All these lures! Bucktails, jerk baits, crank baits, surface baits,
spinnerbaits, jigs, soft plastics, sucker rigs, leaders, rain gear, tools...How do I organize all this stuff ?
If you are like me, I’ve asked myself that same question about a thousand times.
Quite frankly, it’s a very difficult situation.
If you have your own boat with an unlimited amount of cubbies to stow away your stuff,
this might not seem to be a problem. I have had the opportunity to fish with a lot of
folks that have big rigs with storage cavities just about everywhere in their boat. They
carry every lure they own. They have big boxes, small boxes, buckets, bags, lure tubes,
hanging racks and just about every possible combination imaginable. If you own a boat and
have the convenience of space, consider yourself lucky. You can go out on the water with
everything you own and be prepared for any situation that may come up, assuming you can
remember where everything is.
Not all of us fall into that category. What about the guy who rents a boat for a week
from a resort and wants to fish seriously for his beloved Musky ? How does he go about
storing what he needs to get the job done ? A 14 foot resort boat doesn’t have
cubbies, hanging racks or any built-ins at all ! We definitely have a problem here. I
would like to make an assumption here. We can’t use all our
baits at the same time. You know what I mean. You’re a Musky
fisherman. You’re intelligent. You know that certain baits are used at certain times.
You have a plan for the day. You know that fishing weedbeds in the early morning is a good
call on the particular lake you are on. As the day progresses if the sun is high you move
to the weedline. My point is, you only need the baits that fit your plan on a given
part of the day.
Since you can’t take it all with you, what do you do ? The best method of
organizing is breaking your gear down to manageable numbers with a specific goal in mind.
Let me illustrate this point. About six years ago I fished with a guy named Ben. We rented
a 12 foot resort boat and went Musky fishing for about 4 hours. I lugged my big bait box
into the boat along with a couple of small duffels just loaded with all my baits. I was
ready for anything. Ben got into the boat with a small mini-box and two rods. I thought to
my self that this guy isn’t prepared.
Getting to our first spot, he opened his mini-box and this is what I saw. 2-bucktails,
2-surface baits, 2-crank baits and 2-jerk baits. He had a light and dark color of each. I
want you to know that he outfished me that day and the reason was his system was simple.
He took what he needed for the amount of time and conditions he was fishing. His baits
were in the water. When we got back to the landing, he opened the back of his pickup and
there I saw two huge boxes crammed with Musky baits of every size, color and style. This
little adventure taught me a valuable lesson.
