Get Fishing Gear Organized for Success


If you have had a difficult year fishing, or a great one, preparing your gear for next season can start even in early Fall! Preparation is one of the keys to success. For the World Championships this September in Italy, I worked for 14 hours a day practicing and getting ready to fish - proving that you can never have enough preparation.I also learned that if you leave getting ready to the time leading up to fishing - you will run out of time. Why let Fall and Winter pass before getting ready to have a great 2012 fishing season? I had some epic battles - including taking on the entire world in this years' World Fishing Championships over in Italy, representing  Team USA! While you might have stayed in your home town to fish, you might have had some epic battles as well. In the heat of battle, running form a rain storm or rushing to re-rig after breaking off, you should find some clean up of last year's gear is necessary. After teaching fishing classes, competing in regional qualifiers and taking a trip to Italy - I changed fishing gear so often, I have little pockets of used rigs, old leaders, broken floats in need or repair hidden throughout my tackle boxes like pirate treasure. Jack Sparrow (Sorry Captain Jack Sparrow) would probably be working to find a map to all all of this fishing treasure as we speak.

After limiting out on Rainbow trout outside of Chicago a couple of times, my season has wound down with some cold Chicago winds letting me know - it is time. Time to ready the gear for winter storage. One of the keys to success in fishing is organization and preparation. If you take the time to get organized, clean up your gear and separate it into easy-to-find labeled containers you will catch more fish.

This is a math equation everyone can understand. Subtract the time you spend finding things or the time you spend digging through gear before and during fishing from the time you fish and you have your "wasted time ratio". Wasted time is any little bit of time where you aren't catching fish. For some simple labels and organized containers will increase  your catch. For other anglers, you might need a massive overhaul of your storage system. In either case- the time you spend in your tackle and on your tackle this Winter will mean you are spending less time this Spring in rigging up, getting ready or finding gear. You will catch more fish.
If you don't believe me - take a look at what you caught this season. Think back to the times when you had fish around you but you couldn't get them to bite. You might have been getting things out of bags, tackle boxes or forgetting tackle at home while others were catching fish. Make a vow to be ready. The more thorough you can get ready this Fall - the more time you will spend hooking and playing fish. SImple.

Keys to getting your tackle into Black Ops readiness - meaning you are prepared to go on fishing missions and for any fishing scenario are easy. Separate, categorize, ready, label and organize by water, species or condition. Seasons change, conditions change and active species change. Your fishing missions might vary through the year and your gear needs to match your fishing needs. I focus on live bait tackle and organizing this but you  can apply this to lures as well. After reading these tips, your goal will be to make an organized stack of mini boxes that you can stack in a bag, giving you quick easy-to-understand access to all your fishing gear. The finished tackle next season should look something like this:





















Note the boxes stacked neatly inside that bag. Instead of a jumble of gear- you have little tactical boxes which are very organized. While you don't have to purchase a brand-name bag, the bag pictured is a Guide-Series bag and is a great choice. Ask your local tackle dealer about stocking some sort of bag like this is you are curious. For fishing around Chicago - this is great for me. I can pack by species, weather condition, lake type (or river) and by the mission I am going on. 

Divide Fishing Gear

In fishing tackle - sometimes smaller is better. Lighter is better and intelligent organization will serve you well! Smaller, portable containers with [dividers] are your friend here. If these dividers are moveable, customizable - this is even better. I like the clear plastic storage containers which can be stacked. There are dividers in these that allow for changing the length of the compartments. This allows me to store different sized floats, hooks, weights and tackle by size or purpose. For example, I have one box that is dedicated to fine, small floats for close range. These floats are separated by size and shape. I have another box with casting floats for medium range and yet another thin, smaller box for long-range and windy day float fishing for the larger floats. I also have tactical packs for when certain conditions seem calm where I am fishing short range which contain a mix of floats. This is a survival tactic which allows me to have a few of everything on hand, yet I don't have large boxes of floats and tackle I WON'T use on a certain lake. Why should I carry the moving water floats and tackle for a river when I am on a still lake - as just one example. Big tip for any fishing outing - check your 12 - hour wind forecast via a weather website. Anything longer-range than 12-hours is pointless as weather will change. If you see some contrasting winds, you might need to prepare and have ready 2 styles of floats. One for calm, one for the heavy wind. 

Label It!

Once you have divided your gear, you need to start labeling it. Having categories of tackle, in multiple sizes, shapes and purposes - you need to be able to access it. When in doubt - start a new category. If you have a lot of something, your new category will need a small tackle box or medium divided box. Keep them on the smaller side so they all fit nicely in your soft bag. Boxes should be similar in size so they fill and stack neatly.

