hi
we just returned a couple of weeks ago, my other half tried to take his telescopic rods on as handluggage with monarch(in a special carry case) & was told no, mainly we think cos of the 1 piece of handluggage rule which is being strictly enforced with all airlines. but saying that when i rang monarch to check before they did say they would be ok to take on so not sure if he hadnt had a backpack if they would have got on or not.
he had 3 reels & tons of other bits pieces (not a knife though)in his handluggage which caught the interest of every scanner it went through & he ended up having his handluggage searched constantly, and they did confiscate a pair of pliers he had in there.my advice -stick it all in your case!!
he was worried about the rods in the hold but they appeared no problem, they do have to go through at the outsized luggage desk in the uk though not at normal check in, but they'll point you in the right direction to this place once you check in.

one thing though we heard from an ex pat living in goa that fishing weights are quite hard to get hold of there so take all you'll need. ( my other half did his case weighed a ton!!!) he gave all those he didnt lose away to other fisherman holidaymakers before we left as they seemed to be in big demand.

we did see a fishing tackle shop just off the beach on the small rd to calangute beach (the rd to the beach that runs off the main calangute/candolim rd its just past the luma supermarket on the left opposite day trippers) but we didnt go in as my other half had practically an entire mobile tackle shop with him so didnt need to. so i cant tell you what it stocks.