The Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All is a rugged fly fishing rod, reel, and accessory gear case designed for travel. In addition, it excels as an everyday fly rod and reel case for organizing your fly fishing gear.
To get us a closer look, Orvis sent Man Makes Fire a review unit. This is what we learned:
Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All Review
If you take a plane to travel to your fly fishing destinations, the Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All is definitely for you. It’s designed to protect multiple fly rod and reel combos, fly boxes, leaders, tippet, accessory lanyard, etc. It even has space for a vest, jacket or small chest pack. The Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All is intended to be used as a carry-on bag, which most fly fishers prefer, but it’s rugged enough to be checked.
There is, however, another reason most any fly fisher should get a travel fly fishing case — organization. And that, it turns out, is my primary interest in fly rod/reel travel cases. Typically, I keep most of my fly fishing gear in a large duffle bag. It’s my go-bag for fly fishing. The trouble is, it’s big and I don’t need everything for every trip.
Meanwhile, I’m often bringing extra gear for friends and family so they can fly fish, too. For my personal fly kit, I want a full rod and reel as well as a backup rod and reel, along with the critical accessories. If I can tidy that all up, that’s a huge win. I fact, I can easily fit six fly rods and reels in the Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All case, which is another win for how I travel to fly fish with friends and family.
Of course, organization is a critical component for most people who try to get outdoors and do something fun. If you’re ready to walk out the door at a moment’s notice, you’re far more likely to get out on the river or lake — no missed weekends! Life is busy and organization through go-bags helps you find more time.
The Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All is padded all around, giving your rods and reels ample protection from tosses, drops and whatever happens when you jam gear into vehicles and drive over rough roads. Incidentally, Orvis categorizes its Safe Passage Carry It All as a bag, but as fishing travel luggage goes, it’s also a rod and reel case. We prefer to call it a “case” over bag because the Carry It All is rigid.
A Closer Look
Inside, the top portion of the case unzips for fly rod storage. The Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All comes in two sizes, Medium and Large:
- Medium: 31″ x 5½” x 8¾” – fits up to 9′ 4-piece rods
- Large: 36¾” x 5½” x 8¾” – fits up to 11′ 4-piece rods
This rod section is designed to hold fly rods without a hard tube case — you’ll place them in the rod pocket inside of a cloth sleeve, ideally. If your fly rod came with a rod case that had a built-in section separator inside the tube case, you’ll need a rod sleeve, also called a rod sack, or the sections of your fly rod will jingle around. Not ideal. Obviously, fly fishers know how to overcome challenges, so you could wrap your rods in a t-shirt or other soft cloth to protect them from rubbing against each other (if you don’t happen to already have a fabric rod sleeve).
Also, while the new Orvis Clearwater rods come with built-in sleeve sections in the rod tube, most other Orvis rods come with separate rod sleeves/sacks. Either way, if you need a 4-piece rod sack, you can give Orvis customer service a call at (800) 548-9548 and they’ll get one to you for about $19.95 (at the time of this review Orvis didn’t have a specific rod sack option online).
You could also use the Large case and fit a 9′, 4-piece tube inside the reel section, which would mean you’d likely store fly boxes inside the flatter rod carrying pocket instead.
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Mix and Match Organizational Sections
The main compartment has rigid sides lined with a soft cloth. You get seven padded dividers that use a Velcro-like hook-and-loop material to attach to the sides or each other. Basically, you can custom fit the interior to fit your gear. If you want a couple of spots for reels, no problem. A spot for fly boxes? No problem. And you can remove the dividers so you can fit bulkier items, too.
The zippered lid to the fly rod section includes three large mesh see-through pockets that are great for flatter items.
In terms of space, the fly rod lid section is about 1.5″ deep. The main compartment is about 3.5″ deep. If you really want to travel with your rod in a hard tube, too, choose the Large version.
Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All Review: Fit and Finish
As with all Orvis gear, the fit, finish and overall quality of the Safe Passage Carry It All is excellent. The attention to detail is superb, too. I particularly like the bright orange interior panels in the Brown Camo version. Orvis includes a light topo map line design — I like it and appreciate it. As for the new Orvis Brown Camo pattern, I’m a fan. If you’re not, Orvis also offers the Carry It All in the standard Orvis Olive Gray.
All-in-all, the Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All is an excellent fly fishing travel case. You can easily fit multiple fly rods, reels, fly boxes, and fly fishing accessory gear inside of it. As a fly fishing gear bag, the Orvis Safe Passage Carry It All has the potential to help you better organize your fly fishing gear. Very highly recommended.
