Too much gear; what to take?!

[Capriceragtop]

Hey folks,

 

I'm one of those people that, when they get involved in a hobby, they get REALLY involved. As such, my gear has expanded from one rod/reel to five, and my tackle box went from one medium to two large, to a backpack and small duffel.

 

I also feel compelled to take all the tackle with me, every time I go.

 

The backpack isn't the problem, and I can limit myself to three rods. The problem has become the duffel, which holds all my soft plastics. After the visit to Bass Pro this morning, I now need a second duffel, as I picked up more flukes and a variety of paddletails

 

My question is, when paring back, do you limit yourself to a bait type, such as only taking worms, flukes, or paddletails, or do you limit by taking only a few of each?

 

I never know what the bass are biting, so I tend to take the gamut, including all sizes, types, and colors.

 

Many thanks, tight lines, and happy Sunday!

[bulldog1935]

Easy for me, I take only baitcasters (tuned for 3 weight ranges), unless I know I'm going to be fishing in the dark - then I swap spinning tackle for niche(s) and usually just fish it in the dark or until my dark lure plays out with the daylight.  

 

My "plano" boxes cover offshore, surf, inshore, bass and I'd need another boat to bring everything.  May slide lures around between boxes before I go, but pack just what I may need for today in the milk crate.  

 

[papajoe222]

When I need to limit the gear I take, One thing helps eliminate a lot of unnecessary plastics and that is confidence. The three soft plastics I have the most confidence in are worms, swimbaits and craws. The swimbaits and craws can be fished as trailers to hardbaits and they all can be presented top to bottom.  The different profiles also help eliminate other baits.  Minnow, bulky craw and skinny worm.

I also eliminate multiple bags of the same bait in different colors by using dyes. A bottle of each; blue, red, and green give me plenty of options colorwise.

After saying this, I admit that when I don't need to limit what I bring, I bring everything. 

[LCG]

I used to take a backpack full of lures and plastics. I realized after a season that I was bringing way too much, wasn't throwing 80% of what I had.

 

I have also experienced throwing everything in the bag and never really finding a pattern or paying attention to the surroundings and what I now know as important factors such as environment, weather, season, forage, etc. 

 

Nowdays, I carry a Plano 3500 double sided box. One side has plastics, the other hard lures. Still far more than I would throw in a single day, but not heavy at all and still enough variety to cover my basis and what I like to fish. 

 

Usually take two rods, which ones I take depends on varying factors such as weather, temp, wind, time of year, etc. Which will dictate what I will probably throw that day. 

 

My go to plastics are zman trd and TRD craws, BPS stick-o in watermelon red and junebug, Big bite baits 4" Creature bait in junebug red, big bite baits 4" Yo Mama beaver style bait in Talapia, and a black trick worm. 

 

Lures include 5/16oz spinnerbaits, 3/8 oz chatterbait, black and blue jig, hollow body Frogs, and squarebills. 

[JZpowered]

Truly, more experience/time on the water especially at each location will help you eliminate baits before going. Use weather conditions, cover/structure available, time of day, water clarity, to pick. 

 

If I fish from the bank I typically bring one backpack with 3 smaller Plano boxes with jigs/terminal tackle/spinnerbaits/hardbaits/frogs, two side-ways and one front-to back alongside them to create kind of an 'L' in the bag which gives me empty space to put bags of plastics in that I chose.

 

I'll usually concentrate on color first based on water clarity, and bring a pack each of what I plan to fish, craws/creature baits, big worms, senkos, keitechs, ned rig baits, dropshot baits, flukes. If I think a particular bait will work great that day I might bring 2 packs of varying colors or sizes. There are many days where I've brought too much but the days where I wish I brought a particular bait suck more. You can absolutely fit everything in one bag just try to plan ahead.

 

 

[TheBasslayer]

I just bring my fishing backpack with all of my fishing stuff in it because I can carry it around relatively easy. I may cut down on some of the baits though to make it lighter. I’ll bring 2 rods with me because I fish from the shore and I don’t like to carry around more than 2 rods.

