Organizing your tackle, specifically soft plastics, is a discussion that comes up time and time again in bass clubs and on internet forums. Keeping your gear organized can mean the difference between catching a twenty-pound limit and weighing in just a handful of dinks. Wether you're a tournament angler or a weekend warrior, organization is vital to keeping the frustration out of the boat and a hook in the water longer; which is really the key to catching fish. You can't catch them if you're busy tying on hooks and juggling your terminal tackle.
When you're fishing from a small boat or kayak, issues with organization seem to magnify and simple frustrations can lead to dangerous situations if you're hit with an unexpected wind gust or boat wake. Many of the common solutions for organizing soft plastics may be sufficient in a bass boat or when you're fishing from shore, but there's added struggle when trying to work in such limited space while kayak fishing. After two years of kayak fishing, I have finally developed a system that works for me, maybe it will work for you too.
The system is basically the same system that I, and many anglers, have been using for years to organize hard baits: technique specific Plano boxes. Almost every serious bass angler has several Plano boxes, one for jerkbaits, one for deep diving cranks, one for top waters and so on. Why not adapt that same system to our soft baits? Say you're fishing medium diving crank baits, my strategy would be to leave my crankbait box out until I find just the right depth and color needed to get hit. If I'm fishing Texas rigs, trying that strategy will result in a mess. I'd end up having ziplock bags of plastics, hook boxes, weight boxes, and other various terminal tackle all over the place. So it finally hit me, I need a Texas rig box!
Texas Rigs
Now, certainly this one box of stuff isn't all of my potential gear for Texas rigs, but it will suffice for a day or two of kayak fishing. The colors, size, or shape of the baits I bring will slightly change throughout the seasons and at different lakes, but the majority of this box stays simple and consistent all year round. I prefer offset round bend hooks on Texas rigs, and I generally match the weight with the hook. This allows me to keep things that would normally be in two separate boxes into just three compartments in one box. I don't need a separate box filled with all sorts of hooks if I know I'm only going to be using three all day.
Dropshot
Just like the Texas rig box above, my dropshot box holds all the plastics, hooks, and weights needed for the technique. If you dropshot often you'll know that the weights break off often and such small worms don't last more than a few fish. Having one box on the deck with everything you need makes retying the rig a quicker process so you can get that hook out there again sooner.
Small Swimbaits
Like the above examples I keep with me just a small selection of colors and sizes. If one of those colors or sizes won't get hit, then I'm probably going to switch to a whole new technique rather than trying other slight variants of swimbaits. Again, I use different hooks with swimbaits than with other plastics, so instead of having a second box with twenty different hooks to sort through, I just keep a few types of swimbait hooks in the same box.
Shaky Heads
For the longest time I had a "Finesse Box" where I kept all my dropshot, shakey heads, and weightless stuff all together. I quickly found though, especially in Arizona lakes, that finesse techniques are important enough and deserving enough for their own boxes.
Senkos
There's only three ways I ever fish Senkos: weightless wacky, weightless t-rig, and nail weighted. This one simple box covers it all. This is also the only technique I use extra-wide gap hooks. So rather than getting them all mixed up in other various hooks I just keep them with the other Senko stuff. I keep the O-ring tool right in there too because once again Senkos are the only thing I use it for, so why keep it anywhere else?
Jigs
Most of us already have a jig box. Leave a couple compartments free and before your trip toss in three or four different trailers.
Bed Fishing (Stop reading now if you have a stick stuck up your butt):
This one box is probably responsible for more fish than any other box, and it's only used about two months out of the year. When bed fishing it's even more important to re-tie and switch lures quickly. If you have a fish agitated and ready to strike but it won't hit that size or color of lure, you don't want to give it five minutes to relax while you're fumbling around with your tackle. The quicker you can get a bait out there, the sooner you can get that bed fish to bite.
Since I've started this system, I really haven't encountered any major issues. The particular boxes I take with me are designed around whichever lake I'm going to and the current season. There may be trips where I only take one or two boxes. On other days I may take six or seven. One of my biggest struggles when I first started kayak fishing was feeling the need to take everything with me. Unfortunately we don't have rod lockers and acres of storage like you would find on a 20 foot bass boat. You need to do your homework in advance to know what techniques to focus on as taking every lure you own may not be practical. My next post will be a write up on the "homework" involved with kayak fishing and will be filled with information to help you decide which boxes to take and which to leave behind.
Think this solution might work for you? Do you have another solution to the soft plastics fiasco that resides in kayak crates across the country? Let me know in the comments below!
Tight lines!
No comments:
Post a Comment