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Fishing From The Back Seatby Kevin Patton There's nothing like fishing from your own boat. To avid anglers, a new boat beats a new car any day of the week. It becomes their safe haven, their on-the-water den, their home away from home. Tournament anglers like fishing from their boat because it can be an advantage by giving them first cast at fish-holding structure or because it allows them to pick the tournament fishing waters.
Other anglers enjoy the familiar layout of their own rig. They have all their odds and ends stored where they can find them, at least most of the time. Another advantage is based on the fact that no two anglers operate a trolling motor in the same manner. How many times have you heard somebody complain about a boater fishing too close or too far from structure, moving the boat too fast or too slow, or simply keeping the other angler out of position to cast? All that aside, there probably will be times when you fish in the back of other boats, so how do you prepare for the trip and what are the things that you don't want to leave behind? First of all, you want to travel light. You're going fishing, not moving to Siberia. Keep in mind that you don't want your buddies to bring 15 rods and 5 tackle boxes when they join you in your boat. Secondly, find yourself a quality, multi-purpose tackle bag or box that will accommodate the variety of items that you need to take. Tackle Bags
Get one that has varied-sized compartments so that you can better organize your tackle. This will enable you to easily find items versus taking a duffle bag approach where everything would be piled into one big container. The bag that I use a an Okeechobee Fats product that I won in a raffle, so I receive nothing for mentioning the brand. It suits my purposes so I will describe it's features. The bag measures 21 inches long X 12 inches wide X 12 inches high and has a sturdy shoulder strap. It came with six small plastic boxes that fit inside the bag, five in the main compartment and one in the front pocket. These utility boxes measure 10 3/4 inches long X 7 inches wide X 1 5/8 inches deep and can hold most types of standard lures except bass spinnerbaits and some deep-diving crankbaits. They are smaller than a standard single utility box that measures 14 1/4 X 8 3/4 X 2 inches. If you use the standard boxes to store your lures, hooks, and weights, two will easily fit into the main compartment, but three is a very tight fit with no room for other gear. The tackle bag has two small side pockets that I use for such things as a digital camera, cell phone, or wallet. A zippered mesh net is attached to the back of the bag for things that don't need protection and that you want to access easily, such as a hand towel. The zippered front pocket contains three separate inside compartments and has slots to hold pliers, a hook file, and line clippers. The main compartment, in addition to holding five small utility boxes or two larger ones, has five ziploc bags attached to the inside of the bag that will store bass spinnerbaits. Equipment You'll Need
Everybody's list of fishing tackle and equipment is a little different, but I'll describe some of the items that I include. There are links at the end of this article to Adobe PDF (.pdf), MicroSoft Word (.doc) and rich text format (.txt) files so that you can download a copy, alter it to suit your needs, and print it to use as a checklist for fishing trips. Some of the items that I store in my tackle bag include sunglasses, sunscreen, hat, digital camera, hand towel, soap, kleenex, bug spray, cell phone, flashlight, fish attractant, pliers, hook file, line clippers, braided-line scissors, medications or prescriptions, and eye care needs. Your buddy with the boat will probably have the following items, but it doesn't hurt to ask about life vests, seat cushion, bumpboard or tape measure, net, anchor, filet board and knife, ziploc bags for filets, lake maps, fish basket or stringer, bait buckets and dip nets, live bait, can opener, garbage bags, and radio. If you are fishing a tournament, you may want to take the correct change to pay the entry fee, a weigh-in bag to haul your catch to the scales, a culling system or hand-held scales (with battery) to weigh fish, and a wrist watch. I sometimes bring a coffee cup/thermos or modest cooler with water, beverages, food and a can cooler (wrap). When I meet up with my fishing partner, I've got my rod/reel combos, one tackle bag, rain suit, cooler, and thermos. All my partner needs to do is drive to the lake, run the boat, and put us on fish. Sounds like a deal to me!
MicroSoft Word (.doc) Non-boater Fishing List Rich text format (.rtf) Non-boater Fishing List See our Free Downloads page for access to other fishing lists that may be of interest. |
