I've written before about the various travel fishing gear I might take on any trip to L.A. When I'm there, if at all possible, I like to do some surf fishing in Malibu or pier fishing at Santa Monica or Malibu. Malibu is closer to where I stay and much less traffic hassle to get to, but at night the Santa Monica Pier isn't bad to get to from where I stay.
I'm making a vow to travel light, since on my recent trip to the Pacific Northwest I once again did not travel light. I took plenty of fishing gear, since I was going to be checking a bag with a suit, shoes, dress shirts in it. As always, even the little big of lugging a big bag is a huge hassle, not to mention having to check a bag. And nowadays, paying plenty to check a bag each way.
Usually I'm a carry on and small backpack kind of guy when I go to L.A. From now on, I'll just be taking one travel rod and two reels. A small selection of tackle and whatever else I need I can buy out there and mail back to myself.
With all the rules against flying with knives and other sharp objects, I started taking the USPS priority mail boxes, the small ones, with postage pre-attached. They fold flat until you need them and don't take up any more room than a magazine. When I'm getting ready to leave town, I just load up knives and weights and liquidy baits (i.e. Berkley GULP!) and any thing else that will cause me to be delayed at TSA with my carry on.
When I get to L.A., and I'm headed west to Malibu to do some fishing, I'll usually stop at the K-Mart on Third in town or a nearby dollar store. I can pick up a cheap, sturdy knife for a dollar or two, and some fingernail clippers and some Berkley Gulp! baits. Since GULP! baits are semi-liquidy in the package, I've heard from flying fishing friends that the TSA won't let GULP! on in carry on luggage, so I have not even tried to travel with it.
So when I get there to L.A., I buy whatever GULP! the folks on the California Pier Fishing and Surf Fishing forums have to say about what the fish are hitting. If the fish seem to be hitting live or cut bait, I'll stop somewhere near the fishing and get the bait and my temporary license, otherwise I'll get it at a K-Mart or like store on the way there.
About half the time, the TSA folks wanna look at my fishing bag, so usually I have it in my backpack for easy access. Weights and certain objects with lead like jigs just attract their attention. So usually I buy a few weights when I get to LA and just mail them back.
The one price priority mail boxes can also mail stuff I don't have room for, like t-shirts or clothing or books or anything else I might buy out in LA. And since it's one price for what fits in the box, postage is easy to figure out. I leave it at the hotel when I check out and they take care of getting it off to me.
So I'm planning on buying a carry on sized Pelican 1510 roller case and use it as my carry on. This will limit, of course, stuffing an expandable carry on to the limit but it should be much easier to deal with. I'll have my backpack for any stuffing I need to do.
So here's my checklist for the reduced load travel fishing gear to California for surf and pier fishing. If it seems like I'm missing anything, let me know. I'm strictly catch and release out there, unless there are folks nearby who are fishing to eat and want my catch.
You'd be surprised at the number of folks, particularly elderly, not so much fishing for fun as fishing for food to supplement meager incomes. I've seen it in California time and time again. As I once posted, I was the belle of the ball on a late 90's ocean bound fishing trip with a bunch of retirees happy to keep my catch. All were living on low fixed incomes and the fish they caught was the protein they ate.
CHECKLIST
-ROD-a four or five piece rod in case; casting at this time
-REEL AND BACKUP-a Shimano Curado and a back up reel like an Garcia AbuMatic 290 or Daiwa Silvercast 210 RL
-PAIR OF SMALL COMPOSITE NEEDLE NOSE PLIERS OR METAL HEMASTATS-I bought a pair of these in the early 1990's at Cut Rate Sporting Goods in Houston as a point of sale item. Went back a few months later and they didn't have anymore, and although I've searched all over the internet, I've yet to find another pair or something even similar. I don't think hemastats are prohibited either.
-PLASTIC DE-HOOKER TOOL
-NIPPERS-the ones that cut braided line
-SMALL SHOULDER CREEL-(LIKE THE ONE SHOWN IN PHOTO ABOVE) one of the inexpensive shoulder creels sold by department stores and on ebay. It's thin and flat but ideal for carrying some light tackle at the beach and it has a shoulder strap. I've been seeing them around since the 1970's, but have not seen them in Texas for about 15 years. I have seen them in other states at stores and on ebay, they are about 14" wide by 8/10" tall and are expandable. They have a few pockets on the front of them. I plan to cut off the built in strap and sew some heavier duty strap rings onto the existing non-removeable strap ends so that I could use a better shoulder strap, like one of the foam springy kind.
-2 SMALL PLANO CASES CONTAINING =
-HOOK ASSORTMENT
-WEIGHT ASSORTMENT
-SPOONS
-JIGS
-2 TOPWATER AND 2 MID RUNNING PLUGS
-SNAP SWIVELS
-A FEW DOUBLE AND SINGLE DROP LEADERS
-A FEW STEEL LEADERS
-A VERY SMALL KEYCHAIN SIZED TAPE MEASURE
-1 PAIR UNPOWDERED RUBBER GLOVES FOR BAIT HANDLING
-SOME TOWELETTES IN INDIVIDUAL SMALL PACKAGES
WHAT AM I FORGETTING?
