# Anybody flown to Costa Rica with gear recently?



## Finn Maccumhail (Apr 9, 2010)

Headed to Tamarindo next week and will be doing a mixed bag of fly fishing. Walking the beach DIY for snook, offshore hoping for sails, and nearshore for roosters and dorado/etc. 

I usually carry on all my gear but haven’t tried to take fly gear internationally other than Turks & Caicos and Caymans. I checked my gear then because I’d heard they make you take line off the reels.


----------



## seapro17sv (Feb 3, 2015)

Finn Maccumhail said:


> Headed to Tamarindo next week and will be doing a mixed bag of fly fishing. Walking the beach DIY for snook, offshore hoping for sails, and nearshore for roosters and dorado/etc.
> 
> I usually carry on all my gear but haven’t tried to take fly gear internationally other than Turks & Caicos and Caymans. I checked my gear then because I’d heard they make you take line off the reels.


Don't know if this applies as it's not very recent, but about ten years ago I had all my spinning reels in a carry on and San Jose security made me trash all my braid. This was on my return trip, so not that big of a deal, but another guy on his way down had to trash all of his and was pretty pissed. I was worried about missing my flight though, you know how long it takes to pull all that line off a bunch of reels. The thing that really pissed me off was that it was just a random power play by the security guy because he pulled a roll of 1/4" nylon line out of the bag first and put it right back in the bag. I could have tied up the entire crew with that roll of line, but my braid was the real threat. Just screwing with me I assume.


----------



## seapro17sv (Feb 3, 2015)

Finn Maccumhail said:


> Headed to Tamarindo next week and will be doing a mixed bag of fly fishing. Walking the beach DIY for snook, offshore hoping for sails, and nearshore for roosters and dorado/etc.
> 
> I usually carry on all my gear but haven’t tried to take fly gear internationally other than Turks & Caicos and Caymans. I checked my gear then because I’d heard they make you take line off the reels.


Don't know if this applies as it's not very recent, but about ten years ago I had all my spinning reels in a carry on and San Jose security made me trash all my braid. This was on my return trip, so not that big of a deal, but another guy on his way down had to trash all of his and was pretty pissed. I was worried about missing my flight though, you know how long it takes to pull all that line off a bunch of reels. The thing that really pissed me off was that it was just a random power play by the security guy because he pulled a roll of 1/4" nylon line out of the bag first and put it right back in the bag. I could have tied up the entire crew with that roll of line, but my braid was the real threat. Just screwing with me I assume.


----------



## R-Dub (May 15, 2018)

I flew in Liberia this past May and didn’t have any issues with my fly gear. My rods, back up reels, fly boxes and everything else was packed into a duffle bag that was checked in and my primary $$ reels, I carried on. I had no issues whatsoever other than the TSA scanners doing a little back and forth with the X-ray conveyor since the fly reels must look fairly complex under exposure.


----------



## SkiffsDoWha (Dec 23, 2016)

I flew to San Jose on COPA Airlines two months ago from Tampa. Did the Tampa-Panama City-San Jose flight. Carried on 4 fly rods and had zero problems. I pull the rods from the tubes and put them on the side of a Fishpond backpack with my reels and flies. I also checked flies just to be safe. The travel was no problem.


----------



## FlyBy (Jul 12, 2013)

A buddy borrowed my 12 wt. for a Costa Rica trip and had to strip all the backing from the reel. 900 yds.


----------



## kenb (Aug 21, 2015)

I had a horrible experience at the San Jose airport. While passing through security, I was taken aside, and since ALL my fly gear (except the 14 and 12 wt rods) . This was more than $1500 worth of gear.
Bottom line=I was not allowed to board with all those flies.
Will check luggage next time.


----------



## Finn Maccumhail (Apr 9, 2010)

Thanks, I’ll figure it out. I’ll be loaded for bear- 2 8’s with floating & a sink tip, 2 10’s with a floating & an intermediate, a 12 with an intermediate, and a 15 with the billfish intermediate. 

Definitely checking the flies since I’ve got some huge offshore flies. Tools like pliers, nippers, and knife get checked too.


----------



## Tom Ilg (Jun 13, 2018)

I've flown into Liberia and flown back out of Managua, Nicaragua. I security advised I could not board with the fly line, but the the flies were no issue, along with the rods and reels. Next time I just to be safe I'll check the reels, line and flies and just carry-on my rods. 

I think the fly line and the flies fall into a gray area and are up for interpretation by the security official you're dealing with, TSA included.


----------

