Flying with fishing gear

For those of you that travel with fishing gear, how do you pack your rods/reels and tackle that is needed? I may be flying commercially this year to fish up in Northern WI. I won’t need to bring much, but would like to bring some of my own gear.

Hey Jake,
I pack my rods in a rod case and tape it where it can
be opened and lengthened.

I keep my reels with me in my carry on.

I put my tackle in a Plano type, tackle box, and place that
inside my checked bag. You can bring some weights but
the are cheap. If you need a few more when you get to
you are headed you can always buy a few.

You won’t have any problem getting through security.

Good Luck and Safe Travels,

tweed

this used to be a no brainer.. but now is more complicated.. I would call the airline, and ask if you can use your rods, as one piece of luggage.. also, depending upon where you fly, I have had ticket handlers, ‘charge for over size” .. but only in Birmingham.. where the money was not going in to the money drawer, but in to the counter persons pocket for “safe keeping”.. my best suggestion.. CALL THE AIRLINE.. explain what you want to do.. get a FIXED PRICE , if extra.. or a NO EXTRA COST listed on your itinerary.. usually a rod tube is one piece of luggage..

Here is some random things I encountered over the last few years for going Milwaukee to various places.

Gulp and some other plastics will xray with similar properties to C4. Keep in original packages and carry on. Display when your checking in! I had 4 TSA pin me against a counter until they realized it was fishing stuff.

Electronics (Marcum, Vex,…) Carry on – Most will have no clue as to what it is. Pull it out of your bag and open up. They may do a few questions and let you go on your way.

I found an inconsistency when it came to hooks. When in doubt, check-in. A very simple thing to do is ask at check-in if something is allowed in carry on. If they are not sure, they’ll advise you to put it in your check in luggage. You’ll eventually have quite the collection of TSA inspection notices!

Separate your rods/reels. Reels in carry on, Rods in a Rod Tube checked in. Some airlines have an “up-charge” for over size luggage based on length – Check the airlines webpages for luggage size/weight before buying tickets.

Use common sense and be obvious. I use a gun case for my ice rods…STUPID MISTAKE. Obviously I had firearms and they needed to be inspected!!!!!!! I should have put them in a tube and it would have been no big deal.

If you have a receiving party here in WI, look ahead to shipping some items Vs. additional luggage. When my b.i.l. flies from Denver to here, its cheaper for him to ship his musky bags to my house the week prior.

I give myself an additional 15-20 minutes earlier when I check in. 99% of the time, when I’m early it’s smooth and easy through security. Seems more like if I’m in the middle of the pack during a busy time, I run into more scrutiny

The last time I flew into Florida, I shipped my rods and tackle by UPS a few days before I left and had them shipped back. Cost a bit less than getting extra baggage and oversized baggage onto a plane and saved me the hassle of check in and check out. Still brought the reels and some extra tackle with me.

Sinkers, are cheap and can be bought locally. Soft plastics can be shoved in between spaces in checked in luggage, so be creative. Throw jigs into plastic bags and do the same. I bought some cheap Plano boxes there and donated them to the guy I was staying with. Cheap and easy.

Calling the airline is useless. The airlines don’t run security, the TSA does.

And the problem with that is wild inconsistencies in individual TSA employee’s knowledge of their own rules. So the airline telling you what the rules are is meaningless when you get a TSA screener that thinks he knows differently or just doesn’t know.

The easiest and fastest path is to check everything. I travel with multi piece rods, and whenever possible I use a rod tube that fits inside of my duffel bag, so it’s not out there getting thrown on the bottom of a baggage cart and getting crushed.

The risk of lost luggage is actually exceptionally remote. Between Mrs. Grouse and myself, we have logged hundreds of thousands of miles for business and personal travel and we’ve never had a single bag go missing for more than a day. My bags have been crushed, dragged, run over, mangled, and I believe some kind of mammal may have attempted to mate with one (I don’t really want to know). But never lost.

If you do try to carry things on, have a small second duffel bag rolled up within your main luggage. Then when the TSA says you can’t take something on that you thought you could, you can quickly repack it in a separate bag to be checked.

You can’t out-think a government employee. No matter how logical you think your interpretation of the rules are, they will find a way to hose it up and once one TSA employee say it’s not allowed, it’s very difficult to get anyone to over-rule them.

Grouse

My family has travelled with spinning rods, reels, and a small tackle box 3 round trips, from Minneapolis to Florida, St. John, and Grand Cayman. Never had any trouble, we always carry everything on, never checking any bags.

We use super-cheapie telescoping Shakespeare spinning rods which collapse down to around 16-18″ long. We separate the reels from the rods, they also carry on. A small tackle box (single clear Plano, about 6″ long) with a few hooks, sinkers, snap swivels, and jig heads/spinners is also carried on. We do not bring needle-nose pliers, we buy a cheap pliers at a hardware store after arriving. A small spool of mono line (for leaders) was along on at least one trip.

We have never had any TSA issues or even questions. I would abandon any tackle (hooks, etc) if challenged, since they are dirt cheap.