What's In Your Canoe Box?

[eric1978]

I always used to think that the best fishermen have a basically infinite amount of lures they use, but I think I'm changing my mind about that. I'm beginning to think that a small selection of lures, practiced to perfection is much more effective than 50 different lures, rigged 100 different ways in a 1000 different colors. Every time I'd see Bill Dance on TV when I was a kid he'd have some goofy looking new lure. In my younger, more easily influenced days (stupid is a better word for it), I'd go out and buy one in every color. Then the next trendy lure would show up, and I'd be the proud owner of that one times ten. And on and on until one day I realized I had a whole garage full of garbage I never used. Few of them made it out of their packages, even fewer were tied on, and fewer still were ever tossed in the water. So I sold about 99% of all that crap, and whittled my collection down to an "arsenal."

I just filled a new, small tackle box for under my canoe seat, and this is all that went in it. What else do I really need? These are the baits I'm proficient using. They are the baits I have confidence in. They cover all levels of the water table, all colors of water, all speeds of water, and all temps of water. If I can't catch 'em on these, I hang up my rods. At any given time, one of these presentations will work, or the fish just aren't interested that day. I think I'm over wasting my time "testing out" new tackle when I could be spending that time practicing new techniques with the tried and true baits.

Spinnerbaits: a couple of each size/blade combination in natural and dark colors

Jerkbaits: Pointers, XRaps, couple sizes each in natural colors

Crankbaits: a couple of each size/depth in natural and dark colors

Topwaters:

-a couple Sammys, whitish, grayish, silvery translucenty

-a couple poppers, greenish, brownish

-a few buzzbaits, white, natural, black

Plastics:

-4" & 5" Flukes in translucent, bright but natural colors.

-4" & 5" Senkos in similar colors to the flukes, but opaque, and a couple dark colors.

-2.5", 3.5", 4.5" Tubes in browns, olives, black

Hair Jigs: several sizes in browns, olives, black with good plastic craw trailers

These are the baits that I use consistently and consistently catch fish with. I keep going back to them year after year. This is now my "arsenal" and I will leave home with nothing but these baits from here on out.

What does your "arsenal" look like?

[fishinwrench]

This is now my "arsenal" and I will leave home with nothing but these baits from here on out.

Uh-hu, I've said that before too.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Here is a little game for ya. My dad got me started on this. Well I don't practice it much as he does. But as I get older and I have many more bass under my belt, it provides a new challenge to it.

Start out with what works for you. Like you said, we all have a fav that we always rely on to catch them. So go ahead and start with that. After you catch one, switch. Put on a different bait. You can't switch again until you catch another one. At times this will make you fish your butt off. Other times you will be switching quite often.

You can learn alot about the habits of bass doing this.

[eric1978]

Here is a little game for ya. My dad got me started on this. Well I don't practice it much as he does. But as I get older and I have many more bass under my belt, it provides a new challenge to it.

Start out with what works for you. Like you said, we all have a fav that we always rely on to catch them. So go ahead and start with that. After you catch one, switch. Put on a different bait. You can't switch again until you catch another one. At times this will make you fish your butt off. Other times you will be switching quite often.

You can learn alot about the habits of bass doing this.

That's a great idea to build confidence in a new bait. But what if you catch a fish, switch lures, and catch nothing the rest of the day? Could you make it all day without going back to the original lure? I couldn't. I'd last about two minutes. If something is working, I usually stick with it until it stops working, and that's probably why I use so few lures.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I don't carry a big variety. Jerkbaits= Xraps, Top water= Sammy's, Plastic= Senko's, some tubes, and some Slider worms, Jigs= Lots of jigs. I carry a few cranks, shallow runners like the Shad Rap.

The tubes are a last resort, too many get swallowed.

[smallmouthjoe]

I would definitely throw in some of the classic rubber or silicon skirted jigs with matching trailer. When the fish are really keying in on crayfish nothing beats them. I would also add some jerk baits to the mix, original floater, x-raps, husky jerks. Man, I sound like an ad for rapala.

[eric1978]

I would definitely throw in some of the classic rubber or silicon skirted jigs with matching trailer. When the fish are really keying in on crayfish nothing beats them. I would also add some jerk baits to the mix, original floater, x-raps, husky jerks. Man, I sound like an ad for rapala.

I like the silicon skirts for LM, but for smallies I prefer the realistic look and finesse of the hair jigs. If the water is murky, I'll throw a bigger silicon skirt jig with a bulkier trailer and a rattle, but I generally don't care for jigs in really murky water anyway.

The jerkabaits are in the box. Love the Pointer 78 SPs.

