thinkingredneck

On the kayak I carry two. A MH bc and a medium spinning. Or I fly fish. BC for single hooks. Spinning for treble hooks or finesse. I mostly fish soft plastics, jigs and spinnerbaits.

Tie or attach EVERYTHING to you or the boat, including your paddle. Comfortable life vest you will wear every time. It is better to have one item that does several things than multiple items that do one thing. Splurge on a comfortable seat. I use a collapsing wading staff for a stake out pole. Anything that sticks up on the deck or side will likely tangle when a fish is on...the big one. Have a whistle and knife handy. If bigger boats are around have a flag for days and light for nights. Remember, your goal for this trip is to make it back so that you can go on the next trip. Simplify, streamline

Surgical grade needle drivers with a blade (Olsen-Hegar) that are not quite good enough for surgery any more. The ones you get from fishing tackle companies generally are of poor quality.

Window weight from old windows

Check out belt pouches at Army Surplus

Zoom Junebug and Candy bug

I fish in stained to muddy water and there is a noticeable difference with Junebug. I will change to other colors. If they don't work, I start catching them again on Junebug. I do have one lake where falcon lake craw and candy bug work almost as well.

I agree about the garlic.

Dislike finesse baits. Midwest finesse, sliders etc Can't stand treble hooks Can't catch fish on plastic jerkbaits. Probably user error

I have been known to paddle into pads in my kayak and drop a t rig in between them. Straight braid. As little weight as possible

I use a bead storage box with silica packs. I have a pool noodle on my kayak to hook used stuff on. I put the hook box open on top of the refrigerator to dry out when I get home. However, I am not totally happy with my organization.

I just put up 4 of these and they work great for everything from surf rods to finesse panfish rods. I store rods with reels attached.

Fishing from a kayak limits how many rods and baits you can carry. I fish a Texas rig most of the time or a jig. Love the feel! Started with that because plastics are fairly inexpensive. For 20 years, I fished with a fly rod 90 % of the time, and still do. Only once have I had a day when a T rig didn't work. A spinner bait worked that day. I still love to use a fly rod on top. I try a lot of baits, but circle back to these few. Where I fish is mostly Lilly pads. BTW, Alligators will hit a popper in a heartbeat.

Suffix Braid or PowerPro. 50 lb on baitcasters and 20 on spinning. I keep coming back to braid or braid with a leader in clearer water. Where I usually fish the water is heavily stained to muddy and I usually skip the leader. Berkley big game on my wife's Zebco. I bought her a high end model that was made for salt water and it is extremely smooth. I like maxima for leaders.

Palmered has mor movement because there is no stem in the exposed hackle.

My primary rig

Get an Eagleclaw.

As Richard Gene the Fishing Machine says, go fishing when you can, it's good Fer ya.

In the spring here there is too much muck for jigs or heavy weights

Zoom trickworm. Junebug, gama round bend offset t rigged with as little weight as possible.

What is the primary forage? How stained? How muddy? When in doubt throw a trickworm. I usually do best on Junebug color.

@Bdnoble84can you post a photo of your bear hair jig and the type of jig heads you recommend? I am new to this.

Gamakatsu, Owner, Mustad. The hook is your most important piece of equipment.

I had trouble with the rabbit strips pulling it under when I tried that

Look up Intruder flies for Steelhead. They use Emu and Ostrich. Wonder if Bass would like them.