[Bass Rutten]

A few years ago I went to a system where each rod I own has a dedicated 3700 plano, only lures used on that rod go in that box. You’d be surprised the selection of lures you can fit in one. My mh casting rod box for instance has in it right now some poppers, wakes, spooks, 4.8 keitechs, 1/4&3/8 swim & flipping jigs, worms, senkos, soft jerks, creatures, I change out lures based on time of year or other variables. This has worked out great for all fishing scenarios I encounter be it bank, boat, kayak or canoe and keeps you from being too weighed down while providing a nice selection of options.

[txchaser]

I bought a truck mostly to carry tackle. Sorry, but I have no message of hope. 

 

Me: I have 20 packs of rage craws in the only four colors you need for any water in Texas. Why would I need another craw?

Monkey: But what if this new brand is "better"? What if they want something slower or faster or less flappy? 

 

Dangit, but sometimes the monkey was right, it -is- better. Five colors/sizes of whopper ploppers today, and probably 10 other buzzy spinny topwater things. They wanted a 90 in bluegill. Not the clear bluegill, the one with the white belly. 10 to 1 on that specific thing vs everything else I threw this morning.

 

Here's a clip of the monkey taking his truck out for a spin:

 

3 hours ago, Capriceragtop said:

do you limit by taking only a few of each

This actually helps a little. Ask me about the bag of brush hogs I've been hauling around that are nearly last on my list to actually fish. If I didn't do this it would be six bags. 

 

The other thing that helps goes a little like this - 

Monkey - look at this shakeyhead trick worm video, you can see them underwater. The ones you use aren't as good as these others and you only need four bags, but you better take everything with you so you can test and see just how much better these are. 

Me - shutup monkey ? , it's too weedy, I haven't used a shakeyhead in a year. 

[Biglittle8]

If I'm bank fishing, I carry one 3700 with 1topwater (plopper or popper)  Black and blue, Carolina Craw and pumpkin colored chatterbaits, one spinnerbait. I don't skimp on jigs, I take a good assortment of colors and types. 1 bag of assorted plastics( worms and trailers) I also have a very small box with terminal tackle for just about any rig I need.  If I go out in the boat, I take a lot more!

[Hammer 4]

I use to stuff my fairly large backpack with as much as I could get in there. Over time I realized that maybe 1/2 of it wasn't being used, plus knowing your body of water can help eliminate a bunch of baits. I do carry 4 rigs, 3 baitcasters and 1 spinning rig.

One thing I still carry the most of is plastic's, mainly different sized worms, and in a few colors. Spinnerbaits were downsized to 4, 2 3/8, and 2 1/2 oz in shad pattern.

I carry no crankbaits due to the vegetation.

For terminal tackle, I still carry a good selection of hooks, but downsized the amount of bullet and dropshot weights. Being almost 73 with a not great back, the lower weight sure helps.

Again the key is to know the patterns of the bass where you fish, and only time on the water will help you to find out.

[Deleted account]

12 hours ago, Capriceragtop said:

I also feel compelled to take all the tackle with me, every time I go.

 

I never know what the bass are biting, so I tend to take the gamut,

Rx: More time on the water, and the experience derived from it, and a referral to psych for a diagnosis to the "compelled" thing.

[galyonj]

Yesterday I took my newly slimmed-down load of junk with me. A 3600 box with some soft plastics I like, a 3600 box with skirted jigs and plugs, and a 3500 with jigheads and hooks and whatnot. And I didn't catch a single ******* fish.

 

I could've done what I used to do, which involved putting every single lure I've ever bought into a backpack and taking that thing with me.

 

The result would've been the same.

 

The problem is not that I didn't have every color of every soft plastic ever made, every different crankbait, every possible anything.

 

The problem is that I'm not good at fishing. An additional (probably worse) problem is that if I start out badly, my mindset goes to **** and I start fishing too fast and compounding every bad decision I make while I'm out.