Here is an example of a situation where your organized gear will speed you up. Say you are fishing for smaller fish and a massive swirl snaps your light gear in half. You need to move quickly, get to the big fish boxes and get a rig assembled before these big fish swim off. Digging through piles of stuff to find what you want takes too much time. If you had clear labels  printed on sections of your see-through boxes, you could make fast decisions, go right to the tackle you needed and you would be fishing in a matter of seconds. When the need arrises to fix a rig, tackle up or down, you can do so confidently. In fishing - confidence is sometimes everything. Two of the best anglers I know have every item labeled in their boxes. You can do this using a Sharpie marker or having someone with great writing mark your boxes in permanent Sharpie marker. Marker is my second choice, because there is a perfect choice for labeling your organized tackle - a label printer.

The ultimate method to use in labeling your gear is using a Brother P-Touch label printer. You can find these at most any office supply store. These are genius as they have white labels with big black letters so that your markings stick out easily. Simply use the keypad to type in your information like this “ 10   12   14   16   18 “. Type in several label headings at a time as printing one-at-a-time will use up a lot more label material. After you print a label strip, use a scissors to cut out multiple labels. This will save you 50% of your labels and keep the cost down. For those of us with less-than-perfect handwriting, these label printers are perfect. Being clear in marking your tackle components means making very fast choices. Labeling different hook sizes, swivels on small compartments will not only make you look like a pro, it will give you confidence - and clear labels will save you time. Take the time to label your gear and you can start your season like a pro, confident, organized and ready-to-catch.

Mark it Up

For those on a budget or the rest of us not luck enough to have these awesome label printers, you need a black Sharpie marker. Sharpie is the line of permanent markers from Sanford. Sharpie is the brand - ask me how I know - I know someone who screwed-up 100’s of thousands of dollars in sports autographs because they purchased and used Visa a Vis. Although they asked me via cell phone which markers to purchase, this person didn’t listen. When they arrived back from expensive session with a Hall-of-Fame baseball player - the $500,000 in autographs was worthless. The dry-erase marker ran all over the stuff when it was unpacked - garbage. If you listen to me, get the Sharpie Brand - because Visa a Vis is dry erase and those will leave you with a mess - it goes without saying.

Not-so funny thing, I was working for Sanford at the time designing their marker website. Again - if your handwriting is like mine- you will do well having someone else write your categories in Sharpie permanent marker. While you will only mess up your tackle boxes instead of a bunch of Yankees memorabilia, you still want to have nice, permanent categories and sizes written on your tackle box. The time you spend will be priceless like a good Joe DiMaggio autograph. A row of neatly labeled tackle boxes will be your best friend when you are on the water. You will appreciate getting your gear ready this Fall or Winter next season - trust me.

On a recent trip on the Illinois River, the boat ride between spots was bone-chilling cold. When I went to dig in my tackle bag, I had neatly organized sets of jigs, hooks, hardware into smaller tackle boxes. Not only were the compartments labeled but the tops of each of the boxes were labeled. This way- however they sit in the bag, when you look at the side or edges of the stored tackle, you can see each of the categories. You should be able to separate items into larger categories by box. For example, I have jigs in a small tackle box but these could even be split into two boxes. Slow-water LIGHT Jigs  would be a good label for one. The other box might have a label of Fast-water HEAVY Jigs. On a particular day, the river would run fast - I would only work out of one box. Within that box the jigs would be separated by weight, hook size and color. The less you have to dig, the faster you can get fishing! That means more fish.

When speeding between fishing holes, there is only a little time to tie on a new jig. Getting to that equipment fast and being able to tweek your setup with a quick glance means that you are ready to fish when your friend pulls the boat up to the next spot. Saving time means catching more and larger fish - it will work for you. What are you waiting for - grab your some small divided boxes, sort your tackle and get ready to catch.  

One last thing about the boxes you choose. Try the latches in the stores. I find the cheap storage boxes are harder to close. A good "Pro" latch is much easier to close and will last longer for you. Spend a little extra on the boxes it is well worth it. The cheapest boxes become something you have to lean a lot of weight on just to shut them. They physically hurt to close them. Good boxes, well it is like having a calm day, lots of hungry fish and plenty of bait. It is a world of difference. If you are on a budget - I appreciate that. Instead of buying 10 of the real expensive boxes, purchase just 2 or 3 and then begin the process of organizing the tackle you always use. Get a start on it and then go back in a month or two and purchase another 2 or 3 storage boxes until you are finished organizing all the tackle. Do NOT get the cheap boxes - you will thank me later when it is cold, windy or raining and you are struggling to get your box open - well, you didn't listen. If that is the case, (yes, pun intended) you can always throw that out later and replace it with a good one.

I hope that this organization article helps you out and that your next season is your best season fishing. For more tips, articles and information on fishing urban waters like Chicago you can visit my blog at Chicago Fishing School  or you can listen to my weekly fishing podcast . Thank you for reading - more soon - Johnny