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February 15, 2012

Air travel with fishing rods is a gut-wrenching experience. If you’re anything like me, you’ll do everything within your powers to avoid it – it’s that bad – but sometimes it’s absolutely unavoidable, so you take whatever precautions you can to avoid or at least minimize the hurt. Over twenty-plus years of flying with a rod tube, I’ve learned a few tricks of the trade: First, I tape the rod tube securely with excessive amounts of duct tape to make sure that it will not retract on the rods. Then I take an old bed sheet and wrap each rod once with it, in an alternating tip-to-butt pattern. Then finally I secure the whole deal with a TSA-approved lock.

Those measures came about because out of the first fifteen or so times I flew with rods, I had a nail-biter and a disaster. The near-miss occurred when I arrived in Florida and found the opening to the tube left unlatched and flapping. Fortunately, nothing was damaged. The next time I wasn’t so lucky. The baggage gorillas may not be able to compromise a Samsonite, but they can beat the piss out of a rod tube. The opening remained latched, but much to my dismay the rod case had been split in half. Not sure if their tool of choice was a hacksaw, a machete or a bellyflopping herd of lemmings, but all of my one piece rods became two piecers. The airline made it clear they’d cover the damage, but if I’d been someplace where I couldn’t buy more rods it would’ve been a major league goat grab.

Even though I’ve developed a system, there remain two potential heart attacks every time I get off the plane. Ideally they bring the tube out through the oversized baggage door, but you can’t count on that so I wait at the baggage carousel to see if the tube comes off on the belt. When this happens, even if the tube is otherwise in good condition, it’s a disaster waiting to happen because a 7-foot tube doesn’t do well with the twists and turns of the belt. Most often, if you’re not there to catch it it’ll fall right off an edge. And that assumes that they bring it off altogether – it always seems to be the last piece of luggage removed and I envision some airline employee having a grand old time with my flipping stick until the tube actually arrives. Assuming you avert that crisis safely, you’re not out of the woods yet – you still have to open the tube and make sure that all of the rattling, throwing and banging that took place between home and Anylake USA hasn’t severed your rods.

And don’t even get me started on the dudes in line at the ticket counter who invariably ask “Haven’t you heard of two-piece rods?” They’re about one step up the evolutionary ladder from the jackwagons who ask “You bringing a bazooka with you?” Pre-9/11, it wasn’t funny. Now it’s just one more potential coronary that I don’t need to deal with.

When we went to Brazil in November, the redheaded wife and I elected to borrow rods, but when we go back this fall we’re going to bring our own. That’s why I was intrigued when my friend Dennis Shew brought an SKB rod tube to the Amazon last year. He’d borrowed it from some friends who use them on tuna trips. I’d never heard of the brand before but looking at their website (www.skbcases.com) it appears that they know what they’re doing – they offer an unconditional “million mile warranty” and will cover up to $1,500 for damaged contents. Dennis said you can run over it with your truck and it won’t break. I’m not going to go that far, but anything I can do to protect my sticks is worth it. A hundred bucks seems a small price to pay for a little extra peace of mind and I mentioned that to the wife, who took note of my materialistic needs and presented me with the tube for Valentine’s Day.