Travel with fishing tackle is a PITA. Sometimes I leave things home or have to scale back after looking at things for a few days. International is not as bad because you typically get 2 checked bags included, except Mexico. As I'm sure most of you have seen, the airlines are not giving anything away, especially baggage fees. I don't mind paying for my rod tube but it usually only weighs #15. I end up carrying my jigs and some lures in my carry on to save checked baggage weight. Anyway, I have had this idea for a while and as I start to gear up for Sri Lanka in 4 weeks I decided to build it today.
It took about $10 in parts and maybe 10 minutes to build. I plan on taping a description in several languages as well as a photograph of fishing lures so it will be obvious upon opening to nearly anyone what they are. It will undoubtedly look like some sort of bomb in the scanner but they open rod tubes anyway, every time. Here it is:
First, the parts. All 2".
Checked how many jigs would fit so I could cut my jig section at the bottom of the tube.
Settled on 18"- Capped the end- glued male/female to both sides so I can put jigs in from just a few inched above the bottom and pack the end so they don't move
I also use this tube to make sure the TSA folks don't crush the tips of my rods after inspection. So I laid my longest rod along side the tube ad made the entire length a few inches longer than my longest rod.
I put a removable end cap on this side
My new rod is a 1 piece and is just shy of 7', so the tube is 7' total.
The 2" diameter pipe will fit nearly all size poppers. This is a custom JigSkinz/Hammerhead 180grams or so.
So whether I have to pay for the rod tube or not doesn't really matter. I will be able to fit plenty of jigs and lures in there. Might still have a few stragglers in my bag but not nearly as bad as before and no additional costs.
