Gear Review: Trout Mount Rod Carrier

I’ve never been a big fan of rooftop fly rod carriers. Even though I’m a hopeless fly fishing addict, I’ve never felt the need to keep a handful of rods rigged at any given moment. I’m also not a fan of advertising to potential thieves that I’ve got expensive gear in my truck.

But on those days when you drive between fishing spots, or you’re on a multi-day trip and not breaking rods down every night at camp, some sort of rod carrier makes a ton of sense. The rooftop options are spendy, though, especially if you don’t already have racks installed on your rig.

That’s where the Trout Mount rod storage system comes into play.

Trout Mount

Check Price at Trout Mount

Rating Details

Specifications

Pros & Cons

This is a storage system designed to work inside your car, SUV, or truck. Instead of mounting on the roof, Trout Mount uses a suction cup system that adheres to glass (or any non-porous surface). With a rear rack that holds your reel and a front rack designed to keep the tips of your rods from tangling and breaking, you can easily hang your rods up inside your vehicle.

The setup is incredibly easy; the parts are high-quality and durable, and the entire assembly is made in the USA. The only potential downside here is that it may not fit every vehicle, depending on whether you have a solid, non-porous surface in the rear of your rig for mounting the rear rack. At $369, the Trout Mount is also about half the price of a River Quiver or similar product.

I used Trout Mount in my Tacoma, which has a SmartCap on the bed. I used it to stick the rods through the covered bed and into the cab.

How it Works

Trout Mount uses three suction cups to hold all the other parts in place. These suction cups are vacuum-powered and easily adjustable. I was impressed by how immediately they adhered and how powerful they were.

I will note here: I had an issue with my suction cups initially. I cleaned off the inside of my SmartCap (which is made from stainless steel), but neglected to use alcohol pads when doing so. After a few days, the suction cups both fell off (without rods in them, thank goodness). Once I cleaned the inside of my truck bed cap with alcohol pads, the suction cups stayed in place without a problem.

Two suction cups are attached to a rack with six clips hanging off them, which are designed for holding your rod and reel securely. There are also notches and cutouts for rods that are long enough that you need to break them in two for transport.

This is the rear rack; once assembled and in place, it keeps your rods up and secure.

The next part of the Trout Mount is the front rack, where all the tips of your fly rods go. In most cars and SUVs, this is hung from the windshield. However, in my setup, doing that would mean hanging the rear rack so far into the bed of my truck that retrieving and storing my rods for transport wouldn’t be all that comfortable.

So, I stuck my front rack right by the rear sliding window in my SmartCap. This keeps the rod tips aligned and untangled, and the rods only stick a bit out of my cab (my truck has a 6-foot bed).

The setup is extremely simple, and Trout Mount has a great tutorial video to help you through it. This is one of the best products I’ve assembled in recent years, because the instructions are so well-done. I can’t tip my hat enough to the folks at Trout Mount for doing a good job here.

How Functional Is It?

I’m a big fan, and I’ve only had my Trout Mount for about a month. But as someone who likes to bounce between spots during a day of fishing, it’s been a fantastic change from sticking my rods reel-first into my truck cab, then navigating them into the truck bed. You can see how well this setup would work in an SUV, too.

I’ve been extremely pleased with how nice it is to carry around fully-rigged rods. It’s been especially great on some recent float trips, where we’ve carried streamer sticks with different sink-tip lines all rigged up before hitting the water. It’s nice to be able to move them from the truck to the boat without the hurry of setup in the morning.

Final Verdict

If you’re looking for a simple, easy solution to transporting your rods, and you don’t want to invest in a rooftop rod carrier, Trout Mount is the ideal option. And before you balk at the price (because $369 isn’t chump change), let me assure you, I was a bit skeptical, too. But after getting the Trout Mount and installing it, I feel that price is more than fair. The parts are all high-quality, well-built, and you can tell this is a product that has a lot of thought behind it. Plus, with it being entirely made in the USA, the price feels more than fair.

Before I got my current truck, I had a nice rod rack setup on my old pickup. I enjoyed it, but sold it with the truck and didn’t really miss it. When it’s time to get rid of my current Tacoma, I’m not going to let the Trout Mount go in the sale. That’s sticking with me for the foreseeable future.