Air Travel With Rods, Reels, & Flies

As promised, here is a report of my recent experience Flying with my Tackle as "Carry On" items.

Flew from Hartford, CT to Boise and return on Continental Airlines ... carried on board with absolutely no hassles, no questions. All in the past 3 weeks. :D

5 fly rods (all 9ft 4 piece) in an Abel rod carrier
5 Reels, with spare spools ... all with lines mounted
and, surpising to me ... I carrie :P d on (way too many) 10-12 boxes of Flies, including 2 dozen large size 4 Wooly Buggers.
Never had one word from the TSA folks or the airline folks.
I had the Reels and Flies all in a small rollaboard and some in my small backpack.
Also, I forgot that I had a small Swiss Army knife in my carry on along with my fishing stuff, probably a 2" blade (maybe 1 & 1/2") and no problems with that either.

Same good experience coming home from Boise a few days ago.
And oh yeah .. the fishing out West was fantastic even though it was 95-100 degrees.

Will be round-tripping CA to CT in Oct. Good to hear you had no problems. Hope mine will be likewise. Thanks for the travel report.

Many of you have mentioned that you are carrying on rods in tubes. Have any of you had problems carrying on the homemade PVC types? I only have the PVCs and a bit concerned that they may look dangerous compared to the commercially made.

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Originally Posted by Wednesday Caster

Many of you have mentioned that you are carrying on rods in tubes. Have any of you had problems carrying on the homemade PVC types? I only have the PVCs and a bit concerned that they may look dangerous compared to the commercially made.

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It?s possible that a home made tube would draw more attention in a security control than one commercially made, but with todays x-ray equipment, dogs and what not, they would soon probably find out that your plan is to go fishing.

I will soon fly to Eugene,OR, from Sweden via London and San Francisco. Due to recent events in England, security has been tougher on flights from UK to the US. All I can bring onboard is a transparent plastic bag with my passport and wallet. I?ve decided to put my reels and flyboxes in a reelbag and that one in a larger suitcase together with waders,boots, wading jacket, fleece jacket and a wading staff. Extra underwear and t-shirts have to be bought there, there is just not enough space for it.
I had a hard time finding a rod tube shorter than the allowed 158 centimeters. I solved (I hope) the problem by leaving my 5 wt. home and stove two rods in an aluminium tube intended for one. The alu. tube fits well into a regular PVC tube dressed in cordura fabric. It also has a handle so it looks at least a little classy.

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Originally Posted by Perry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wednesday Caster

Many of you have mentioned that you are carrying on rods in tubes. Have any of you had problems carrying on the homemade PVC types? I only have the PVCs and a bit concerned that they may look dangerous compared to the commercially made.

---

It?s possible that a home made tube would draw more attention in a security control than one commercially made, but with todays x-ray equipment, dogs and what not, they would soon probably find out that your plan is to go fishing.

I will soon fly to Eugene,OR, from Sweden via London and San Francisco. Due to recent events in England, security has been tougher on flights from UK to the US. All I can bring onboard is a transparent plastic bag with my passport and wallet. I?ve decided to put my reels and flyboxes in a reelbag and that one in a larger suitcase together with waders,boots, wading jacket, fleece jacket and a wading staff. Extra underwear and t-shirts have to be bought there, there is just not enough space for it.
I had a hard time finding a rod tube shorter than the allowed 158 centimeters. I solved (I hope) the problem by leaving my 5 wt. home and stove two rods in an aluminium tube intended for one. The alu. tube fits well into a regular PVC tube dressed in cordura fabric. It also has a handle so it looks at least a little classy.

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You might want to leave the aluminum tube home and just go with the plastic one. The aluminum tube can be used as a weapon similar to a baseball bat!

The husband carried on an aluminum rod tube of about cudgel length on a day when we couldn't even carry on lip balm. Ditto for the return trip last week.

At security I did have to remove my sleeveless jacket and shoes and take my laptop out of it's bag. We checked all of the tying and fishing gear, including the other multi-rod case.

I really missed the lip balm. But I guess you can carry that on now as long as it's not gel or semi-liquid like a lip gloss with a brush.

This was all for a domestic flight.

Thanks for your comments but has anyone actually taken one of the homemade PVC rod tubes as a carry-on? My trip is coming up soon so I need to decide to check-in, or carry on (note: traveling with wife and kids 8/4 year olds.)

Yes, I just returned from a trip on Thursday and had no problems with the homemade PVC tubes flying there or back.

You might want to leave the aluminum tube home and just go with the plastic one. The aluminum tube can be used as a weapon similar to a baseball bat![/quote]

You are right, plus it?s to big to carry on. My tube will go with my other luggage.