The only guidelines are that there are no guidelines. Forget what the TSA website says. If you check it out, you'll see that TSA recommends that you CARRY ON your flies, as they are fragile. I printed that out and gave it to the TSA screeners at the airport and they said, "I don't care what the website says, NO fish hooks will get by us as carry on." I didn't have any but wanted to show them the info off the website. Even their supervisor said NO WAY to flies as carry on.

I have seen rods without tubes both accepted AND rejected as carry on. I have seen rods in metal tubes accepted AND rejected as carry on. Personally, I think that metal rod tubes should not be allowed as they are no different than carrying on a baseball bat. I have seen fly reels accepted AND rejected as carry on. There simply is NO set of rules that all airlines follow.

Chances are they WILL allow your rods and reels BUT be ready to check them at the airport if they say no.

The important thing is to WATCH them as they go through your stuff. They have broken 2 pairs of Action Optics on me now due to their bumbling and incompetence. IT took 15 months to be compensated the first time so I'm not even going to bother this time around. They also dropped by bag once which contained my $2,800 Toshiba notebook computer and $2,500 in camera gear. The 20-something pierced, tattooed TSA screener simply "oops."


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Jeff - AKA Dr. Fish
If it has fins and swims than I must chase it!