Last year, I was “educated” on the advantage of a fishing bike when I visited the Cranberry River in West Virginia. On that trip, I ended up riding a used girl’s bike that I bought at a thrift store (and donated back when I was done). But, it was such a clear advantage to use a bike to move quickly away from the parking lot that I resolved to get a real bike for use in the coming season.
After working through options on Craigslist for a couple weeks, I found a used mountain bike that was the right price and snapped it up. Based on talking to some of the guys on the Cranberry River, I knew that all I had to do was mount a section of PVC type to the frame and I would be ready to go.
This ended up being very simple:
- Buy a section of 2 inch pipe and a cap (1.5 inch will work depending on the size of your rod)
- Cut to fit your bike and your rod
- Drill a couple holes to use for cable ties, rope or wire
- Attach it to the frame
And that’s it! For a fly rod, you do not need to make any other cuts. On the Cranberry, I saw guys with spin rods and they had cut a slot in the tube that allowed them to slide their rod with a reel attached into the tube an the appropriate distance. Once you have the tube on your bike, you are ready to go!
Off the top of my head, here are a few places that I intend to use my new contraption:
- The Upper Potomac on the C&O Canal (Point of Rocks, Lander, Brunswick, Monocacy… see my book)
- The Rappahannock to move from the Friends of Rappahannock parking lot up 3 miles on the trail that runs on the south side of the river
- Coles Reservoir
- Mill Creek Reservoir
- Patapsco River leveraging the nice beaten trail at the edge of the railroad tracks
- The Patapsco River at Avalon on the running trail all the way up to Daniels
- The Gunpowder River in numerous locations where the bike path follows the river
- Whitetop Laurel
- South Fork of the Holston above Buller dam
- Shenandoah as a bike shuttle for the canoe between several of the access points
Any place there is a path, this will work just fine. I have been told that there is a good bike path along the Greenbrier river in West Virginia and I would also like to check that out.
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Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore