In one week, I will be leaving for my yearly fishing trip up north in Canada. We will be going after northern pike and walleye.

I've been fishing for more than twenty five years now, and I find that every year, there's something about the way I carry my stuff that I annoys me.

Most of the times, I fish in a simple 12' jonboat with a friend.

In my early days, I used to have a small Plano tackle box which I quickly overgrew when I began fishing pike and walleye (and taking fish off my hooks myself!).

Then I switched to a larger tackle box, the Plano 757, the one with 4 drawers and a huge compartment on top. Wow! That's a whole lot of space I had there, unfortunately it couldn't hold all my gear. Large bug repellent bottles, gloves, beverages... where was I supposed to store those? Besides, the large box was clunky to use while sitting in the jonboat with the fuel tank lying on the bottom, etc..

Maybe using a simple duffle bag would work well? I have some Plano clear boxes that I could store my fishing tackle in, and still have some space for other stuff such as spare reel, fishing line, my gloves, pliers, and so on. It would not be waterproof but i'm not looking for waterproof necessarily.

Did any of you change the way you carry your fishing gear over the years? If so, did you find what works for you?

Anyone a fan of a super simple duffle bag with a few clear boxes and misc stuff?

Thanks for taking the time to read through my post! (and i'm sorry for my OCD, i'm sure it shows...)

I have one large tackle box that I pull tackle from before leaving the house, camp etc. This tackle is put into the small clear boxes which then go into my small 14 LT (850 cubic inches) backpack.



I prefer a small backpack as it leaves both hands free as compared to a duffel bag that must be carried in one hand or slung awkwardly over a shoulder. The backpack is big enough to carry water bottles in the external pockets, carry a small lunch, light sweater, extra reel and other required gear yet still small enough to stow under a boat seat etc.

I found backpacks, even those purpose-designed for fishing from places like Cabela's, were too fiddily to work with in a boat.

My last evolution so far, is a large shoulder strap carry, top zip bag used to carry large Plano boxes with room for a few more plus a few outside zip pockets for stuff. The extra room inside can hold a micro-rainsuit and a thermos bottle. The outside pockets carry various fishing tools. The bag sits on the deck and everything is accessible from the top.

Good luck!

+1

My dad has been fishing since he was a kid and turned 81 this past March. I think this is the same set-up he now uses. The main case is soft sided, and the assorted fishing gear sits in the hard plastic cases and are stacked inside the main case. He has hard cases for bass, crappie, etc (sometimes more than one case depending on the amount of gear it requires). A very modular design, he can pack it all inside the main case until he gets where he will be fishing, then add or remove cases depending on what he will be fishing for that day. YMMV

I prefer plano boxes in a soft-sided bag too, with pockets for SAK, FAK, bug spray, etc. My problem is that I always seem to bring too much gear and catch far too many grass bass for the effort!