All right, we're getting close to the season, really kicking off, and the fishing is going to get better and better. And we got to be ready to catch those fish. So this time of year, what I'm doing is I'm prepping things. I'm going through my tackle and reorganizing it and getting ready for the season. And so I want to go through a couple of tips that I go through to help you get ready for the season.
First of all, starting off with taking an inventory. That's the beginning. Go through all your tackle and all your baits and all your lures and take a look at what you need to restock up on. This includes your weights, hooks, all your terminal tackle as well, jig heads, what have you. Go through and look at what you're running low on. You might be surprised, like, "Crap, I used a lot more of this type of bait than I thought," or, "I'm getting low on this." So I actually write it down.
Now, over the years, I collected a lot more tackle than I have in my boat, and a lot of it I have extras. Because, what did I do? Well, I ended up buying a lot of stuff that I found out later I already have plenty of. So I have stockpiles. So I first go through my stockpiles and see if I have any of that stuff that's on my list to replenish what's in the boat. And after I do that, now I've got myself a list of items I need to go buy. Now, I know exactly what I need to get, and I'm not going to overbuy. I'm not going to buy stuff that I don't need or stuff that I already have, right? It helps with your budget quite a bit. And then you wait for that tackle warehouse sale and go for it, right? That spring sale they always have. Now, you're ready. So that's step one.
Now, step two is I check all my hooks, especially the baits that have treble hooks but also my jigs and my spinnerbaits, those type of things. I go through and I check every hook for sharpness. Now, that's a little tedious. So in some cases, I've been sharpening these hooks over the years, treble hooks will actually get dull just sitting there in the tackle box and you never even used them that year. It's because it's jostling around on the boat or in your tackle box as you're going down the bank, whatever it may be, but you're moving it all the time, and sometimes those hooks get a little dull. So don't assume that because you sharpened it last year, they're still sharp. Check them.
Check them, sharpen all your hooks. And in many cases, I replace the hooks. Particularly if it's a newer bait or a new bait, I often will go up one size bigger on my treble hooks, right, from a size six to a size four, for example. That way, if a bass on a crankbait, for example, slashes out the bait or tries to stun it, I have a better chance of hooking them. A bigger bite on a treble hook, you often keep the fish pinned better. The downside, of course, is you can get hung up more often. So I don't tend to size up on, say, squarebills. So keep that in mind, but now is the time to tediously go through that time-consuming stuff to make sure all your hooks are super sharp. So all you got to do is pull the bait out, tie it on, and go fishing. Make sure you check your jigs and spinnerbaits because that's often overlooked.
Now, the next one's a little more specialized towards my style of fishing, which I...spinnerbaits are my confidence lure. So take what I'm going to tell you with a grain of salt. Apply it to your confidence bait however it may fit. But for me, it's spinnerbaits. I love spinnerbaits. I've been fishing them for a long time and I've caught thousands of fish, literally thousands of fish on spinnerbaits. My PB is on a spinnerbait.
What I do is I make sure that I have two things. First of all, I stockpile my spinnerbaits. I have a good collection of brand-new in-package spinnerbaits. I replenish that because you do break a few or lose a few through the course of fishing. That's just normal. And I also look for trailers. Make sure I have the trailers I need. I usually carry spare skirts, so make sure I have those in the boat. And blades. I change blades a lot, and I carry a collection of blades with me in the boat. Now, this big assortment you see here is...I don't have that in the boat, that's a lot, but I take a selection out of that. That's my stockpile. I take a selection out of that, and I carry that in the boat with me as well. And I make sure that I have that well-stocked in the boat ready to go.
So do those things too. These things matter because when you're on the water and you need that one thing and if you don't have it, you're like, "D'oh. Dang it." Okay. Then you get off the water, you go put it in the boat, then you don't need it for the rest of the season. It's that one time you needed it, you don't have it. So make sure that now is the time of the year to go through all that stuff, make sure you're absolutely ready for that first cast, and I promise you, you're going to have a much better season this year.
I hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit bassresource.com.
