[Texas Bass Pro]

Whenever you go fishing do yall take everything you have?

I have come to find out that taking everything that I have is a waste of time and nothing but a headache to keep up with. I will also switch baits out too frequently. I know I'm doing it but I just can't stop.

I have narrowed down my baits to just about 2 hand fulls. Most of them are the same plastic baits but just around 2 or 3 colors. Same for jigs. Then I have maybe 3 spinnerbaits and maybe 4 topwater baits. After that I have included 2 swim baits.


Do yall do the same or do you carry what you mostly have and if you do how do you keep from getting overwhelmed?

 

[dave0331_69]

I try to cover the whole water column, i went through the same thing a few months ago when i wanted to make myself learn new lures so i emptied my boat and would only take a couple lures until i got a good grasp on that particular lure. Now i take a few topwaters, jerkbaits,shallow cranks,1 or 2mid cranks, a few deep cranks,some lipless, and a couple jigs, i also have a seperate tray for whatever plastics i think will produce for me that day. I try hard to limit hard baits to one large tray and one tray for plastics and some terminal tackle. I also have my "oh crap" box that has my lures that i have the most confidence in.Im still trying to get a good system going on, but its a start. Hope this helps. Dave

 

[Bass Kisser]

I carry way to much. Always have but I thought that I would never be without anything. My son gives me a hard time for having too much. I figure...I bought it and I carry it....so I'm bringin it. Not too big of a deal on the boat since we have the room.

 

[Texas Bass Pro]

I went back to look and see what exactly I put in my tackle bag. This bag has 14 sleeves total.

1.) Zoom Brush hogs in 3 colors and 2 sizes
2.) Three types of jigs in 2 different weight classes....trailers included (Strike King)
3.) Senkos in 2 different colors
4.) Zoom Flukes in 2 different colors
5.) 4 different topwater baits....jointed minnow, buzzbait, torpedo, devil horse
6.) 3 spinner baits.....H&H, Mepps, Terminator
7.) 1 color of WCCT Hula Stiks
8.) 2 hair jigs made by D&D Sinkers & Tackle

I also carry 3 different types of hooks and 3 different types(oz) of bullet weights.

If one day I go fishing with just these and I don't catch any fish that I am happy with then I will make some drastic changes with my tackle.

 

[bigdaddytowe]

I carry 13 falcon speciality boxes filled and six plastic shoe boxes overflowing with plastics.I do agree about switching baits too much but i usually do that with plastics ,my hard baits are picked out for the season or water color.
(MY DADDY TOLD ME BEFORE HE LEFT THIS SHIT&TY WORLD THE MAN WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TACKLE WINS)

 

[Texas Bass Pro]

(MY DADDY TOLD ME BEFORE HE LEFT THIS SHIT&TY WORLD THE MAN WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TACKLE WINS)

With all your tackle, I believe you might just have it won.

Here you go :champion: Its full of $100 dollar bills.

What are you going to do with all your winnings?? LOL :rofl1:

 

[bigdaddytowe]

HI MY NAME IS MIKE AND I AM ADDICTED TO TACKLE :sad2:

 

[mary dean]

I have found that I do better when I take less with me. I'm a co-angler and my bag gets smaller everytime I go. I used to think I had to take everything with me but I have it narrowed down to what I plan on using... Take what you feel comfortable with. And never try something new on tournament day :thumbup01:!

 

[imonembad]

my co-angler is always bringing to much stuff that he never uses. We had a talk on the way home from the lake yesterday about down sizing. I assured him that he knew what I had and what I didn't have and that he was welcome to any bait on my boat. It clutters up the boat to bad to have crap laying all over it.

 

[davidva]

I just bring my tackle bag that has 4 boxes enclosed. Those have all the hard baits and my side pockets and front flap have my plastics and stink juice.

 

[fish4funinfl]

I'd rather have to much then not enough ! I clean my stuff out and remove stuff I know I wont use, but that dern :baitmonkey: twist my arm and I buy more stuff I NEED < cough > to replace what I just took out.

 

[hi steel basser]

I have a couple of 3700 boxes that I haven't opened in a year. They are on my boat every time I go. I don't know why. I usually wind up digging through a huge shopping bag looking for that one special lure I just know is right, and when I finally find it, it doesn't even produce half the time. One of these days I'm gonna have to spend some serious time organizing it all.

