gearing for kayak

[thinkingredneck]

I fish primarily from a Field and Stream Eagle Talon kayak.  A milk crate won't fit in it.  I use a craftsman open top tool box.  I can put 4  plano boxes or three plus two shallow boxes in that size.  I am always struggling with organization.  I currently have a box or more for each type of soft plastic or lure, I.e., spinnerbait, jerkbait, top water, toad-frog, trick worm, ribbontail, etc.  I also have a binder with nothing but every size and shape junebug plastic and candy bug plastic I can find. My thought was I could work on a particular technique until I learn it.  This is working sometimes.  However, I always seem to want  womething else that I don't have with me.

Questions,  would you guys organize soft baits by type (senko, ribbon tail, trickworm), color, size, or how?  How would you separate hard baits, depth, type (jerk vs. Crank, vs lipless)?

I also thought about confidence vs new/experimental boxes.

Thoughts?  I am way overthinking this.  Limited space.  

 

[GreenGhostMan]

I'm a fellow kayak fisherman, and I run into this problem myself.  "What if this color is killing it?? Should I bring spares??"  "What if it stays overcast all day??" (resulting in bringing every topwater lure I own).  My problem is I normally pack too many lures and it ends up slowing me down and getting in the way.  What I've been trying to do recently is taking a box that has all my confidence/"go to" lures.  Then I take 2-3 boxes of the lure that I either want to work on, or lures that I believe should work for the current season or conditions I'm fishing in.  If I can't get anything going with the new techniques or "current conditions" boxes, then I have my box of confidence baits I can whip out.

 

Hope this helps... It's a struggle.   

[J Francho]

I've seen other use the tool bag option, and it works pretty well.  I'd say you need to get over the part where you're feeling like you don't have enough.  I bring three deep 3750 Plano boxes, another small box for terminal gear, a spinnerbait wallet, and that's about it.  I don't need ten topwaters, usually just a Sammy and a Popmax.  I don't need ten colors and three sizes of worms.  I carry maybe a half dozen crankbaits.  They're all various Lucky Craft in MS Shad.  Find your favorite stuff, pack it.  Then find a few new things you want to try, and if there's room, something weird.  Be confident in your fish locating skills rather than having confidence in baits. 

[thinkingredneck]

Thanks.  I am learning soft swimbaits.  interested in spinnerbaits. Kind of lost, but studying posts.

 

I am leaning toward the confidence box plus something I want to learn.  I seem to always wind up catching most on a trickworm.  Maybe I should leave it at home and take only stuff I want to learn?

 

Do you guys use your confidence baits to find the fish first and then go to new baits, or just take new stuff to learn?

[JustJames]

I might not be a good help since most of my kayak trip are short less than 4 hours. I alway bring only a lures box, a day box (pre-rig or anything I plan to fish that day), a terminal Tackle box and a soft plastic binder.

[thinkingredneck]

Can you expand on your lure box and day box, please?

[JustJames]

Lure box is my hardbait box like top water, jerkbait lipless and some squarebill.

My day box, is depend on what I plan to fish that day or week, plastic, hardbait, chatterbait spinnerbait megastrike, you name it. I have this box under my seat where I can change lure quickly without reaching to the front well. I will store whatever I use that trip in this box. 

Look at my video, the box you see is my day box. It is a little bit messy since I have not reorganized it after last few trips. Normally this box would have one or two Fluke in different color, chatterbait small swimbait, small spinnerbait and megastrike. The bluegill and others I stored after done using it on the trip that need to put back where it belong later on. This box also get air dry every trip since it is only box that get a chance to get wet.

 

 

[J Francho]

14 hours ago, thinkingredneck said:

I am learning soft swimbaits.  interested in spinnerbaits. Kind of lost, but studying posts.

 

Just a quick tip on this, since they both kind of fish the same.  Don't just use a steady retrieve.  Let them bump into weeds, docks, rocks, and fallen wood.  If you fish stained water, keep them just deep enough that you can't see the bait anymore.

[NYWayfarer]

14 hours ago, JustJames said:

I might not be a good help since most of my kayak trip are short less than 4 hours. I alway bring only a lures box, a day box (pre-rig or anything I plan to fish that day), a terminal Tackle box and a soft plastic binder.

 

I am in the same boat, pun intended. I take short trips of 4 hours or less. I also don't have much room for gear. The storage space in the back of my Pelican Tracker is used for an anchor and rope. 

 

For my gear I purchased a $1 shower caddy that I place all my tools (pliers, grippers, scale,etc) baits, tackle, sunscreen, etc that I am taking for the day. 

 

The caddy fits between my legs in the cockpit and everything is in easy reach when I need it. One trip with a tackle bag was all I needed to see I wanted an open container for easy access to my gear.

[kbeeb374]

Great suggestions here.  The only thing I would add is that I also wear a fishing vest and pack plastics in some pockets along with my tools, megastrike, and terminal tackle box.  I fish tubes like 70% of the time and drop shot and topwater make up most of the other time. so my terminal tackle box can be pretty small.

 

17 hours ago, J Francho said:

Be confident in your fish locating skills rather than having confidence in baits. 

^^ Bingo

[J Francho]

The term "confidence baits" is so misused and wrong thinking.  You start throwing your "confidence bait," a 4" senko in 15' of water, you are going to LOSE confidence in that bait.  You start throwing your "confidence bait," a sexy shad DD22 into a weed line in 10', you are going to lose confidence.  Be confident in knowing what bait is the right tool to get into the fishes' faces.  Be confident there are fish where you are fishing.  The rest is really just problem solving.  Bringing back too many weeds on your wacky rigged senko?  Change to a weedless worm hook.  Same bait, same spot, get it to the fish more effectively.  If that DD22 is digging in too hard, switch to a Deep Little N.  It's just logic.

[thinkingredneck]

Thanks guys, very helpful.  I like the shower caddy.  Very cool.

 

 I think the lure box and day box is very similar to what I am thinking.  (I have a flambeau hard satchel for hard lures).  

 

The reason I am trying to learn new techniques is because my confidence bait is limited to when fish want slowly fished plastics on the bottom.  I need to learn other methods.  

 

Thanks for the replies.

[J Francho]

I like the shower caddy as well.  Lots of innovation comes from kayak fishing.  Just 10 years ago, all we had were actual milk crates.  Now there's fancy, purpose built bags and crates.  There needs to be more compact, and affordable options as well.

[JustJames]

I hardly fish slow presentation this year especially when I'm on kayak. I know I might not get as many bites.

 

I'm also learning a lot of slow moving bait this year and gain more and more confident like Jerkbait Fluke and chatterbait. Next year I plan for a little faster moving like lipless, shallow crank and small swimbait.