[Al Agnew]

You could divide my lures into three categories. One is the old tried and true reliables, two is the sometimes necessary but usually not used, and three is the new experiments. The problem with the new experiments is that they usually don't get experimented with unless the other stuff ain't working, and chances are at that point THEY ain't gonna work, either. So few new lures seem to graduate to either of the other two categories. But once in a while one does.

I too want to have lures that cover the whole water column at all speeds, and I think between my old reliables and my sometimes necessary, I've pretty much got it covered.

My river stuff goes in 5 3701 Plano boxes (the biggest size but only a bit over an inch thick) and 4 3600 boxes. Seems like a lot of storage and a lot of tackle, but in reality there are relatively few lures in that selection, just at least two of everything and a variety of sizes and colors.

3701 topwater box

Three or four brands of walk-the-dog topwater lures, one brand and size popper, three or four prop lures, and two sizes of my homemade Subwalk. All of them are basically in light colors. Of those, the Sammys, poppers, and homemade Subwalks are now old reliables, the prop baits are in category two, and some of the other WTD lures are experiments.

3701 crankbait box

A bunch of my homemade crankbaits in three basic color schemes, several modified Wiggle Warts, a few other deeper-diving crankbaits, a couple of floating Rattletraps. The homemade cranks are category one, Wiggle Warts category two, the other crankbaits are category three, the Rattletraps are for my wife because that's her favorite lure.

3701 spinnerbait and buzzbait box (had to cut out some dividers to make it work for these baits)

A bunch of my homemade twin spins in three different colors, a number of "regular" spinnerbaits in the same three basic colors, and three sizes of buzzbaits in the same three colors. Twin spins and buzzbaits are mostly category one, regular spinnerbaits in category two.

3701 box for tubes and finesse worms--three colors and two sizes of tubes, two colors finesse worms. The 3.5 inch tubes are category one, finesse worms and smaller tubes category two.

3701 box for Superflukes and Senkos--two sizes Superflukes, two sizes Senkos, two colors flukes, three colors Senkos. Flukes are category one, Senkos category two.

3600 box for jigs and jig trailers--two sizes and three basic colors, three colors and varieties of hair jigs, assorted jig trailers. Jigs are category one, hair jigs category two.

3600 box for various spinnerbait trailers and curlytail grubs.

3600 box for jerkbaits--two sizes and assorted colors of mostly Pointers and X-Raps. Category two...but from fall to spring category one.

3600 box for all the hardware--hooks, sinkers, jig heads, all purpose tool, thermometer.

In the cool to cold water period this all changes. I eliminate the topwater box, consolidate the cranks and spinnerbaits to a few varieties.

Do I carry too much stuff? Absolutely. I could get by very well with less than half the stuff I carry. But I CAN carry it, so I don't feel guilty about it.

[eric1978]

You could divide my lures into three categories. One is the old tried and true reliables, two is the sometimes necessary but usually not used, and three is the new experiments. The problem with the new experiments is that they usually don't get experimented with unless the other stuff ain't working, and chances are at that point THEY ain't gonna work, either. So few new lures seem to graduate to either of the other two categories. But once in a while one does.

My problem exactly.

I'm surprised to hear hair jigs are category 2. They're pretty much the only jigs I use on clearer streams.

Great post, Al.

[brownieman]

If I'm lake fishing I'll take the entire arsenal of which I have a few 'go to' plugs and spoons.

If I am canoe fishing I try to take only what I feel I will need and the amount of gear I take depends on the river I'm fishing.

I grew up on the Big Piney and always bait fished with my dad so when I am fishing the Piney, Jacks Fork, warmer water streams I generally take some #6 hooks, sinkers and a minnow trap, bucket and seine... some crackers for me and the minnows. Having fished bait for years I can generally keep most fish from swallowing the minnow... you just can't let them run with it too long, miss alot of em but don't like em swallowing it.

If they do swallow it too far I'll lose a bunch of hooks...I'm not going to hurt a smallie getting a 5 cent hook back.

For years we used jig hooks, a fairly large split shot and 4 1/2 " purple creme worms...purple jigs. A few years back they quite making creme brand worms, I have a few left but for me I have never found another that works as well.

Just for back up I'll take a few top waters, spinners and deep divers. Have had days when minnows are hard to come by.

I have one fishing buddy that no matter where and when we go, short of wade fishing, he'll take every piece of hardware he has and end up using the same old stand by's. Guess I can understand his thinking...he is always afraid he'll need something he left at home, hence...just packs it all. It has paid off a few times but most of the time just eats up space in the boat.

later on

bm