 

Carrying more trash back and forth to the lake isn't gonna change that.

[Hook2Jaw]

Focus on a few techniques at a time to narrow your bait selection.  If you want to learn something new, first identify what variables are necessary for one to see success with that new bait.  Otherwise, focus on your confidence baits.

 

Some of those confidence baits for me are crankbaits in all portions of the water column in all but the coldest climates of the year when I've got prefrontal conditions that present a combination of wind and low light conditions.  I find my best days of crankbait fishing combine those two factors.  Presented with one of either wind or cloud cover, I will lock a casting jig and pitching jig in for the day and look for big bites around high percentage areas.  Those two baits in addition to a senko styled worm fished weightless, a dropshot rig, and a shakyhead round out almost all of my fishing from the post spawn to the fall.

 

As soon as fall rolls around, a lot of my crankbaits become jerkbaits and the three aforementioned finesse techniques accompany them through the colder months of the year until the cycle completes itself.

 

Instead of devoting yourself to researching and throwing every single bait on the market, identify some standouts for yourself and understand their intricacies.  In doing so, you'll cut down on the baits you carry.  Fish the conditions, your available high percentage areas, and what you're confident in.  You'll put more bass in the boat with fewer dollars spent and less pounds lugged.

[Team9nine]

From the bank, one rod/one reel and whatever baits you can stuff in your pockets. That’s it. Learn to be adaptable and figure out how one style of bait can be presented so many different ways. If you guessed wrong on a particular lake/day, it’s no biggie.  Bring something different the next trip. Ease of mobility is king from the bank. The more you know, the less you throw. Don’t be a tackle box digger.

[WRB]

The solution is simple....buy a bass boat with lots of storage.

Now you have unlimited tackle buying opportunities.

Tom

[DaubsNU1]

10 minutes ago, WRB said:

The solution is simple....buy a bass boat with lots of storage.

Now you have unlimited tackle buying opportunities.

Tom

 

That is one of the reasons I am re-designing | re-building my fishing boat.

 

I would rather had it and not need it, vs. need it and not have it...

 

Boat is coming together nicely...four open squares in the middle will be covered storage. I will also have additional storage under the bow deck (not cut in this picture). 

 

Plenty of room for all my crap : )

 

 

[MN Fisher]

43 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

That is one of the reasons I am re-designing | re-building my fishing boat.

Same reason I removed the plastic seats in the canoe and replaced them with 2x12s supported on aluminum angle - lots of under-seat storage now that lets me take everything I own.

[Hawkeye21]

I have a big rubbermade tote that I throw all my extra geat in, including bags of plastics.  When I travel for a tourney I bring that with me.  I pick out what I think I'm going to need on the water and put that into a bag so I don't have too much gear with me on the water.

[Capriceragtop]

Thanks for all the advice, folks.

 

With regards to confidence, I feel I'll always throw a weightless Texas-rigged worm. It's what I caught my first bass with (happened to be my PB), and I feel I can snag a few with it, regardless of conditions. Working on getting larger fish. I can nail dinks with worms, but larger fish don't seem as interested in Zoom trick worms. 

 

That said, I also have a ton of cranks, jerks, chatters, spinners, etc. Don't get me started on soft plastics; I thought I had more than enough, and then yesterday, realized I didn't have a big enough variety of flukes and paddle tails, so I got some, and need more storage for it!

 

The particular spot I fish has been muddy/stained every time I fish it. Except yesterday; it was gin clear! Given this is just a lake, and nowhere close to a river/stream, I guess it's been the lack of rain that allowed it to clear up.

 

I guess I'd just like to have it and not need it. However, with regards to plastics, how can you predict what they're gonna want? Worms have killed at this lake, but had no strikes yesterday. Swapped to a paddle tail and BAM!

 

I guess until I get better at figuring out what they're gonna want, I'll be a regular ole pack mule.