Beer Me...And Bring The Fishing Rod Too!

Back in October, I was introduced to an interesting product via my Cairn subscription. (If you're not familiar, Cairn is a "box of the month" club, where you get random outdoors products and foodstuffs...like THESE...which are so tasty it isn't even funny).

The Mountainsmith Cooler Tube Sling arrived at my front door and I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. It's essentially a tube with an insulated, padded liner designed to hold a 6 pack of beer (or soda) vertically. It also has an adjustable shoulder strap so you can wear your beverages; I suppose it's a way to show off your drink cooling prowess in style without dropping $250 on one of those tiny YETIs.

As I was saying, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but last night I came to the epiphany that it makes a pretty slick rod sling, especially when you consider rod slings (with slightly more pockets) retail for at least double of the $25 MSRP of this tube, and don't come with the added benefit of keeping, at least, one can of something cold.

Surprisingly, this tube sling will actually hold up six 12' rods comfortably, plus a beverage at one of the ends. 

Not sure if I'm going to use this on the water, but as a way to transport a handful of rods (think airplane carry-on to the Tenkara Summit), perhaps this will strike your fancy. Heck, even if you're not looking for a fancy Mountainsmith "Hemp" fabric version, there are evidently many other tube coolers on the market, just make sure they accommodate six 12 ounce cans.

(For what it's worth, a smaller 4 piece standard fly rod will also fit in the rod tube, but not with the canned beverage, so in my opinion, what's the point?)

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DISCLAIMER:
Although this isn't really a review, I wanted to note that none of the manufacturers or retailers mentioned in the post above paid or supplied me free product for inclusion. It's simply a by-product of writing a blog post far too late on a Saturday night when all common sense & coherency is lost. That said, should any of them see this post and have the sudden desire to shower me with swag, they can certainly feel free to contact me HERE.