 

[OTTER]

I take everything with me when I go. I have this fear that if I leave something at the house, that is what they would be hittin' if only I had it with me :rofl1: The really bad thing is, I take along a ton of stuff and don't use nearly all of it and if I was a smart man, I'd really look at what I use and lighten my load accordingly. But, who ever said I'm a smart man! :rofl1: :rofl1: :rofl1: :lmao: :wack:

 

[Jared]

I WAS down-sizing but then i got my boat and now... well... I have my boat slam full of stuff LOL And last weekend i noticed that the compartment behind my seat has teh slots for 3700's in it so now I am considering what I could put in that compartment too lol Dang :baitmonkey: !! LOL

 

[OTTER]

If you have new found space---fill er up!!!! Every spring I swear I'm not buying anything else and then I see a new lure or soft plastic product and I have to have it. Soon, my boat will be overweight with just my tackle in it :rofl1: :rofl1:

 

[Ouachita]

I carry probably $2,000 worth of lures and usually 7 rod combos. There have been way too many times I ended up on a river, a deep clear lake, muddy water, day and night, lacking a hot lure that works magic on whatever species I'm after. It's all there somewhere. Lots of folks also know I carry a large variety and benefit me by asking for a couple of what they have found to be hot. That puts me on the trick of the day, otherwise a closely guarded secret. I give lures away for that information if I'm not on a good pattern. Otherwise I sell extras to strangers, free to friends that also share. It can shave hours of empty fishing off a day.

But yesterday I had only one Xcalibur, what turned out to be the only bass catching lure. I got onto bed fishing with it while "everyone else" was sticking to the assumed post-spawn pattern fishing the usual lures along points. The spawn resumed after going threough those 2 weeks of air conditioner running at home, followed by the big chill that killed the early spawn weeks ago. I could have sold a couple dozen to guys seeing me catch bass that ignored the usual bed fishing lures like soft lizards. They were all in 1-2 feet of water between bushes and a well shielded shoreline, not at all ont in the usual bed areas. VERY hard to get any lure to! Imagine flipping that lure with two trebles into slop, stumps, limbs and roots.

I decided to save that lure to pass along to my team, tying on other lures. No takers! A lure they don't normally see in places like that is what they wanted. I tied it back on and resumed catching, hanging up hundreds of times, and losing some fine battles. When that lure snags a branch any strong bass on it tears loose easily.

The ramp I used had about 70 rigs on it that morning. When I came in none were there. I checked the carcass cans at the cleaning station. Expecting them to be full (emptied every morning), I found two nice female LMBs in one can. Usually the cans are overflowing, especially during the early spawn weeks.

All that affirmed for me you never know which lure left home might be just the right one, even though fishing that thing was no fun, not something I would have planned to use.

I'll post a photo of everything I carry if I can get it all in one shot. I have a boat to clean up after yesterday, full of twigs and leaves from having to boat into dense brush. It's a MESS.

Jim

 

[lsmith526]

If I know the lake well, I will skinny down the tackle. My problem is figureing out which boat to take, I have a old puddle jumper that is THE shallow water boat and I have the big water Champion. The Champion is full because I have it stuffed to the gill's with lures and rods, and I use it in almost all the Tourny's I fish. I, steal, from it when taking the smaller boat, but I pay very close attention to where I'm fishing before I do, the conditions, ect....

One bit of advise though, no matter what you take, have confidence in YOURSELF before your baits, your the Basshole!!!!! Not the Baits!!

Cya on the Water
Lee

 

[Oldfart9999]

I have a buddy, and I'm becoming like him, who carries so much stuff that a coangler has about 2sq. ft. of room on the rear deck and must climb over a ton of stuff to go between the seat and rear deck. Speaking of the seat, there is the seat and about a foot in front of it. There are about 30 rods out and ready, by the trolling motor there are about 50 or so cranks in a neat little tangle, he carries about 300 spinnerbaits, the rod locker is full of soft plastics, and there is so much homemade stuff that it would take a lifetime to try it all. This only the tip of the iceberg, he must have 40 or so tackle boxes scattered about AND he will rummage through my suff to see what I have. If you ever fall on his boat you will bleed to death before medical help arrives. He wonders why his boat will only do 55 mph. This is nothing compared to what he has home, try approx 500 rod and reel outfits, 5,000 or so spinner baits,
thousands of cranks and jerkbaits, softplastics from the 60s, and terminal tackle out the wazoo, jigs, you wouldn't believe. But the best part is, he buys more every year, and I do mean more. He spends more than I can or am willing to spend. When it comes to being hooked on the bait monkey all of us are pikers compared to this guy. The worst part is that if he trimmed down to a dozen or so rods and only what his storage compartments held, this guy could fish with the big boys.
Rodney

