January 25, 2021
By Fly Fisherman Staff
This story was originally titled “Protect Your Investment: Custom carriers to make travel easier.” It appeared in the 2020 Gear Guide issue of Fly Fisherman.
You likely spend thousands of dollars on your fly-fishing passion. The best rods are about $1,000 each, and reels and lines to match them are another $500 (at least). If you’ve got one setup for dry flies, and another for streamers and nymphs, that’s $3,000 just on rods and reels. If you set off on an international trip, you could easily take four rod-and-reel combinations to deal with multiple situations. When you have all your eggs in one basket, it’s important to protect your investment, and the reasons are not entirely financial. Whether you are fishing your local stream an hour from home, or you are traveling around the world, you want your gear to be in perfect fishing shape when you arrive. A rod company can replace a broken rod but will never replace a lost day of fishing. Here are a couple of brand new rod and reel carriers with some fresh ideas about safely stowing and traveling with your tackle.
Sea Run Luxury Fly Fishing Travel Case Fly Fisherman's 2021 Best New Rod Carrier Sea Run cases are designed and developed in the USA, but made in Italy by Negrini Case Co—a company that is globally famous for its TSA-compliant luxury shotgun, rifle, and handgun cases. If these cases can protect a Greener Sidelock with Alan Brown Viking artwork, along with an extra pair of Damascus barrels, then why not your Scott Centric fly rods and Abel reels with custom Casey Underwood artwork?
The cases are made of tough, impact-resistant acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) with an outer double-wall shell and an inner double-wall shell that are sonically welded together for maximum shock absorption. That’s four total layers of ABS between your rods and the luggage conveyor belt. The upholstery and finishing work inside are all done by hand in Italy, using woven nylon canvas and marine-grade closed-cell foam, with either a standard ($500) or leather interior ($570) finish.
The deep interior bottom compartments hold up to about six large reels, or four reels with plenty of leftover space for lines, sunglasses, fly boxes, or other items. A divider wall separates the top from the bottom, and the upper compartment has room for about four rods with a maximum section length of 31 inches—just enough to hold 10-foot, 4-piece rods.
You can also buy a fitted, heavy-duty canvas cover with a shoulder carry strap to go over your case to keep the outside scuff free and looking new. $500-$570 | searuncases.com
Trxstle CFC System V2.0 The CFC System V2.0 is a secure, keyed locking storage system that allows you to keep two fully rigged rods on top of your vehicle, ready to fish for the next day, after work, or while you move from one spot to another. The locking clamp system also allows you to quickly and easily remove the aluminum case, and telescope it down into a 44-inch “carry mode.” Fully extended, the CFC System can hold rigged rods up to 10 feet. In carry mode it weighs 15 pounds, can handle two 4-piece rods, and it comes with a comfortable carry strap (see opposite page) so you can carry the rods on a plane, or easily store the system when you don’t have immediate fishing plans. Even the clamps have a secure storage spot inside the carrier.
When you’re ready to fish, the CRC System V2.0 quickly clamps back onto your vehicle, and it’s designed to fit on all major manufacturer cross bars, from round to square to aerodynamic, with no additional tools.
Inside the carrier, the padded ABS plastic reel housing is designed to seat your rods with the reels upward, so the weight of the rod is not resting on the line guides. It holds reels up to 4.25 inches in diameter. The internal rod liner suspension system is made from two high-density polyethylene tubes that are individually tapered/swaged and sanded by hand at each joint to ensure a no-snag insertion and removal. The maximum entry diameter is 1.6 inches, so it accommodates most rods, but some saltwater rods with oversize stripping guides might not fit. $395 | trxstle.com
