Fishing Places

Tackle Storage: Carrying All You Need

As professionl walleye fishermen we carry a lot of fishing tackle and equipment when we hit the water. However, even in our tournament boats there is limited storage when you consider the amount of stuff we haul around. The key is to carry enough equipment so that we can try a variety of techniques – but not so much that we can’t move around the boat for all the boxes and bags scattered on the floor.

For tackle, we carry about 5 soft sided tackle bags (in different sizes) that are organized by technique. Soft sided bags have the advantage of employing removable, clear plastic boxes. That way, if you are fishing at a location and find that a certain bait is working well, you can swap in more boxes with that style bait and leave the non- productive lures in the truck.

Fishing Equipement:

The Walleye Angler Catalog has soft bags designed for walleye fisherman. Each maximizes the amount of tackle you can fit in a limited space. Let’s look at how we organize each Walleye Angler Tackle Bag.

We use the large Walleye Angler Touring Bag to hold our crankbaits. It can hold up to 12, 360 series boxes (each with 6 compartments). One box for Thunder Sticks, one for Deep ThunderSticks, others for Rattle Tots, Lightning Shads and Jr. ThunderSticks, etc. Since each compartment can hold 3 to 8 lures (based on their size), we’ve always got a big selection to choose from.

Fishing Equipement:

This bag also has nice side pockets that hold 8 smaller boxes (3450 series). These store split shot, Berkley Cross- Lok snaps, Storm Suspend Strips and Mustad Triple Grips. Also the Offshore Snap Weight kit comes in a nice plastic box that fits in these side pockets. The large back flap of this bag was designed for bottom bouncers and in there we carry some big Northland Rock Runners (2 oz, 3 oz and their new 4oz). These are used with open water spinners – which we carry in another bag.

Since the Touring Bag has the built in Bottom Bouncer pocket, it’s also the obvious choice for bottom bouncer and rigging accessories. Both these techniques are live bait orientated and requires a variety of terminal tackle. For this we use another Touring Bag, but instead of using 12 medium size boxes (like we did for cranks), we prefer to use 6 of the larger 370 series plastic boxes. Inside the bigger boxes, we can use plastic film canisters to hold individual components. Beads in one box, Northlands Walking sinkers (for use on Roach Rigs) and egg sinkers in another. Hooks, Gum Drop Jigs, and Cylinder Floats go in a third box. The fourth is used for spinner blades. A little hint on blades, keep them in small plastic bags so that they won’t get rusty or dull. Box #5 is for jigging spoons and Storms weight forward Pygmy Spinners. Box six – overflow from the other boxes.

Fishing Equipement:

The bottom bouncer pouch on the back carries half a dozen each of 1/4 to 11/2 ounce Northland Rock-Runners. Especially with FireLine, you will find that the 1/4 and 1/2 ouncers are used most often. The side compartments hold spare line for snells, and some packaged pre-tied spinners. We typically carry a of selection of Northland Rainbow Spinners (two hook version), some P/K Finesse Spinners and some P/K Open Water Spinners. Once these spinners are out of the package, we put them in a different bag – described below.

Jigs, although very important, don’t require as big a bag. The Walleye Angler Tournament 360 Bag holds 6 of the 360 series plastic boxes. For deep fishing and river fishing 1/4 to 3/8 ounce Buck-Shot Rattle Jigs (in all six colors) are stored and for casting jigs we use 1/16 and 1/8 ounce Northland Fire-Balls. Green, Chartreuse, FireTiger, Orange, Blue Rainbow and Gold are the most important colors.

Fishing Equipement – Rod:

We also carry a variety of plastics. Berkley’s Power Jig Worms and Tournament Strength Power Leeches take up a box. One box for Power NightCrawlers and Power Grubs and a final box carries P/K Clip Stingers and a couple packs of Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Jig Rings. This bag also has some side pockets for spare line, and a couple of handy Velcro holders on the front to hold pliers.

Finally, we carry a couple of smaller bags which are mainly used to hold un-packaged snells. The “Jumbo Plastic Binder” and the “Accessory Bag” hold, self sealing plastic bags. When spinner fishing, it’s nice to be able to take a snell that isn’t working and put it individually into one of these bags – ready for use next time. The smaller “Accessory Bag” is great for holding one spinner in each bag thereby reducing the possibility of tangling. The larger bags can hold snells, but are used most often for carrying more of the packaged spinners and snells.

The idea behind carrying a variety of lures is to keep us versatile. It’s hard to try a technique if you don’t have the tackle aboard. By compartmentalizing your tackle like we’ve shown you can carry plenty in the boat to make sure you have “All You Need” for your next walleye fishing adventure.

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Tags: Accessory Bag, Fishing Equipement, Northland Rock Runners, Touring Bag