 

[Ouachita]

He and I might be related. I gave up trying to use the rod locker for rods on my Tracker. That was the one boo-boo they did on that boat, way too short and too narrow. I tried mounting a home-made rod holder kit with golf tubes and a rod handle holder, but that took up more room until it was nearly impossible to extract just one rod. I could get 2-3 out at once with little trouble. Forget putting a 7' rod in there! So now it holds baits and tools stuffed in the long narrow part. You won't see lures or boxes on my boat. Just rods strapped next to the trolling motor, and carpet. Under the deck you would find this mess

Closer up shots here left to right

showing two tackle boxes also, one holding bassing hardware like hooks in Tic Tac boxes, sinkers, etc., and one with everything I need for panfish

showing crankbaits, swim baits & other soft plastics

showing mostly soft plastics

showing one of two jig trays

showing one of two finesse soft plastic trays for drop shotting

Yes, I really do carry a $1,700 Heddon River Runt collection, for good luck I suppose, and they do get fished

Including a sampling of lipless crankbaits, various brands

For some reason the Cooks System racks of spinnerbaits photo isn't there.

On standby are about 9 cardboard boxes full of all kinds of baits from the 1960s to date, replacements for those lost out of the batch above. They help cause me to have to rent a storage room. Half of all my daughter's belongings from Day 1 finish filling the room. I hate replacing, as that requires opening and sorting through hundreds of bags and crankbait boxes. If I'd have invested that Bait Monkey money spent on lures not used I'd have retired years ago on the interest. As it is I carry THE Bait Monkey with me, a big mouth to feed.

A frequently asked question is "Why?". It appears on first glance I might be a little excessive. :grin: But when fishing with me and wanting a particular bait, I probably have it, and then you understand why. The problem is locating it. All that is maybe part of my confidence. I HAVE a bait a bass will bite any one day no matter how reluctant they are. Hey, there's also no telling how many $20 bills I've pocketed selling MUST HAVE baits while fishing. It's profitable. Well, not counting the baits and end tackle given away.

Partner breaks his rod. "OH, he he, I now see why you carry so many rods. Thankyou, I'll guard this with my life." He's fishing with a $350 combo, costing more than all his combos combined. "SOOOOoooo nice, smooooth, wow. Sweet. How much did this cost?" After the answer, "Oh %@!*". But I'd say to any Basshole, "Pick anything you like and enjoy. Find a bait and tie it on."

Life is too short.

Jim

 

[Richard]

Jim,
Dude thats borderline OCD, someone would have to pay me to show how organized i am. :rofl1:
you want one of these ? here YOU seperate em!!!!!! lmao
All the tackle that i carry fits into ONE medium sized soft tackle bag with 3 plano boxes,one is crammed full of crankbaits,one has jerkbaits and top water,the last one has hooks, sinkers, bobber stops,jigs for tubes,and stuff for C-rigs,in the side pockets are a small box with one size wide gap hooks smaller sinkers,and 4 small jerkbaits,it gets used when at the resivoirs bank fishin,goes right in a pocket.In the front poket is a scale to weigh any pigs ( have not used this in OHIO) another smaller tray holding jigs.One spinnerbait binder that fits in with the big boxes.Then of coarse i have the bps extreme double worm binder so full it hardly closes,it has All the soft plastics i usually use and jig trailers,spinerbait trailers.

Then to the basement
I have a small 4 foot by 4 foot table with my wading stuff,extra line,and replacement plastics.
close to 10 rigs ready to go.some stay on the boat a couple go with me in the house.those are the 2 that i use the most while walking the banks.
When i first bought my 16 ft hydra sport bass boat EVERY compartment was crammed full of tackle trays,binders,extra bags of everything.2 years ago when i cleaned out the boat for winter i could not believe how much stuff came outta that boat that NEVER got used.so i downsized everything.But alas the :baitmonkey:
struck hard this winter while i was sittin here on this puter,darn e-bay, and i have a few more things i probably don't need.
later all
rich