I'm making a vow to travel light, since on my recent trip to the Pacific Northwest I once again did not travel light. I took plenty of fishing gear, since I was going to be checking a bag with a suit, shoes, dress shirts in it. As always, even the little big of lugging a big bag is a huge hassle, not to mention having to check a bag. And nowadays, paying plenty to check a bag each way.
Usually I'm a carry on and small backpack kind of guy when I go to L.A. From now on, I'll just be taking one travel rod and two reels. A small selection of tackle and whatever else I need I can buy out there and mail back to myself.
With all the rules against flying with knives and other sharp objects, I started taking the USPS priority mail boxes, the small ones, with postage pre-attached. They fold flat until you need them and don't take up any more room than a magazine. When I'm getting ready to leave town, I just load up knives and weights and liquidy baits (i.e. Berkley GULP!) and any thing else that will cause me to be delayed at TSA with my carry on.
When I get to L.A., and I'm headed west to Malibu to do some fishing, I'll usually stop at the K-Mart on Third in town or a nearby dollar store. I can pick up a cheap, sturdy knife for a dollar or two, and some fingernail clippers and some Berkley Gulp! baits. Since GULP! baits are semi-liquidy in the package, I've heard from flying fishing friends that the TSA won't let GULP! on in carry on luggage, so I have not even tried to travel with it.
So when I get there to L.A., I buy whatever GULP! the folks on the California Pier Fishing and Surf Fishing forums have to say about what the fish are hitting. If the fish seem to be hitting live or cut bait, I'll stop somewhere near the fishing and get the bait and my temporary license, otherwise I'll get it at a K-Mart or like store on the way there.
About half the time, the TSA folks wanna look at my fishing bag, so usually I have it in my backpack for easy access. Weights and certain objects with lead like jigs just attract their attention. So usually I buy a few weights when I get to LA and just mail them back.
The one price priority mail boxes can also mail stuff I don't have room for, like t-shirts or clothing or books or anything else I might buy out in LA. And since it's one price for what fits in the box, postage is easy to figure out. I leave it at the hotel when I check out and they take care of getting it off to me.
So I'm planning on buying a carry on sized Pelican 1510 roller case and use it as my carry on. This will limit, of course, stuffing an expandable carry on to the limit but it should be much easier to deal with. I'll have my backpack for any stuffing I need to do.
So here's my checklist for the reduced load travel fishing gear to California for surf and pier fishing. If it seems like I'm missing anything, let me know. I'm strictly catch and release out there, unless there are folks nearby who are fishing to eat and want my catch.
You'd be surprised at the number of folks, particularly elderly, not so much fishing for fun as fishing for food to supplement meager incomes. I've seen it in California time and time again. As I once posted, I was the belle of the ball on a late 90's ocean bound fishing trip with a bunch of retirees happy to keep my catch. All were living on low fixed incomes and the fish they caught was the protein they ate.
CHECKLIST
-ROD-a four or five piece rod in case; casting at this time
-REEL AND BACKUP-a Shimano Curado and a back up reel like an Garcia AbuMatic 290 or Daiwa Silvercast 210 RL
-PAIR OF SMALL COMPOSITE NEEDLE NOSE PLIERS OR METAL HEMASTATS-I bought a pair of these in the early 1990's at Cut Rate Sporting Goods in Houston as a point of sale item. Went back a few months later and they didn't have anymore, and although I've searched all over the internet, I've yet to find another pair or something even similar. I don't think hemastats are prohibited either.
-PLASTIC DE-HOOKER TOOL
-NIPPERS-the ones that cut braided line
-SMALL SHOULDER CREEL-(LIKE THE ONE SHOWN IN PHOTO ABOVE) one of the inexpensive shoulder creels sold by department stores and on ebay. It's thin and flat but ideal for carrying some light tackle at the beach and it has a shoulder strap. I've been seeing them around since the 1970's, but have not seen them in Texas for about 15 years. I have seen them in other states at stores and on ebay, they are about 14" wide by 8/10" tall and are expandable. They have a few pockets on the front of them. I plan to cut off the built in strap and sew some heavier duty strap rings onto the existing non-removeable strap ends so that I could use a better shoulder strap, like one of the foam springy kind.
-2 SMALL PLANO CASES CONTAINING =
-HOOK ASSORTMENT
-WEIGHT ASSORTMENT
-SPOONS
-JIGS
-2 TOPWATER AND 2 MID RUNNING PLUGS
-SNAP SWIVELS
-A FEW DOUBLE AND SINGLE DROP LEADERS
-A FEW STEEL LEADERS
-A VERY SMALL KEYCHAIN SIZED TAPE MEASURE
-1 PAIR UNPOWDERED RUBBER GLOVES FOR BAIT HANDLING
-SOME TOWELETTES IN INDIVIDUAL SMALL PACKAGES
WHAT AM I FORGETTING?
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