There are days when I leave my car in the morning and don’t see it again until I’m ready to call it quits. Those are good, long days of fly fishing. Just as frequently, I’ll fish a little bit here and then head over there to fish that hole. Maybe I’ll leave the river to grab a burger, just to head back while I’m eating in the car. Or I’ll fish on this freestone in the morning, just to hop over to the spring creek half an hour away once the day warms up.

On these days – my typical days – my rod doesn’t get broken down and un-rigged. The tip gets shoved to the windshield and the reel sits on some random gear in the cargo area.  It works, but it isn’t ideal. A rooftop rod rack would be huge… but I don’t think I fish multiple rods enough on a regular basis to justify the expense and the addition to the vehicle.

A lot of people are in the similar situation. This includes the designer of  On The Fly, an inexpensive and effective solution for transporting your rigged fly rod.

Production for On The Fly is being  funded through Kickstarter. Like many niche outdoor and fly fishing products before it, On The Fly is attempting to solve on specific but common need among potential users. It is a compact and very handy device that fulfills the goal of securely holding a rigged up rod and reel.

I’ve had the opportunity to test out  the On The Fly rod holder for a few weeks prior to the Kickstarter going live. It works. It works really well, in fact.  Here are a few of my observations:

• The magnets are incredibly strong. I pulled out my pocket knife to unseal the box it came in, and the magnets held my knife through the thick cardboard.
• And the magnets are safe for your car. My car is filthy. However, as I moved and slid the holder around on the hood it clung tight without scratching my finish. The magnets are rubber coated.
• It holds rods fast. Both pieces do their job well. The bungees hold the reelseat and reel firmly in the plastic cup. The foam is dense and grips rod, line, and leader tightly.
• It stays put. The designer recommends not exceeding 30 miles per hour. That is probably wise, and doable under the circumstances I mentioned above. That being said, I zipped around a parking lot and field and both pieces stayed put.
• It’s multi-purpose. Even if you’re not going to drive from spot to spot with your rod on your hood, it functions as a great pair of hands while you’re doing whatever. If you still want to put your rod in your car while you drive, you can pull On The Fly out when you get where you’re going to hold your rod while you get your waders on.

For around $20 (MSRP isn’t available, but Kickstarter backers get one for $19) I’m confident that all  types of anglers will get their money’s worth. The Kickstarter, along with a demo video, can be viewed here. The funding project is live, and will run until October 21, 2020.

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Want more info before you support the project? Have questions about On The Fly and my experience using it? Feel free to reach out and I’d be happy to share what I’ve seen and done.