Packing luggage for a flight

[blaze]

How the heck does every body that flies often, pack within the weight limit. (20kg)
5 rods in tubes 5kg
handful of sinkers including snapper leads- over 2 kg (leave sinkers behind and buy)
4 reels.
clothes and all that unnessary stuff
Hofefully my solution for this trip is I am allowed upto 7kg as hand luggage but you are very limited with what you can carry on board
Few more hours to ponder my delemar
cheers
blaze

[hogesTS]

depends on who you are flying with, Qantas are pretty flexible with your weight and number of pieces, as long as no one piece is over 32kgs and you have 3 or less pieces you should be fine, if worse comes to worse pack 2 smaller suitcases, one with necessary stuff (fishing gear) and one with stuff that you will not need straight away (clothes etc :P) and they should let one of your bags go on standby and will come on the next available flight and will be delivered to you. Not sure about Jetstar and Virgin, havent flown them before as Qantas is the only carrier that flys up here.

I usually pack my reels in my tackle bag (soft Ugly stik one) and use that as my carry on, along with the usual inflight stuff, camera, ipod magazines etc and, and pack my rods in a PVC tube. I put all my tackle trays in my checked baggage, as they tend to frown upon having 12/0 hooks etc on planes :P

Depending on what planes you are flying 7kgs will be too heavy for your carry on, Im pretty sure the dash-8 only allows up to 4kg or so, best to check on the websites or call the carrier before you rely on that.

So where you headed?

[blaze]

Hi Hoges
Upto the 1770 M&G
how come they let you take reels in carry on, would have thought they would be clasified as deadly weapons these days
cheers
blaze

[finga64]

I'm positive you'll be able to score some sinker up this way Blaze :)
How long is the flight to Brisbane??

[NormC]

Carry on is normally not weighed. Hss a size, rather than weight restriction. Put all your heavy small stuff in carry on.

[blaze]

Think I am about in limits now (after a couple of hours packing and unpacking), last year all the gear I have was shared between me and mate Mark, What I havnt got I will get off Tony (looked after us well last year)
cheers
blaze
Its interesting what I will get through as carry on, may have to repack at the airport.

[blaze]

Finga
flight about 3hrs but I loose an hour there somewhere on the clock because I leave tassie time (daylight saving, clocks foward 1 hour) and land brissie time.
cheers
blaze

[hogesTS]

well ive never had a problem carrying reels on the plane, last time was in june when i brought my abu up here, they just xray it and its fine.

There are actually weight restrictions for carry on luggage, even though they dont weigh it at check in, if its obvious that it will be too heavy then you will be made to check it in. I wouldnt like to overload the overhead on a dash-8, they are the kind that latch upwards.

[KelvinH]

I spent 4 weeks on Lord Howe Island and bought along a Penn GTI 330 with 30lb on a 6 foot stick, and a light spin stick.

Did a heap of fishing and caught plenty of small stuff and heaps of sharks on the heavy gear, but I would have killed for a medium spin stick.

[Tropicaltrout]

1 Rod tube three rods, esential takle, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of strides, three shirts pluggers, and enought dunders for the trips, wear your hat and shoes and nice gear on the plane, every where has a tackle shop if you forget anything ;D ;D ;D I head your way every year love Tassie, but do add a thick jacket and thermals ;D
TT

[TheSaint]

make sure you pack your rods in a pvc pipe or rod holder with some bubble wrap around them inside the tube as movement inflight does cause some damage to rods..

[Duyz72]

Definitely agree with reels as carry on and rods wrapped and then packed in tube.

Sinkers - forget about it.

And think about how many rod/reels you really need.

[Noelm]

had a rather funny experience once coming back from a fishing trip , I had caught a good fish and had it frozen and wrapped it in newspaper and put it in my "carry on" luggage, when it was xrayed at the Airport, the dude asked what the strange object was, I said "a frozen fish" he just laughed and said he 'did not want to know anymore" and let me through (mind you this was some years ago, before terrorists and stuff) and last time I went I had a tackle box and all the sharp lures and other stuff were fine, but they searched everywhere looking for a fishing knife, just in case I had one, even though I said I did not.

[hogesTS]

So they actually let you take lures with hooks attached in your carry on? I mean you cant even take a nail file onboard anymore, id dare say a big treble or double from a laser pro or rapala magnum would do more damage then that!

[Great_White]

Blaze, just buy the gear over there or hire it ;D ;D ;D

Peter ;)

[wessel]

I usually pack a reel bag with my hand luggage. All the rods and sharp bits go in the hold inside of a purpose made tube.
As I check in I request special consideration for sporting goods. It also helps to be a frequent flyer member of the airline.
The last trip the wife and myself went on we checked in 70 kg worth of personal belongings and fishing gear between the two of us. Did not pay a cent in overweight - but I was really nice with the lady at the checkin desk though.

At the security desk we were stopped and a million questions followed. That is when I asked the guy what will do more damage? My reel being thrown at the pilot or a bottle of Jack Daniels bought in duty free being cracked over his head? The guy must have liked Jack Daniels and saw reason in the argument. I did once had a security guy who just pointed at the poster where there was a line in the fine print "or any item deemed dangerous". The bag had to go in a sealed container and was escorted onto the plane by two armed guards.
On the other side it was handed back to me at customs by another two armed guards. :-?

You would have thought that airlines will have clear policies by now?

Wessel

PS: Enjoy the trip

[snipe]

My understanding was reels without line are ok, if they are spooled up it is not. Its bloody ridiculous they deem the line as a potential weapon - strangling i suppose - but they let business travellers stream on to planes with laptop power cable that cold be used exactly the same way . I had a massive argument which I lost a while back ( I'm a member of qantas club as a by the way) re reels as hand baggage - my advice is to have a back up plan ( eg a bag that can be locked and checked in on its own ) if you want to take them on as hand baggage as you may be made to check them in. Same goes for travel rods - (3 & 4 piece) that easily fit in to overhead compartment - no go.