wrote:
The raingear vendor across the aisle from our booth at the Boat Show
showed up with a handful of really weird looking fishing rods today.

They are basically short sections of stainless steel, most with a built
in spring, attached to a
traditional rod handle with reel. The rods are about 15-24" in length.

I'm not the world's most avid fisherman, (far from it), but these
little gizmos are pretty neat.

Using only an empty swivel for weight, I cast a line about 20-25 feet
from a spin-casting reel.
With a small rubber casting plug, the short little "spring" pole cast
about as far as one might expect a six-foot rod to do.

During the "slow" period of the afternoon, the raingear vendor hooked a
dollar bill onto the line
and repeatedly tossed it out onto the middle of the carpet. He'd wait
until somebody bent down to pick it up, and then reel the dollar back
in. Right out of that old movie "Used Cars."
It was so corny that even the "victims" laughed.

What do the fishermen in the group think of these?

Izaak Walton must be spinning in his grave. (Would that make him a
flasher, or a dodger?)

http://www.emmrod.com/INDEX.cfm?page=home.cfm

Looks like the 2005 rendition of the Popeil Pocket Fisherman:
http://www.ronco.com/rco_prodinfo.as...&active=d esc