fishon99

Ok towards the end of June some friends and I are heading to Florida and Bimini for some fishing. I was wondering if I were to buy bait down in FLA right before the flight home could I just pack it in a softsided cooler and fly home with it, or do the airlines have regulations against it. Heck I will even pack it in my suit case if i need to. I just figured it might be cheaper adn better quality than you can get in CT for Canyon runs.

gman

it depends. if there are no hooks in them (pre-rigged) you should be able to put them in either a roll on with ice or a check in with dry ice. however there are good bait companies tha will send you pre rigged ballyhoo that are used nation wide. i think its baitmasters, i fished in texas and they had all thier bait sent in from them it was good quality with wire. they do squid, ballyhoo, mullet etc

fishon99

Thanks for that Gman. I have heard about baitmaster or similiar companies I was just trying to save a couple of dollars and thought maybe the quality would be a little better. It is good to know that it is a possibility to fly with bait.

zyg

It's pretty much up to the airline and they seem to have different policies. I agree with gman that unrigged bait will raise less questions. But they all seem to prefer the frozen gel packs over dry-ice to keep stuff cool. They also stress leak-proof bags. I had no problem flying back with swordfish steaks inside zip-lock bags on gel packs packed in a soft-sided cooler. You can search some of the airline websites for their specific policy. Here's Delta's http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/baggage/special_baggage/perishables/index.jsp

fishon99

Cool it is Delta we are flying.