Fishing Resolutions For A New Year

Fishing Resolutions For A New Year:

I've never been the kind of person to set New Year's Resolutions for myself.  I live my life fairly regret free, and I'm content with my every day lifestyle.  So why even try to quit my beloved Dr. Pepper until my non-peppered actual doctor tells me to?  It's not like I'm going to actually succeed in that anyway!

With that said, I have some things I'd like to do, and some changes I'd like to experiment with when it comes to bass fishing.  These things aren't necessarily "resolutions".  They aren't even necessarily changes for the better.  Honestly, they may not even be things that I want to do all year.  They are just some things I want to do, or experiment with just for the hell of it.  However, since it just happens to be New Year's Eve, let's go ahead and call these my New Years Fishing Resolutions:

1. Catch a fish on a lure I make myself.

I've made a few jigs and inline spinners the last few months but haven't given them a real shot yet.  Fishing has been slow lately so I've been sticking with the tried and true methods to at least get a few bites each trip.  Once these waters get warmed up and the fish are hungry again, I will catch something on those homemade lures!

2. Find a line I like and stick with it, then buy it in bulk to save money.

I just want to make each trip to the store a bit simpler.  Every time I step into a Bass Pro or Sportman's Warehouse I remember that one reel sitting on the shelf and I think of the myriad options of what I could do with it.  Then I stand in front of the wall of available fishing line and stress about the perfect choice.  It would be so much easier just knowing I have 5 bulk spools at home to do whatever I want with.

3. To save more money, make that line a copolymer and use it on everything (except finesse rods).

I know how important line is.  And I know that not using the "right" line for the technique might affect how many fish I catch.  However, I'll never really know unless I give it a good honest shot.  This is one I want to do all year long so I can compare my catch rates to last year when I did it the "right" way.

4. Before buying a new rod, sell an old rod.

I need a heavy flipping and pitching rod. I have four crankbait rods.  If you're looking for a decent used crankin' stick, let me know in the comments!

5. Actually act on one of my ideas to try to make some extra money on the side through fishing.

I have three ideas.  One of them might just turn out to be a promising business endeavor...  If you have a degree in business, if you know your way around web design, or if you own a fishing guide business and are looking to expand, let me know that in the comments too!

6. Help my wife catch her first fish.

Seeing as my wedding is in two days, I feel as though I should add in something about her in my New Year's Resolutions... If that is what these are....

There it is, six things that I might actually do this new year.  I've also told myself that I'm going to stop drinking energy drinks.  So if we're fishing together in the future and you notice a Monster in my hand, feel free to give me crap about it, not that it's actually going to make me stop drinking it, but it's always fun to give each other crap.

So do you have any fishing related resolutions this New Years?  If so let us know in the comments below or on Facebook!

Tight Lines to you all in 2016!

A New Way To Organize Soft Plastics

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!