Fishing rods, towels, trowels, shovels, crowbars, and lockpicks are non-functional as of these latest experimentals.
Unsure who deleted what to cause this but instead of returning a used item to the inventory (such as towels turning into wet towels) the game erroneously deletes either. Same with some of the tools you use on the map objects.
Grab a copy of the latest experimental - we fixed this (hopefully 100%) a day or two ago.
Can confirm. Expandable batons are broken BTW, or at least the game displays an error message though they work as they normally do:
Debug: Tried to consume charges for non-tool, non-food item
Might be spurred by an issue similar to what caused the other items to break.
I just tested the things you have mentioned and they have been fixed as of build 4382.