In a near lifetime of knocking about the globe in search of fish I've learned a few inflexible rules. Every trip requires custom packing. Murphy's Law and all its corollaries apply to any trip that relies on public transportation--or even your own. Airline baggage gorillas still live. Smart traveling anglers save adrenaline rushes for fish fighting and keep trip hassles to a minimum by using a number of strategies, some of which follow:

• Determine from the airline or your travel agent the aircraft type for each leg of your trip. That way you'll know what carry-on items will fit in the cabin. If small planes are involved in any leg of the trip, determine beforehand which carry-on bag you will give up (and collect at planeside after debarking) Pack accordingly so reading material, valuables, tickets will always be with you.

• Assume your bags will be mis-routed and carry a mini-survival-kit that will get you through a day or night. Include a change of socks, underwear, toiletries, sewing kit, headache remedy, prescription medicines, extra eyeglasses, and sunglasses. For the plane, include foam ear plugs and use them on long flights. Constant engine noise is not an advantage to your hearing. Also include in your on-board kit, a nasal decongestant like Affrin nose spray, to enable you to clear your eustachian tubes if you must fly with a cold.

• Keep important papers like passports, some cash, and tickets in a traveler's pouch or vest for quick access.

• Bring lots of single dollar bills for tips during endless airport transfers, hotels, courtesy busses. Don't keep all your cash in one place.

• Energy sport bars will get you through flight legs that don't serve meals (or when you can't stomach what the airline feeds). They'll stave off starvation if you're stranded somewhere or when overzealous fellow anglers or guides forget the lunch or bring nothing but Twinkies and Moonpies. Try something like Power Bars.

• Arranging a fishing (or hunting) trip through a reputable booking agent will get you good lists of needed equipment. Grilling the agent will get you other details. Learn about usual tipping practices, whether a guide brings lunch or you bring it for him/her. Learn subtleties: if the area, camp, or lodge caters mainly to lure fishermen and you like to cast flies (or vice versa) how could it affect your enjoyment and success. What are fishing hours? Does the lodge cater mainly to divers rather than anglers? Some of the diving operations offer excellent fishing opportunities, others are lacking in boats/equipment or knowledgeable guides.

• In a non-English language country be extremely sure who will meet you and where in the airport. If you must reach a destination from the airport on your own in this situation, learn exactly where and what the proper transportation is. Learn at least a couple of words in the lingua franca--taxi, bus, name of town or hotel to which you're headed--so a porter knows where to tote your mountain of equipment.

• Bags within bags are a worthwhile trick. Use big duffels, but also pack smaller empty duffels inside for use as boat bags for clothing and other necessities, plus separate bags/soft cases for spare reels and tackle such as weighing scales, knives, tape measure for measuring fish to be released.

• Bring a pair of Kevlar or other stout gloves for fish handling/holding for photos, where lots of fish are expected, especially ones with sharp gill covers, fin spines, teeth. Also bring a good dehooking device.

• Three- and four-piece travel rods are so much easier to travel with. Today's multi-piece rods are as good as one- or two-piece blanks. They'll stow in one of your larger duffel bags or can be carried aboard. If you'll be carrying a lot of rods, stow some in the duffel, bring one or two aboard the plane with a matching reel in case all the checked baggage is rerouted. When possible avoid the combination spinning/fly/casting blanks. They will perform the tasks but usually do only one well.

• If you must bring one- or two-piece rods be wary of those telescoping rod cases. A very few will hold up. When the airline gorillas throw the case and it hits a solid bulkhead, flimsy cases often collapse. Bye-bye rod tips. If you make your own case from schedule 40 PVC pipe, make sure to add foam in both ends caps. Prevent rods from banging together either by using a rod bag or taping them together with masking tape. I have one case made from schedule 80 PVC which no one has yet broken but it's so heavy I hate to use it.

• Avoid the occasional baggage thief by not advertising contents of your bags as containing quality sporting tackle.

• Modular lure boxes or bags are wonderful. They use custom dividable utility boxes which you can preload for each trip. Typical modulars hold three-four boxes. I take spare boxes loaded with other lures or flies that might be useful and fine tune after the first day fishing.

• If you fly fish, bring line types to cover the water column. After researching the fishing, you'll know if you'll need intermediates, sink-tips, ultra-fast sink-heads. Cassette reels are an economical way of having several different lines on hand. Otherwise you'll need spare spools or spare reels or a device to change lines from reels to storage spools fast. Rio Linewinder Boxes with a hand crank designed by Capt. Earl Waters are excellent.

• There are certain fishing tools that are automatically packed by most every angler. Pliers, cutters, reel wrenches, and of course a good file for hook honing. But don't forget the silver duct tape. You'll use it a hundred ways over numerous fishing trips. I've saved a day patching a leaky fuel line on an off-shore boat with it, used it to hold tackle bags and cases together; the list is endless. Don't forget it.

