Make your own rod sleeves

Forget tangled rods in your rod box: Use some inexpensive expandable wire sleeves and electric shrink wrap to make your own rod sleeves.
Forget tangled rods in your rod box: Use some inexpensive expandable wire sleeves and electric shrink wrap to make your own rod sleeves.

Homemade sleeves easy, cheap

Anyone with a boat rod locker knows the frustration of digging out rods: It’s almost guaranteed line from half of the rods will be wrapped around the other half of the rods.

But there are neat sleeves that slide right over rods to keep the mass of fishing equipment tangle free.

Or, you can make your own at a fraction of the cost like Gonzales’ Austin Abadie.

Abadie said constructing these sleeves is just a no-brainer, requiring nothing more than lengths of expandable wire sleeves and electric shrink wrap.

The wire sleeves can be ordered online for less than $1 a foot.

“I think it cost me about $50 to make 25 of them,” Abadie said. “Or you can buy one for $8.99.”

Cut to your specifications

And the beauty of the expandable sleeves is that they can be ordered in different diameters to suit individual rods. Have a flipping stick with micro guides? The 1/4-inch sleeves are probably perfect. Need something a bit larger? Move up to 1/2-inch sleeves.

Once he has the tubing in hand, he simply cuts them to length, but Abadie said it’s important to cut the several inches longer than you need.

Turn the open end of your sleeves in on themselves, and then lightly burn the edge to form a smooth opening.
Turn the open end of your sleeves in on themselves, and then lightly burn the edge to form a smooth opening.

On one end, he bunches the sleeve and pushes it into an piece electrical shrink wrap that is then heated so it draws up tight.

On the other end, he folds a couple of inches of the sleeve inside the opening.

“Just burn the edge a little, and it will hold that shape,” Abadie explained.

All that’s left to do at that point is slip your rods into the sleeves — and when you need to pull them out of the rod box they’ll come right out without tangling up.

About Andy Crawford 863 Articles
Andy Crawford has spent nearly his entire career writing about and photographing Louisiana’s hunting and fishing community. While he has written for national publications, even spending four years as a senior writer for B.A.S.S., Crawford never strayed far from the pages of Louisiana Sportsman. Learn more about his work at www.AndyCrawford.Photography.