TFO rolling duffel for fishing rod tubes

After my near travel rod calamity returning home from Mexico in November, I started a semi-obsessive search for the “ultimate fishing travel bag,” one that would securely accommodate enough clothing and tackle for a week of fishing, plus a 33-inch rod tube – without being considered “oversized” by the airlines.

After a few false starts of my own, due in no small part to my failure to measure my supposed 33-inch tube, I settled on the Snowbee XS Travel Bag from a fly fishing outfitter. I couldn’t bring myself to go outside the norm with a hard-sided case, as I wanted something with broader applications. It cost a little more than the Samsonite and Amazon Basics bags I’d ordered and returned, but it does the job better, so that makes it worthwhile. I’ve yet to travel with it, though – and I will report back more after it makes a few trips.

In the meantime, I’d be remiss if I didn’t report on two other bags that I identified during I found during my search — both of which incorporated tubes or tube storage directly into their design. Unfortunately, both of them no longer seem to be made, and I couldn’t find any unused ones for purchase.

If you suspect that you may someday have to check in your travel rod tube, or for some other reason you do not want to carry it on the plane with you, it might be worth your while to search for one of these.

Fishpond Chinook

As I wrote earlier, I couldn’t bring myself to spend four hundred bucks on Fishpond’s Grand Teton bag, which looked to be just about the perfect solution to my issues. Maybe I should have, or maybe I should’ve started this search a few years earlier, when Fishpond still offered their “Chinook” bag.

It’s only 33 inches long, so it might not have solved all of my problems (particularly since one of my rod tubes is 35 inches) but it was clearly made with the traveling angler in mind. Not only did it have 11 interior zippered mesh pockets and nine exterior pockets, but the molded lower compartment was specifically designed to hold four 33-inch rod tubes. Notably, it included neoprene sleeves to keep the tubes from banging against each other violently, thereby reducing the chance of collision-based damage.

TFO Rolling Cargo Bag

I also found a massive (36-inch) rolling cargo bag from Temple Fork Outfitters (TFO), whose travel rods we’ve already identified in a past blog. As evidenced by the video from Colorado fly shop AvidMax, below, it was made to be abused – it features heavy duty wheels, multiple pockets, a huge opening on top and compression straps. It also came with a removable clear dirty clothes bag.

The most notable feature was the inclusion of three integrated, zippered pull-out rod tube holders (one large, two smaller). No question whether they’d fit – they were part of the package.

Apparently there was not a huge market demand for these products, as several years after their introduction they are no longer available for sale. I searched quite a bit and found a couple of used Chinooks on the market, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of storing my gear where someone else’s dirty skivvies had been before. Furthermore, at 33 inches, the Chinook would handle several of my rod tubes, but not the one I use for my swimbait rod.

If you have experience with either of these bags, or something equally large and equally fishing-specific, I’d love to hear from you.

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