By The Bank Fisher

So why bother with worrying about organizing your tackle for bank fishing? Why not just grab some stuff and go? More time on the bank, more time to catch fish, right? Well, in my experience a little bit of organization can actually save time and reduce frustrations when rigging your line. The more efficient and smooth working with your gear is the more you actually enjoy fishing which will motivate you to get out there more which will in turn improve your skills and knowledge in an ever upward positive spiral of fishing success. Not to oversell it or anything  allow me to share what I’ve gravitated to over the years as a primarily bank oriented fisherman…

I generally like to be a minimalist and only have gear that I intend on using. This not only lightens the load, which makes you more mobile and comfortable on the bank, it also limits the gear you have to wade through when rigging your line. So if I’m fishing for bass, I’ll leave stuff for catfish at home and so on. Pretty common sense, I know, but I used to lug all of it out in a giant tackle box which doesn’t make much sense especially when fishing on the bank.

As a minimalist then, I use a medium-small size tackle bag, namely the Berkley Havoc Tackle Bag. Despite being smallish, it has plenty of room for most everything I need in the main compartment. Then there is also a smaller compartment that I put things like line clippers and other miscellaneous gear. Finally, on three sides of the bag are mesh pockets which I mostly use to put snacks and drinks in, but I’m sure they could be used for many items. The strap is comfortable for me to wear for hours without it being too irritating. I usually periodically take it off to re-rig my line which probably limits any annoyance that the strap might cause. I could however see some people preferring a backpack style bag since occasionally I will feel a little lopsided wearing the bag too long, but never enough for me to care too much. The other niggle I would add about the bag is questioning if bright red is really the best color from a stealth perspective. I can’t imagine it being very significant, but you never know.

The Havoc bag came with 3 medium utility boxes that take up the bulk of the space in the main compartment. I found them too bulky, so instead, I replaced them with small containers, each with a specific purpose. I have a double sided container for hooks, a 6 compartment container that I use for various weights, a slightly larger box for top water lures and so on. This seems more efficient and simpler to me that pulling out huge cases containing multiple items. Soft plastic bags, line, spinners and other miscellaneous things I just throw in the main compartment or the smaller compartment if the main one gets too busy.

I also like to take an hour or two before the season to go through my stuff and update, replace, and reorganize. I prefer to do this while not fishing so I’m not wasting time when I could have my line in the water catching a fish.

This is what works for me. It may not work for everyone. I’m sure a lot of fishermen prefer to have much more gear with them than I do, but in my view there are only so many hours in the day. As long as you have enough to confidently handle the bulk of the situations you may encounter, doubling the gear won’t even come close to doubling your results.