blank which still flexes well in it's fast-action profile with the matched fly line. It’s extremely rapid to set up (around 30-seconds) – since there are no guides to thread - and you can stow it with leader and fly attached, ready to fish. 

If you’re worried about what happens if the line becomes un-threaded from the rod - don’t be. It’s a simple fix as shown on the Reyr Website explainer video:

Put bluntly, you’ll already know by now if you love or hate this concept. With that in mind, you should be confident in what your gut tells you on whether to buy one (or not).

Best Telescopic Carp Rod

Shakespeare “Cypry” Carp Rod

This company has such a long track record of creating products that are just right for the target audience at affordable prices. This offering is no exception – being a strong, through-action/forgiving carp rod that would actually do good duty in a variety of freshwater and salt-water applications. 

The price tag makes it an extremely affordable as well as portable option.
Because it is designed for use with fixed spool (“spinning”) reels that sit below the blank, it’s possible to get away with fewer line guides. As such, floating guides, don’t feature here.

Another point worth mentioning is the “Test Curve” rating which appears on most carp rods. This is a measure of the rod’s power (stiffness) and is simply given as the weight required to bend the rod far enough to put the tip perpendicular to the handle (roughly a quarter circle).

With that in mind, the following specifications should make more sense across the three models offered by Shakespeare:

These combinations of power and length are not standard features of, say, bass lure-fishing rods – but may well have ideal uses in your fishing across a variety of bait fishing and/or lure-fishing in both freshwater and salt. 

Best Telescopic Fishing Rod Final Thoughts

Rod technology in general - and telescopic fishing rod technology in particular - have come a very long way over the last three decades. With that said, it is a mistake to underestimate the value of the memories that a few stolen hours of fishing can provide.

The photos below are from a family holiday to Spain in the summer of 1990 and are a reminder of when my dad, my brother and I sneaked away from the campsite to drive up into the foothills of the mountains near Bascara.

Without the pair of stowable, telescopic rods bought on the drive through France on our way to the Costa Brava region of Catalonia I wouldn't be able to look back at my 16-year old self and remember that unexpected adventure. Three of the Gaskell "boys" out following a blue line on a map in the hope of catching fish...Finding the chance to stalk wild carp in clear water.

My hope is that by helping you find the very best telescopic fishing rod for you, your budget and styles of fishing you might always be ready to make brilliant fishing memories. Knowing that you have a ready-rigged telescopic rod stowed along with you creates a wonderful sense of the possibilities round the corner...

Paul