Travelling with fishing gear

Hello,

Anyone flown recently with fishing gear? Was wondering if I could get away with (spooled) reel and lures in hand luggage. From a quick google search I am guessing no but Qantas website doesnt mention anything in its dangerous goods section.  Although I imagine the airport security screening might have something to say. Not quite sure how a small fishing hook consititutes a dangerous weapon (nobody move! I am armed with a 2/0 treble!) and as for line, no more a weapon than a power cable or a belt.

Any recent experience from anyone?

 

Edit: Just called Qantas general enquiries. They said no problem taking spooled reels and small fishing hooks on a domestic flight as they are not considered dangerous!!! Oh well. I think I will just pack the bag, let them know at check in whats in it and prepare to check it in if required.


Posts: 2925

Date Joined: 27/12/06

no hooks

Tue, 2014-12-30 11:19

no hooks is a definate, I recall once they didnt let my reels spooled with line on hand luggage either so best be putting them in your checked baggage, apparently line is a weapon too

robert1979's picture

Posts: 224

Date Joined: 13/05/12

Looking at the TravelSecure

Tue, 2014-12-30 11:26

Looking at the TravelSecure website, it seems hooks might fall into the 'security screening officers discretion' list. Along with knittting needles, nailfiles etc. So they are saying it depends how the officer is feeling on the day. How stupid. 

Note also umbrellas and walking sticks come in to the catagory (but not fishing rods), would be a struggle giving someone a hiding with a lightweight 2 peice graphite rod.

Posts: 729

Date Joined: 22/08/12

I took fishing gear from Sydney to Fiji flying Qantas

Tue, 2014-12-30 11:30

The rods were in a large PVC pipe with sealed ends and the reels in luggage (not hand luggage) Just before I left the house to go to airport to check-in I thought i'd just grab a 55g Halco twisty and i chucked it in my shirt pocket cause all the bags were packed and sealed with zip ties. When I checked in I put my wallet, change, halco twisty in the little plastic tub they give you before you go through the x-ray machine.  Well, the twisty caused quite a scene. The guy there asked me What it was? (question kind of threw me cause I thought I must be talking to a moron) I told him - then he calls over his supervisor they start asking me why Im carrying it blah blah blah and by then my Mrs had started carrying on at me for bringing it to the airport so I had three people at once carrying on and started to get shitted off. They confiscated it and then I got even more shitted off but I didnt say anything cause I was clearly in a no-win situation and didnt want to escalate things in an airport. It seems to me if you bring anything out of the ordinary in your hand luggage "warning bells" go off and you lose it even if in reality its not a deadly weapon -unless your a tailor (ha ha ) so from then on all fishing gear goes in the luggage maybe you should do the same to avoid crap at check-in   

robert1979's picture

Posts: 224

Date Joined: 13/05/12

Yeh looking like I will just

Tue, 2014-12-30 11:35

Yeh looking like I will just check the lot in and avoid the potential arguements. Would be nice if the airlines and airport security would give a clear and consistent message on this one way or the other!

Posts: 865

Date Joined: 30/12/09

 Mate I carry my smaller

Tue, 2014-12-30 11:57

 Mate I carry my smaller reels on hand luggage a the time. Sometimes they ask you to pull them out off your bags and put them in the trays provided. So generally just pu them out when I pull out my laptop. I travel qantas 99% of the time

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 Get busy living, or get busy dying!

Posts: 908

Date Joined: 06/05/12

Surprised they worry about

Tue, 2014-12-30 15:29

Surprised they worry about reels, but make sure of your rod length, they nearly forced me to leave a bag of rods at a Melbourne Airport. I sweet talked them into letting them on. I think their max length was 6 feet, mine was 7 feet

scano's picture

Posts: 1246

Date Joined: 31/05/07

Reels in hand luggage no drama

Tue, 2014-12-30 16:00

 All they seem to regularly do is check there is no hooks attached to any line on the reels. All of my reels have braid and spool bands anyway so pretty easy to keep them happy with that one.

 

In reference to the lures as carry on I think you are dreaming there. You could have soft plastics as part of your carry on but definitely no jig heads / hooks.

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dkonig82's picture

Posts: 2091

Date Joined: 06/07/10

Braid seems to fall into the

Tue, 2014-12-30 18:40

Braid seems to fall into the 'sometimes ok, sometimes not ok' category from what I have seen.

So personally I dont risk it. Particularly if you are travelling somewhere remote, and won't be able to get new line there. I have heard stories of people having to stand at security and strip all the line off their reel before getting let through. Not worth the risk for me. For spinning reels I put the bodies in carry on and the spools in checked. For overheads, whole thing in checked.

Hooks I have never tried. I figure if they won't let you through with a nail file, a 7/0 Gamakatsu GT Recorder is likely to get them riled up too :-)

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When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:

n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or

n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you.