Heavy or Light?

[tunaseeker]

It seems I am always looking to take everything I can fit on the yak out with me when I go fishing. Squeezing in all of the tackle into one large Plano box and always thinking I need more. Yet I look at all of your trophy photos and see no tackle boxes or bulky gear. How do you do it? How much tackle do you take OTW? Line, lures, lead ect... I would like to be lighter OTW. I envy the minimalist!
Cheers and Tight Lines!

[Amish Ed]

I used to bring everything and the kitchen sink, now much more of a minimalist approach. Bear in mind I'm a bass fisherman... I have a box for swimbaits and small bag that hold 3 small plano boxes and some loose bags of baits. I pretty much just bring along enough lead for 2 trips, plus weedless hooks and bullets in one box. The other 2 have creature baits and Ringer worms. Loose bags are 3 bags of Zooms and a bag of Swimmin' Senkos.

I have 2 flush mounts behind the seat and my FF is on a Mad Frog Gear set-up mounted to a Scotty flush mount. With my back I've learned to lighten up on the gear. Plus I finally got over my fear of not having the "right bait" and just make sure I catch fish with what I have on hand. I think it's made me a better angler.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by tunaseeker

It seems I am always looking to take everything I can fit on the yak out with me when I go fishing. Squeezing in all of the tackle into one large Plano box and always thinking I need more. Yet I look at all of your trophy photos and see no tackle boxes or bulky gear. How do you do it? How much tackle do you take OTW? Line, lures, lead ect... I would like to be lighter OTW. I envy the minimalist!
Cheers and Tight Lines!

The bottom line is take only what you need.

I mean every ounce you carry is just more that you have to paddle around. I limit myself to two flat 8x10 plano boxes that I can carry in my center hatch, a roughly 4x8 plastic container for Irons which I velcro on my console, a small container I carry in the cupholder for terminal tackle and a few spools of flurocarbon.

I find I catch most of my fish on the same few basic lures swimbaits and Irons. Since I tend to fish these all the time usually that's pretty much all I carry lure wise. Add rigging hardware hooks and weights. Carry too many hooks and you'll be tossing them because everything gets wet on the yak and rusts, So I take a few of the sizes I use in a film canister. One thing I do not scrimp on is weights, especially if dropper loop fishing, as running out of the right weight lead in the middle of a bite can really shut down your day.

It's no so much how much you carry but how you carry it and how it matches up to how you use your yak.

Lots of guys pile their boats up with gear strewn all over the place, my take is you want to only take things that you need, stow everything in the same place every time, and always have everything out of the way with a clean deck when your fishing.

This is an old offshore thing. You don't want stuff all over the place that you can tangle in or trip over in rough seas offshore.

For me it's the same on the yak. I want everything out of the way so If I hook something big and it get's me in some weird situation, or if conditions go bad there is nothing to foul, or tangle me up, or compromise me when I'm fighting the fish.

Here's pic of a recent trip showing my foredeck...



My drift sock is on it's lanyard in the front well with any fish I'm carrying. In front of the fishfinder is my box of irons velcroed down. I've got my two rod holders in place but they are scotty's and if I pull them I can just toss them in the front well. There's the fishfinder with no exposed wiring to tangle on, in front of that is the round waterproof container I use for my terminal tackle, hooks sinkers etc... Under the halibut is my main hatch and in there is the two plano boxes with lures etc.. my spools of Fluorocarbon leader, and both my batteries where I can easily get to them.

Here's an old photo showing more of the yak...


You can see the same stuff up front, and behind me is the bait tank, and a drybag for holding clothes, and food. Add pliers, a screwdriver, a fish gripper, a waterproof flashlight in the seat and other then the rods, gaff, and whats on my vest, that's pretty much all I carry. It's relatively clean and everything is secure. Basically I figured out what I needed before I ever fished this yak and been carrying the same stuff in the same way ever since.

I guess what I'm saying here is figure out what you absolutely need, figure out a good clean secure way to store it, and keep it light weight and simple.

Just my take though, Jim