Hey everyone, in November I'm being sent out of town for work. I figured I'd take my fishing rod/s to do some fishing since I will have much alone time.

Mid month I'll be headed to Irvine and I think I have that one pretty much covered. Probably Balboa Pier/Newport Beach.

End of month I'll head to Seattle, WA. I'm thinking that's a pretty sure thing since there is a lot going on in respect to fishing.

Then in early December I'm heading to Westminster, CO. From what I see, that's all freshwater and mostly trout/panfish. Ultralight travel pack would probably be in order.

I was looking for a heavier action 6-8' travel rod that wasn't TOO pricey, but all that I came across so far have been 6' cheapies.

Any suggestions on travel rods and locations to fish and what to use for bait?

Most likely smaller fish is what I'll be targeting.

Thanks and tight lines!!!
FNF

When i travel for work, i bring one of my regular rods in those plastic rod tubes and check it in... Of course the reel goes in the carry on bag.

do they charge you $25? what airline?

We normally fly on virgin.

I flew in southwest once and did not get charged for my tube.. Not even oversized. Even if u get charged, you can expense the charge.. Your finance dept isnt gonna know that your extra bag was a rod tube l

Also... Bring some small grubs (motor oil red flake), jigheads, few kastmasters, size 4 mosquito hooks, tackle for carolina rig, 1 oz sinkers,.. That should be good.

If you end up at a california beach, dig up some sand crabs and throw them on a carolina rig for some good clean fun... Otherwise use the MORF grubs. U will be fishing for perch.. Cast into the surf and retrieve slowly... i saw videos of a seattle fisherman doing the same thing.. Never fished the surf up there myself so i cant confirm firsthand.

Small kastmasters work anywhere.. Vary the depth at which u fish them and fan cast, and keep moving

Virgin is the sh!t! They have pimp planes and great service.

Never really thought about the extra expense being covered, but I guess you're right...was thinking more of portability. The new St. Croix I got is fairly long and each piece is about 5' long.

I was looking at St. Croix's Triumph travel rod and I may go for that. It's about $100 and i can defintely put it to use around here too. Only thing is that it's not USA made, but I'm sure their quality is still superior than other stuff out there.

I can use my wavespin that I just ordered, so I'm covered there.

Thanks for the bait info. I'll have that packed soon!

travel is finally booked!

will be heading out to irvine next week on the 29th-1st. had to book southwest (corp policy).

have all the tackle i need and will be using the new st. croix with the wavespin as well as a 7' ugly inshore with a shimano 4k.

hopefully the weather will hold up!

take lots of pics!

Ended up making my own rod carrying case to travel with. Needed something that would fit my new 10' 6" St. Croix and a second smaller rod and or anyone of them alone. Was thinking of buying something, but decided to make my own.

Used the same pvc piping that my St. Croix was shipped to me in. Went out to my local fabric store and bought a couple yards of felt carpeting (kind you'd use to cover a home-made speaker box), commercial strength spray adhesive and some high density foam and put it all together.

On one end I took the cover and stuffed some of that foam in it. Then adhered the cover to the pvc pipe. Sprayed the entire pipe and covered it with the carpet, but left the top 2" uncovered so that when I cover the pipe for travel, it has enough space to fully secure itself.

I also went on eBay and found a velcro baseball bat case strap that fit super nicely on the carrying case I made for like $6! So easy to carry now!!

Tested the rods and secured them with some more of the foam. No movement at all and I'm thinking I'll be good to go.

Couple pics...

thought i may not be able to have time to fish today...errr, yesterday since i got outta work a bit late and met up with my sis for dinner. but, if you try hard...it'll happen!

so, i ended up only going to balboa park from 11p to 12.30a (they supposedly close at 12a, but the gates were still open.

only fished with my trusty 6.5' vintage expandable trimarc.

at first i started close to shore and threw a chrome 1/6 kroc close to shore, but had no luck. then moved a little deeper. still no hits.

after talking to a couple leaving i went out to the end of the pier and fished with a sabiki. in 15 minutes i caught about 15 fish total. all macks and all threw back.

talked to a few ppl at the end of the end of the pier and no one was keeping the macks. one was fishing for anything but macks. said he was using fresh cut mack for bait and fishing for rock fish so tomorrow, that's what i'll do. take two rods one for sabiki/bait and then another for rock fish.

we'll see how that goes.

here are a couple pics. nothing special, but showing my catch for the night.

nice! keep the reports coming!

nothing great to report from last night. caught about 5 macks to use for bait and then used a second rod to bottom fish. got a few hits, but nothing stuck.

two guys next to me were raking in the macks though. probably took a good 40 fish while i was there. i left the pier at about 10p.

LOTS of bait fish at surface that you could see with the help of moonlight and some really good pier lights.

helped a couple of younger guys fishing next to me as well. they were bottom fishing and weren't having any luck so i hooked them up with some proper tackle and they started catching macks. one even caught a small halibut. they had only fished about 5 times and had never caught a single fish, so i'm glad that with the little bit of knowledge i could pass onto them, they were able to catch some fish.

they were so happy!!! very cool.

probably no fishing today since my flight is at 9p, so it looks like back to the bay and then off to seattle in mid december. i hear it's damn cold over there, so i may not bring any gear unless anyone knows there's something to catch around this time.

tight lines!

-FNF

well, seattle trip is booked. flying out on the 21st of december and staying until the night of the 23rd.

anyone have any local knowledge? weather report says it will likely be raining/snowing, but today it was sunny.

i dont care if it's cold, i'll still fish, just dont want to be in the rain or strong winds for too long since i'm supposed to be working.

i've read online that there's a lot of salmon fishing this time of the year, but mostly on charter boats. i'm looking for a local sport to spend a couple hours or so.

any insight would be appreciated.

thanks!

seattle is pretty cold.

good thing (i hear) that it's clearer than average.

talked with fish n game and a local tackle shop and they both basically said that squidding is really the only thing hitting right now in the saltwater.

i don't really care to catch squid, but i'll be heading out to one of the local piers in a few minutes.

we'll see what happens.