Nash Pocket Pod

1 review for Nash Pocket Pod

1. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Ian Wood – September 8, 2020

   Aug 2020.
   I’ve owned and used the Nash pocket pod now for two years. I’ve been a carp and specialist angler for 28 years I’ve had a multitude of rod pods in that time and own various bigger pods (Fox Quattro, Fox horizon) so I like to think I’m able to offer a valid and objective review based on experience.
   I bought the pocket pod because of its lightness and small pack down size. I wanted the lightest and most compact pod I could get. The venue I was fishing had a VERY long walk indeed, fishing was on Wooden stages and several flights of steps on a dam wall ruled out the use of a barrow. All equipment I needed for a 48hr session had to be carried on my back in one trip so everything was stripped back to the absolute lightest it could possibly be.

   Positives – simple and uncomplicated, extremely light (1.4kg) and compact pod, Very stable design. Good quality carry case. Smart black looks.
   Negatives – limited adjustment. The 4 short pod legs supplied only extend by 3 inches which don’t give much scope to elevate the rear of the pod if you wish to get your rod tips low to or beneath the water. A bit overpriced for the general build quality.

   I am an angler who prefers to fish with rod tips low or beneath the water. As the two goalpost bars are the same height, once you add the height of your bite alarms to the front bar – your rod tips are in a skyward angle and there is no way around this with the product as it is supplied. The only scope for countering this is to extend the rear legs which are only very short – even at full extension this doesn’t drop the front of the pod sufficiently to make much difference. In order to use this pod how I wanted I decided to substitute the two rear pod legs for two 12 inch long fox euro bank sticks which allowed extra height for raising the back of the pod.
   Adding the longer legs helped but I felt further adjustment was needed. I was lucky/unlucky enough (depending on which way you look at it) that the particular pod I bought had one of the uprights improperly pinned (Each upright has a small pin driven through the black plastic moulded end piece into the aluminium tube to secure them and prevent twisting). I have been able to take apart the front goal post and cut down the front uprights by 3 inches on each side which lowers the height of the front bar and compensates for the additional height gained by adding bite alarms to the pod. This modification coupled with the addition of the 12 inch fox bank sticks as rear legs vastly improved the pod for my desired way of fishing and I am now much happier with my ‘modified’ pocket pod.
   When you actually consider how the pod is constructed vs it’s price tag (aluminium and blow moulded plastic) – it wouldn’t take much from Nash to give the user a bit more scope for adjustment and make the necessary tweaks to improve on what is already a good basic design and concept. The saving grace is that the Leg connections are all standard 3/8 BSF screw threads. When you look past the snazzy Nash box and the good quality carry case you are not really getting much ‘hardware’ for your money.
   Nash say the pod is designed for compact rods such as scope/dwarf etc. As a 3 rod pod, the width of the buzz bar suits smaller reels (Mini pits) or those models that have one touch folding handles. It is quite possible to fish longer/12ft rods on it but 3 full size big pits with fixed
   extended handles are going to be a awkward to fit in side by side.
   All in all, now I have tweaked it – I really like it. Hopefully someone at Nash will read this honest review and improve on what is a essentially a very good design and arguably one of the lightest rod pods available.