Simms Bounty Hunter Rod Cannons and Reel Case Review

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When your travel plans call for checking expensive fly rods and reels, the right travel cases mean peace of mind.

Justin and I have just returned from an epic trip across Argentina. We fished and camped on the famous Limay river in Patagonia and then jetted to the mighty Parana to cheese golden dorado. Along with some amazing fishing there were six flights, as many bus rides, a few rough off-road treks and some boat travel. All of which required transporting over a dozen fly rods and reels.

Air travel rules in Argentina require that all fishing gear be checked. That’s a bit of a nail biter for most anglers. The last thing you want to happen is land in a far flung location with a stack of broken fly rods. I knew that no matter how we chose to pack our gear, we’d be putting a lot of faith in our travel cases. I did some research and decided on the Simms Bounty Hunter collection.

I bought the single hand rod cannon for six rods, the spey cannon for six rods and the medium reel case which holds four reels. I think we actually put eight rods in each cannon. Only two were spey rods and that helped. With the built-in reel case in each cannon we had storage for six reels and a couple of more went into boots or their own cases. We were loaded for bear.

The spey cannon went straight into checked baggage, while the single hand cannon and reel case went into my Simms duffle along with wading boots, flies, fishing packs and spools of leader material. Altogether that bag was under thirty pounds and could be checked on any flight, even the most restrictive float plane rides.

The system worked flawlessly. All of our gear arrived in perfect condition at each stop along the way.

DSC02058The heavy duty tubes did not bend, even when they landed at the bottom of truckloads of gear. The zippers held and the fabric didn’t hold the dirt of Patagonia’s back roads. The only hiccup we experienced was when Justin lost the key to his TSA lock and we had to cut it off with a hacksaw.

I have to admit that it was liberating, not having to schlep a ton of fishing gear around the airport. Now that I have a bombproof option for checking rods and reels, I’ll be doing it more often.

I know there are plenty of cynics out there who think that every review they read is part of some shady gear-for-press deal. The truth is I paid for this stuff after looking at my options and deciding it was the best investment. It’s the best money I’ve spent in a while and I’ll get a lot of use out of these cases. They’ve already been through hell and they still look like new.

If you’re in the market for travel cases for your fly rods and reels, check out the Bounty Hunter line from Simms.

Louis Cahill
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
https://www.ginkandgasoline.com/hosted-trips/ 
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7 thoughts on “Simms Bounty Hunter Rod Cannons and Reel Case Review

  1. I’ve been making 2″, 4′ & 6″ rod tubes from heavy duty plumbers PVC tube for 40 years. I’ve been making rod socks/covers for the same length of time and to date have had no fatalities. Some of the old tubes I transported game rods in have shoulder straps on them so that it was easy to carry the long tubes. I worked in the IT industry since 1965 so have a pile of PC/LapTop cases which are ideal for carrying reels. These days when I go on a trip 5 or 6 rods go in a 4″ tube which goes in my “120L Wheeled Cargo Bag Trolley” with all of my other gear.

  2. Where do they get product names? While “Bounty Hunter” sounds dumb, I guess it’s better than “Skunked Again.” And, like Bruce, PVC has yet to fail even though, more than once, I’ve seen luggage piled on our rod cases on the loading trolleys.

    • Personally I could care less what a company decides to call a product as long as it works, but there are some funky ones out there. While PVC can certainly be a good, cost effective option for carrying multiple rods the problem you’ll run across on a trip, such as the one we just took, is weight. A pvc tube the same size as one of these bounty hunter tubes would weigh several pounds more and leave you with a lot less room for gear. In the US all you have to do is pay more money and it’s all good, however there are some aircraft (2 for us) where they weigh EVERYTHING, including your carry on, and your checked bag can’t weigh over 23kg (about 50lbs). No exceptions. A couple of our guys had to swap gear around in order to get on the flight. Having a lightweight option was a trip saver.

  3. I bought one at the end of 2015 and I have already done 5 or 6 fishing trips with, always carrying 5 or 6 rods. I bought a cheap duffle of 100cm in REI store to put the tube inside and get more protection. I was very satisfied with this tube

  4. Have you gotten a chance to test its water resistant capabilities? I can’t stand opening a rod tube and find a moldy fly rod. I haven’t found one yet that is “water proof”.

  5. I’m not a fan of round tubes. They can roll off most things. The best I have used and still use is the old Abel square tube with the zipper storage along the side. The double carries 8 rods.

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