Travelling With Fishing Tackle

As our expert Tim Simpson explains, how you prepare your tackle for transport can determine your success

Any fishing trip is an adventure, but to make it a success you need to have the right selection of tackle with you. You’re probably familiar with your fishing requirements for local trips, and either have everything aboard or can easily get something once you get home, ready for your next trip. However, discovering that you’re missing something important while on a major holiday to a new fishery can seriously affect your trip. A little planning before you leave is required. Wherever you are fishing, care is also required to prevent damage to your tackle in transit. A substantial trip — either by car or by aeroplane — poses a serious threat to both the integrity and value of your gear, so in this article I’ll outline some tips that should save you a lot of heartache.

Local Travel
When fishing locally you probably leave your rods rigged, with the reel on and the line threaded through the guides, ready to go. If so, hold the outer length of line in the middle and wrap it around the rod a few times, finishing with the loop secured over one of the middle guides. This prevents tangles.

One or two rods can be carefully loaded into a car, but any more than that and there is risk of damage. Reels banging together can chip or mark, which reduces their value even if not affecting their performance. The rod guides will also scratch the other rods, again deteriorating their appearance and perhaps wearing the blank to the extent it later breaks while hooked up.

The major risk, however, is to the fishing line. This is thin, fragile, and easily scuffed, chaffed or crimped, and most of the time you won’t even notice the damage until your line mysteriously breaks when next fighting a big fish. The cure for all of this potential damage is easy — simply cover each outfit. Some rods are sold in a cloth cover. If not, these can be bought from good tackle shops to fit rods of any length. Slip one of these over each outfit — whether rigged or unrigged — and you’ll prevent most rod and line damage.

Reels should also be protected with a covering of some kind. A cotton drawstring bag will suffice, but the neoprene reel covers sold by brands such as Shimano are a very worthwhile investment. Secured by Velcro, they are quick and easy to slip on, and provide excellent protection for your reel and line. Protected by these coverings, you can pile a whole bunch of outfits in the back of a car and safely transport them down to the boat.

For transporting rigged gamefishing outfits, the best covers are custom-made from sturdy vinyl (like car seat upholstery). The upper section is sized to fit the rod, with the base flared out to cover the reel as well. This is secured with two adjustable clip-on buckles on short webbing straps, which pull the cover in snug beneath the reel. A shoulder strap of webbing is also sewn on mid-way up the cover, which enables you to sling a bunch of outfits over your shoulders, leaving your hands free to carry coolers, bags, and other items down to the boat in one trip from the car. Brilliant!

Charter Fishing
Many fishing charter businesses supply the equipment, but I will always take my own unless I’m fishing with a known first-class operator. This applies to rods and reels, and also lures. The reason is simple: they are a business, and it is simply not viable for them to provide the finest tackle — and most of their clients would not appreciate it anyway. However, my regular tackle is top-shelf. I do want to use premium equipment on my holiday, and I want to know it is in pristine condition and rigged to the best of my ability.

Charter tackle gets used by a lot of clients, many of which are not experienced. They get tangles, they build-up the line in the centre of overhead reels until it jams, and they let fish drag the line across the gunnel of the boat – all of which weakens the line. Good operators check and replace line regularly, but how recently was it last done? Also, many will refill with economy brands of line.

Aeroplane Travel
This is where travelling with fishing gear gets tricky. Not only do you need sturdy containers to protect your gear from breakage, but your luggage will certainly be tossed and shaken, requiring special care to prevent your lures and terminal tackle being a jumbled mess by the time you reach your destination.

Size and weight are also serious considerations when flying. Some airlines will not accept lengthy rods, or packs of tackle weighing more than 23kg. Be particularly careful and check restrictions if at some stage of your journey you will be making a leg aboard a small plane — perhaps a seaplane to a mothership, or a light aircraft to a remote island. If so, any lengthy rods will need to lie in the passenger aisle between the seats. Some airlines will allow this, others won’t. And small planes often have a baggage allowance far lower than the regular airlines.

