Tom Nakashima wrote:
I just purchased a 5 wt. 4pc 9' fly-rod. I was looking for a cheap hard
case for backpacking. I would like to keep it light, but the rod well
protected. Suggestions? Home made cases?

For light weight, I don't think anything beats aluminum. Home-made PVC
tubes are much heavier, and I wouldn't attempt to build an aluminum rod
tube. It's not worth the effort. A google search finds lots of entries,
like:

http://www.flytyingchronicles.com/pr...=27&bestseller

I'd look for the lightest tube (i.e., smallest wall thickness) I could find.

A cool thing about a 5-piece rod for packing isn't just that it's
compact. The short tube can be very light, about half the weight of a
2-piece-rod tube. (You still need both end caps.)

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