• Assume it will be colder or hotter, wetter or drier than it's supposed to be, and pack clothing accordingly.

• Learn whether a camp or lodge does your laundry during a trip. It will enable you to reduce clothing items. Especially useful if heavy washable shirts are involved.

• Make sure you know the camp or lodge operation's policy on killing fish. If you are allowed to take a few fish home, how will you do so? Many camps pack a representative catch--frozen and wrapped in newspaper--in boxes that will get them home in a day. Some airports have rental space in freezers if you'll be staying over a couple of days.

• If a lodge allows taking one trophy fish and you're planning on a skin mount, make certain you know exactly how the taxidermist wants the fish prepared and bring the necessary tools and materials. These days with beautiful replica mounts available there's no need to kill a fish. You need only a soft tape for length, girth measurements, some good clasp photos, and notations about any outstanding marking or coloration of your fish that you'd like reproduced.

• Bring two good first-aid kits. One is for your body, the other for your equipment. The latter should include everything you need for emergency repairs of reels and rods, though there's only so much you can do to rods. Rod repair is usually in the form of gluing or taping on a spare tip or guide, or lubricating reel seats. I also bring two thin rubber grippers to help separate stuck rod sections. For reels I bring spare nuts, screws, pawls, springs, wrenches, a lubrication kit, sandpaper or steel wool. There's also Super Glue in my kit.

• Footwear is so important. When wading is on tap obviously you'll have learned how difficult conditions will be and will have the appropriate boot soles. Too few travelers bother to learn what footwear is best in camp. Often rubber packs or Wellington boots are best by far and hundred dollar sneakers mean wet feet. A sure way to start a trip out on the wrong foot--literally--is to wear black-soled shoes aboard a spiffy clean boat. They'll leave dark marks on the deck that will take the captain or mate three-quarters of an hour to clean later. Not a good way to endear yourself to the crew.

• If you're booking an individual boat guide, whether big boat or small, rather than going to a fishing lodge or camp, make sure to talk at length with the skipper. Find out exactly how he will be fishing not only in terms of tackle, but how he'll be using it. Also, learn if bringing your own tackle will be practical or maybe even frowned upon. Everyone has a favorite rod or reel but in some specialized fishing situations very specific tackle is required--often something that has been fine tuned for a very exacting assignment. In these cases bringing your personal gear might be a disadvantage. Of course if a skipper fishes all heavy gear or is a downrigger specialist, and your passion is light tackle casting, you're not going to book him in the first place.

• When traveling to the far north or tropical climes be ready to turn off your conditioned click of efficiency. Schedules have far less meaning in these areas and you'll drive yourself crazy trying to bend local routines to high-speed city living. You might miss a day's fishing, be late getting out, rush like crazy to some transfer spot only to wait hours. Bring reading material, and pack a sense of humor on any trip.

Top Three Travel Destinations

• Nearest Dropoff: San Pedro Sula, Honduras
• Cost: $1,960 per person for seven-night, six-day trip includes air transportation between San Pedro and lodge.
• Purpose: Large and small tarpon, large and small snook, giant cubera snapper, jacks, freshwater guapote, machaca, and mojarra.
• Comments: New operation offering beautiful tropical flora/fauna. Fishing is in the Caribbean, in lagoons, and up fascinating rivers. An ideal spot for light spinning, casting, and fly fishing enthusiasts. Best tarpon time for fish 20 to over 100 pounds is January-May; best snook, August-December for big 20-40-pound fish as well as 2-9 pounders.

Alaskan Wilderness Outfitting Box 1516, Cordova, AK 99574, 907-424-5552.

• Nearest Dropoff: Cordova, AK.
• Cost: Basic six-day package $1,195 per person.
• Purpose: Halibut, rockfish, snapper, salmon, cutthroat trout. ÑComments: Stay in floating cabins called wannigans located on remote waters. All food, transport from Cordova included as well as a skiff with gas and motor. Fish on your own. Wannigans have VHS radio, showers, two bedrooms, sleeping loft. Ideal for families, couples.

Put-In-Bay, South Bass Island, OH on western Lake Erie Contact Ottawa County Visitors Bureau, 109 Madison St., Suite E, Port Clinton, OH 43452, 1-800-441-1271 for lodging, guide list, ferry schedule.

• Nearest Dropoff: Port Clinton, OH.
• Cost: Varies. Do-it-yourself trip costs depend on motels, meals, guides if used.
• Purpose: Walleyes and smallmouth bass.
• Comments: April and May produce incredible numbers of walleyes while May and June bring best bass action. Good fishermen will easily find fish on their own. Contact Fishing Hot Spots, 199 River St., PO Box 1167, Rhinelander, WI 54501, 1-800-338-5957 for maps showing launch ramps, reefs, shoals, and more.