Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Simplifying my tackle.

My god bass fishing has gotten crazy. I have come to the point where I am sick of carrying tons of tackle. Especially soft plastics. I'm gonna carry zoom trick worms, bass assassin 8" ribbon tail worms and slim paca craws and maybe a few green pumpkin tubes. Period that's all I use 99 percent of the time. I also have a ridiculous amount of rod and reel combos when most of my baitcasting i could do with a 6'6" medium heavy rod and my spinning could be done with a 6'6" medium light or medium. Ah the days of a cane pole and a cricket on a light wire hook...

That tackle is made to catch fishermen Bill. Any fish are a bonus

I could get by happily ever after with 3 top water plugs, red shad 6” ribbon tail worms, 6” chartreuse lizards, 6” smoked shad flukes, 3/8oz bullet sinkers and 4/0 Gamakatsu worm hooks. That’s really all I ever bass fish with aside from the occasional Senko in baby bass color, which I love because they catch fish but hate because they’re good for about 1-2 fish and they’re torn up and wont stay on the hook. Make my rod a 7’ medium heavy with a shimano bait caster and you can have my share of the spinning gear. Currently fishing an old Fenwick Elite and two St Croix Mojobass rods, all are good with plenty of backbone for neck breaker hooksets.

'Ah, the days of of a cane pole and a cricket on a light wire hook"

Yep, there was a bait shop down the road that carried cane poles for a while. I bought two 14footers and used them for much fun on the pond for 3-4 years. Finally lost them. A soft shell turtle about ten pounds broke one as I tried to land him, six pound bass got the other one, thought I did manage to get the fish.

The bait shop went out of business, so no source now. Wall-Mart used to carry those 10foot chinese ones but they are useless.

Use a six foot light/med rod now with a forty year old Zebco 33. It'll work but it's not the same.

if you want to see tackle, jump on any Lake Ontario trolling boat...esp a charter. If they have one of something, they have at least 4 more. And from $3-14 each, it adds up.....

Yes, in central Tenn. I remember willow sticks, kite string, and some of mom's (is this possible) bent straight pins. Off to the creeks on a bike with one of those tin Band-Aid boxes containing a few worms, a couple extra pins, and some split shot, and we caught fish. Nothing of substance, but we were catching fish.

Cane poles were too up town and a bit of overkill for our creeks, but I did know some serious adults that used them in the rivers.

Now there are 4 or 5 rod tubes, a couple ammo boxes full of reels, leaders, and flies; and then the waders and boots with spares of everything piled into the drift boat. Takes a 350 long bed crew cab Ford diesel to get it all to the river.

About 10 years back, I met a silver haired gentleman fishing the Metolius in Oregon with a stick, about 8 ft of mono, and an extremely crude fly. He had come out thinking his entire pack-up was in his camper. Turns out, 4 hrs from home, that was not the case. He wandered along the banks securing a fine stick, discarded mono, and found a couple decayed flies in the campground and/or tangled in bankside shrubbery. Scrounged a few feathers and some fur from a bird's nest and tied a couple flies with thread carefully teased out of his sleeping bag. With a big wide smile, he said "I'm having the best weekend ever," and I think he really meant it.

I just went through this in a different way, and I found a few things helped. First, I bought a printing label maker from Amazon for about $20. This let me label every box as to owner (more than one fisherman in the house) and contents. This makes stuff easy to find and also forced me to meticulously organize my gear. Second, I partitioned all my stuff by species and bought duplicates of commonly needed gear. This sounds like the opposite of what you are talking about, but it made life easier. Now, every kit has pliers, a cheap fillet knife, stringer, hooks, appropriately sized hooks, etc. If tackle has crossover value, I have two sets. For example, if I want some crappie/panfish jigs in my largemouth kit, I add them. I have a separate set of crappie/panfish jigs in my smallmouth river kit. This way I grab one kit and go. I don't have to root around multiple bags for stuff.

Finally, I have a dedicated shelving unit in the garage for only fishing stuff, with slots labeled for everything. I can now grab bag and a pre rigged rod and be out the door in 2 minutes, without having to 'assemble' my kit every time. Want to go striper fishing? Give me two minutes and I'll meet you at the truck. Fly fish for trout? My gear is already packed.

