Simplifying

[rps]

When I moved here in 2002, I had not seriously fished for several years. In anticipation of fishing often, I bought many things. To say I have changed my approach is an understatement. I no longer "power fish." I really don't fish spinner baits anymore other than slowrolling twin spins and sometimes throwing a buzz bait. I rarely try to jig and pig fish. I haven't thrown any crank baits other than a wart or a jerk bait in years.

What is worse, I often fish the topwater hours and then quit on the bass to fish for walleye.

What this means is that I intend to simplify my lure boxes to reflect the truth. I am days away from culling pounds of lead jigs, jars of rind, handfuls of lures, and way too many spinner baits. My plan in progress includes the small box of rigging for Jikka rigs, a smaller box of Ned heads, a wide variety of plastic to use on the foregoing, a box of warts, a small box of twin spins, and my walleye gear.

Questions: What do you do with the culls, when was the last time you stripped down, what would you choose to keep if it was time to simplify?

[countryred]

I used to fish bass tournaments every weekend. Probably 25 flat tackleboxes and duffel bags full of plastics. I gave that up a few years ago but still do some pond hopping, creek fishing, and go with a buddy out in his boat once in a while.

I have a smallmouth box, full of heads,jigs, hooks, sinkers, toothpicks, jerkbaits and topwaters. I keep a small bag just for the my smallie plastics like craws, grubs, tubes, and finnese worms.

I also have a largemouth box, full of jigs, texas rig stuff, a few bagley crankbaits, a buzbait or two, and a few spinnerbaits. There is another bag for plastics like 7-10 worms, chunks, senkos, etc

My smallie box also works good for panfishing. I still have tons but a lot of my buddies have depleted my old baits that I don't use and just happen to be hot at the time.

[Feathers and Fins]

Randy, I did exactly that about a year and half ago. I got rid of all my spinner baits 90% of my cranks and all my plastics except Keitechs. Its made life easier for catching fish.

I found the few baits that are constant producers and learned to use them in many circumstances and ways. Now I am not fumbling through the boxes all day trying to find something that works but finding why something is working. ( Is it speed, Is it color, Is it depth ) Its made me a far better fishermen because I stopped blaming the bait and started trying to find where they were at and what retrieve speed they wanted.

Whats in my boxes right now? 2 boxes of Flicker Shad, 2 boxes of Keitech, 1 box of rapala SR series, 2 boxes of misc reef runner style baits a box of hooks and a box of weights abd the old bucktail box I will never be without.

The culls I actually went to the lake and gave them to kids I saw fishing.

[bfishn]

Ha! Every time I try to pare it down it becomes ridiculously akin to The Jerk's famous "All I Need" rant...

[mixermarkb]

Been there. I pared things down a couple years ago, then just spent a few hours Monday doing it again. My wife laughs at me when I say I need to restock my tackle, but it is true. I'm mainly at the point where purchasing tackle is replacing things rather than buying new. I've added a few new techniques, I did go into the A-rig for winter, even though I held off and fought it for a long time. I've also been getting into deep cranking, so I've bought some fat free shads, DD-22's, and rapala DT series cranks. I'm thinking ill settle on the DT series, but I haven't made up my mind, so I do have more choices of deep cranks than I'd like. I now try to pick one style of bait, in a couple of colors, for each technique.

My system is loosely:

_________ lure- in a color for clear water, bright skies, clear water overcast, stained water bright skies, stained water overcast.

Jerk baits are megabass, 110 and 110plus, no more than 4 colors. Wiggle warts, same kind of deal. Same thing with soft plastics. The less choices the better. Jigs are pretty much 3 colors, in 3 weights for depth/fall speed control, with one of the colors for after dark.

Are there times I feel like someone might fine tune a color or something that I'm not equipped for and get on em good?

Sure.

But for me, taking away choices of baits has made me a better fisherman, because I have to work harder to find fish. If I am near fish that are going to bite, I have *something* that I can get them to eat, even if it isn't the exact *best* bait. I'll take active fish, vs a "magic" bait any day.

[mixermarkb]

So it ends up as a top water/jerkbait box, a spinnerbait box, a wart box, a deep crank/trap box, a jig/trailer box, a jig head/hook/weight box, and one soft bag of plastics.

[Mitch f]

I probably have around 10 go to lures and just restock them and/or replace trebles.

[UnCivE]

I have a box of plastics, a box of terminal tackle and a box with a couple ccrankbaits my 3 different topwater plugs, a couple spinnerbaits and a couple jigs. I usually keep a pole with a topwater or spinner tied on and a one for plastics. Anyway, if I go through the season with a certain supply and realize I've never used something, it comes out and make room for something I like or wanna try. All my tackle, bug spray, pliers etc... fit into one standard milk crate. It's the sweet spot for me.

[kjackson]

This will be an interesting thread to follow.

I'm trying to do the same thing--simplify. I have too much gear for what I need, and trying to take the gear for a day's fishing is laughable. Part of my problem is that I just moved to the area last fall, and I don't really know what I need for any given day. So I load the boat with the kitchen sink, barbecue and anything else I think might be appropriate.

Also, I brought a lot of things that should have stayed in Washington: two big boxes of kokanee tackle, my saltwater jigging stuff, salmon gear (some of which I think will work for stripers or walleye or both), steelhead gear and so on. Some of the extras--like pre-Rapala Wiggle Warts--are going on eBay. Some I will give away, and some, I'm sure will find new use here.

For example, the other day I started sorting hooks, and after I separated the premium trebles from the non-premium trebles, I ended up with maybe 3,000 good hooks that I really have no use for. I could give them to the local thrift store, but I'm thinking now that maybe I'll try to pass them on to the UofA bass fishing team. I'm open for other ideas...

[Dutch]

If you are looking to get rid of stuff there may be some high school fishing teams in your area that would like your old baits.