PRP Pocket Rod Pod - When UKMA was asked to take a look over the PRP Pocket Rod Pod, we were only too glad to do so. Although not a new item on the market, we had heard of the product but not actually seen any in the “flesh”. What did we make of it and how did it perform on the bank? Read on to find out our thoughts.

For those that do not know what the Pocket Rod Pod is about, it is two pieces of stainless steel, which have been machined and assembled to be used with 5 half inch diameter banksticks. This means that if the angler is faced with a swim that makes it impossible to push banksticks into the ground, he can then use the Pocket Rod Pod to get around this situation. The Pocket Rod Pod also weighs significantly less than carrying around a separate dedicated stainless pod, as well as your banksticks, and literally does fit into most large pockets found on clothing, as well as 99% of pockets found on today’s luggage. The combined weight of the two pieces of the Pocket Rod Pod is a lightweight 260 grams.

The two sections of the Pocket Rod Pod are designed to go a set way round, although you could reverse them should you wish to. The front part of the pod – the part with the three male threads – has a 70mm upright section, that has been finished with a knurled secondary thread to enable the collar to be tightened up to the buzzer bar for accurate lining up positioning. The rear section has a longer upright section of 130mm in length and is also finished with the knurled locking collar. Where the front and rear sections differ is that the front part has a male 3/8” BSF thread fitted at the centre of the main boss, and the rear section has a ½” hole bored into it which has a knurled screw fitted that holds a bankstick as the centre bar of the assembled pod.

Bankside Testing.

On the bank, the member of the UKMA team that put the Pocket Rod Pod through its paces had with him, 4 20mm diameter stainless banksticks, and a single extendable ½” diameter stick for the centre bar. The reason for the larger diameter banksticks with regards to the test was to see if larger sticks could be used for the legs as the gap between the leg threads on the centre boss’s looked as if they would be too close together. We are pleased to say that the Pocket Rod Pod accepted the larger diameter sticks as legs with ease.

The stability of the pod with the legs was superb and even with heavy sideways pressure, the Pocket Rod Pod did not show any signs of instability or rocking. The standard ½” stainless bankstick used for the centre bar was of the type that has a milled flat along the inner extension to alleviate twisting of the stick when extended. The male thread on the front section allowed the bankstick to be screwed tight to the centre boss, and the bankstick slipped easily into the hole on the rear boss perfectly. When the locking screw was tightened to the centre bar, there was a little bit of forward & backward movement of the fully constructed pod at the finger tightened screw. This could easily be eliminated with use of a pair of pliers to tighten the screw up fully or a slot milled into the top of the screw to allow a coin to be inserted to give additional leverage. We was a little wary of the use of the Pocket Rod Pod with 3 rod buzzer bars and large big pit reels, as the rear upright section did not look long enough to give clearance of the centre bar, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was some clearance between the bar and the bail arm rotor of the reel.

UKMA Conclusions.

The PRP Pocket Rod Pod does exactly what it is intended and designed to do, and does it well. We did find room for improvement, as well as a couple of little downfalls that could create problems to anglers on the bank. We thought that the locking screw used to secure the centre bar to the rear section boss could do with a milled coin slot to enable better tightening to the bankstick, but this is a minor niggle. We also found that when the alignment collar was tightened to the buzzer bar at light finger tension, we had the slight issue of finding it very difficult to unscrew the buzzer bar from the upright, and on the rear upright of the PRP we reviewed, we managed to unscrew the upright from the centre boss rather than the buzzer bar from the upright. To remove the buzzer bar from the upright we had to resort to using a pair of pliers on the locking collar to break the seal made between the two pieces of stainless. This could be easily alleviated by using a leather washer, but is something that we felt was important.

Overall, we liked the Pocket Rod Pod a lot and would recommend it to anyone that does not like using a pod unless it is truly required, as once assembled it is almost as good as a full stainless pod setup. A great bit of innovation from a British company.