I know this doesn't help you get rid of gear, but it makes everything more organized and you will only carry the gear you need for the type of fishing you do. No need to lug surf sinkers along if you are kayak fishing for largemouth. Good luck.

I just finished going through all my old fishing tackle I had for years sorting out what I will use for smallies and walleyes on the upper Potomac River. I have 3 or 4 plastic boxes will go on eBay after Christmas, mostly Rapala's, Storm , Bagley crankbaits etc. and a few Fenwick Musky rods I don't use anymore along with a few collectible Abu Garcia bait casting reels.

I'll take it. If your not using spinning tackle in the winter here with small hair jigs or 1/8 oz jigheads with 3" grubs you ain't getting bit near as much. Smallies love those baits in cold clear deep water.

My bass fishing season runs from March through September. I have too much hunting to do during the fall and winter months. I do have a killer place that I fish that I always pack along a call and a shotgun for turkeys in the spring. l can fish quietly with the trolling motor until I hear birds and then motor over to get my hunting gear out of the truck. I do use spinning outfits for crappie fishing and catching perch for bait for catfish.

I'll provide the dialog, lol.
Just had a knockdown.
5 guys ask what lure? what color? how deep? how far back? What speed? what did you have for breakfast?
Never mind is was just a fouled lure on a black stinger.
What size was that stinger?

I'm sure you still forgot a few questions. lol

When I retired from tournament fishing quite a while ago, my tackle "simplified" itself a lot. When you're fishing for fun, and not to satisfiy a group of sponsors and a leader board, you throw what you enjoy fishing, not what a winning strategy dictates. I hated drop shotting. There's not a single drop shot rig in my gear these days. I just don't like fishing that presentation. I went from 8 rods and four boxes of stuff to three rods and one box, and don't regret it a bit. I came back to my old favorites. A few Rapalas, Pikie Minnows, (old beat up wood ones) a couple spinner baits, jigs, etc. It ain't rocket science guys. You can spend all summer chasing the latest trendy lures and poles, or you can keep it simple and just go have some fun catching fish.

A person who fishes only one or two species can get along with minimal gear. But otherwise, it'd be like golfing with only one club.

I fish for crappie, smallmouth, largemouth, yellow perch, channel cats, walleye, and wipers. That's in ONE lake. I can also fish for all kinds of trout in lakes, rivers, and streams, from dainty brookies to monster lakers. Then there are the stripers in Lake Powell, the tiger muskies in my nearest lake, and even grayling up in the mountains.

Have only one kind of tackle and lures? You're joking.

I finally arrived at having one tackle box for each type of fish. So, I have a trout box for bait and lures, one for bass, one for cat fishing, one for striped bass, one for pike and toothy fishes, and a vest filled with fly boxes. Don't ever want to count the rods and reels in the garage. When my boys grew up and left home, I told them go get your fishing rods and tackle to take with you. The oldest said " dad, we don't have tackle boxes, you always told us to use out of yours".

Last year alone..... I caught: Largemouth, Smallmouth, White, and Striped Bass (at Lake Powell, and on local lakes).... as well as: Perch, Crappie (some over 15”), Walleye, Sauger, Channel Cat, Sucker, Carp, Northern Pike, Rainbow Trout, Lake Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Brook Trout, Tiger Trout, Splake and a couple monster Bluegills..... all with Shad Colored 3” Berkley Rippleshads, mostly rigged with 1/8oz jigheads, but also Carolina Rigged, Texas Rigged, Under a float, and run behind a flasher or pop-gear. We jigged them, trolled them, casted them, drifted them and flipped them.

Headed to the Florida Keys all next week.... betcha I can catch at least a half dozen different species on the flats with the same rigs.

One bait.... to cover 80% of my fishing.... it’s be the 3” Berkley Rippleshad... fish just plain eat them.

Organized most of my fishing rods.



Carry several tackle boxes on the boat.

That said, some of my most enjoyable days fishing involve a light spinning rod, a pocket sized Plano tackle box with a dozen or so spoons and spinners and a canoe.

Some days your hard pressed to keep a fish off a hook, others you run through the tackle box to find the magic lure and another the fish have lock jaw.