I ordered 6 of these poles from WOOT on their Daily Deal to give to the grandkids. The rods arrived quickly and in good shape. I decided to play around with one and opened it. They come fully assembled and ready to use with 4 or 6 pound line and a casting plug. I tried a practice cast and to my surprise it went a country mile. Then I went to retrieve the plug. No go. For every revolution of the reel it skipped a revolution with a "grind". Upon investigation I found that it only has two gears and they are made of metal held in place by plastic. The gears in my test unit were already ground down after only one cast. I figured, "well maybe I got a bad one" so I proceeded to check the rest. Of the remaining 5 some were better, some were worse but NONE of the wound back in without grinding with any kind of a resistance on the line. Don't buy these as they are simply a poorly made toy and would never last more than one outing.
This thing folds up small and for the price is constructed very well. I was casting it in the yard to try it out when I first got it and it handled very well. I wasn't expecting much for a 20-25 dollar fishing pole and reel but am pleasantly surprised. This thing will catch fish as good if not better than any high priced set-up out there. Telescoping and folds up to be very small. Sure you might have to change the fishing line to a higher test but I didn't and am catching some nice walleye. If your a high priced fishing snob that only uses costly brand names then look elsewhere. If you like to fish and have fun, give the instant fisherman a try. It has a 10 year warranty, what do you have to lose? I recommend this to my friends!
The idea of this rod is great, but the guts of the reel needs some serious upgrading. After catching one small fish, the reel striped its gears and was done with my fishing trip that quick. If you consider purchasing this item I would highly recomend against it.