Most large airlines allow a small carry-on bag plus one piece of luggage up to 23kg, and then charge exorbitant prices for any excess baggage. Considering that you also need to pack clothes, toiletries, electronics, chargers, and wet-weather gear, that doesn’t leave you much for rods, reels, and tackle. One trick is to shop around the airlines specifically checking what weight allowances they offer. For example, if flying international on Hawaiian Airlines they allow you two 23kg items of luggage per person, and any additional baggage is reasonably priced.

When You Need It All
Some of the most exciting fishing charter options are the long-range adventures to faraway hotspots. However, for these trips the participants usually take all of their own tackle, including a selection of different rods and reels, rod bucket and harness, rigging equipment, lures, leader mono, terminal tackle, spare line, etc. A good selection of lures is weighty in itself, and if you’re intending to do some jigging then a range of metal jigs will rack up many kilos alone.

For a trip like this, one option is to arrange with other participants to amalgamate and share some items of tackle. Another option is to arrange with the charter operator and ship all tackle except your rods to them in advance, so it is waiting for you when you get there. It can be shipped via Australia Post or a courier company, packed into a sturdy plastic Nally fish box with fitted lid (as used by commercial fishermen). This then makes a handy and water-resistant storehouse for use in the cockpit. To secure your fish box, drill a hole through the rim of the overlapping lid and then add a padlock.

Rod Tubes
Rods will need to be transported in a rod tube. You can easily and inexpensively make your own from PVC drainage pipe together with matching endcaps. One end can be a fixed cap, glued permanently, while the other end should be an endcap with a screw-off lid — all are readily available at hardware stores. These are very sturdy, but are weighty and will eat up your baggage allowance or cost you dearly in excess.

A better option is a commercial rod tube, made by US brands such as Plano, which are not only far lighter, but are also telescopic. This enables them to be extended as long as necessary for your rods, then compacted for storage once you arrive at the destination.

To prevent damage and scratching from the guides of other rods inside the tube, each rod should be protected in a cloth cover. Place the rods overlapping butt-to-tip, with the butts at each end extending past the tips, thereby protecting them when the tube is dropped on its end. Then bind the bundle together with neoprene ‘rod wraps’ (available from tackle shops). To prevent the bundle slopping around inside the tube, pad with strips of bubble-wrap, or pack some of your clothing or terminal tackle around it.

If you’re travelling with mates, a good strategy is for each of you to pack one of your outfits in the luggage of your buddy. That way, if a rod tube or bag gets lost or delayed, you’ll still have at least one outfit to use. For the same reason, it’s a good idea to pack some of the essentials into your carry-on luggage, such as your camera, sunglasses, your most valuable reel, plus toiletries and a change of clothes.

Preventing Tackle Tangles
You can count on your baggage getting tumbled around during transit, so keep this in mind when packing your lures and terminal tackle. If left loose, such as in a tacklebox, your hooks, rings, crimps, and lures will be tangled up by the time your reach your destination.

Ziploc plastic bags are your friends! The inexpensive plastic sandwich and snack bags found in supermarkets certainly make life easy. Different size bags can be used for individual hook sizes, tools, pre-made leader rigs, and other items, plus they can be labelled with a marker pen. These bags can then be stored inside a larger plastic bag of similar items, or better still in a vinyl lure pouch, or the clothes packing bags available from adventure/camping stores such as Kathmandu.

When fishing tropical reef edges for species like wahoo, I like to fish with diving minnow lures, such as Halco’s ‘Laser Pro’, and if I’m fishing light tackle, I’m going to need quite a few of them. For such a trip I take them all out of their packets and using a pair of split-ring pliers I take all of the hooks off the lures. Many lure bodies can then be packed into a vinyl lure pouch, with the hooks kept separately in another bag. This saves a lot of packing space and prevents the lures getting tangled and scratched before use. I then reassemble each lure as required.

Essentials To Take
There are several items I’ve learned to always take with me on fishing trips. The list expands depending on the type of fishing and the circumstances of each trip, but the essentials include a spare pair of sunglasses, a small roll of electrical tape, a hook-sharpening file, and a jacket for wet weather.