How To Organize Your Tackle For An Inshore Fishing Trip
- By: Pat Ogletree
- on
Here’s how you should organize your tackle for inshore fishing trips!
In this video, I’ll go over everything I bring with me on every inshore fishing trip as well as how I keep things organized and packed.
This is often overlooked and is a super important part of every trip.
Take a look below!!
Organize Your Tackle For Inshore Fishing Trips [VIDEO]
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Head over to the Salt Strong Tackle Shop to get any of the gear mentioned
Terminal Tackle & Other Gear
Being a traveling fishing coach out of a kayak, I understand the importance of bringing all the tackle you need to fish for the day while maintaining organization.
To start, I’ve got my rigging box with all the hooks and jigheads needed for the day.
You can use any small tackle box that works but this is what I’ve found to be the best way to stay organized and have everything you need in one easily accessible spot.
One thing to note is as the seasons progress, I will change out what I have in the rigging box.
Aside from that, I always have fish grips, a popping cork, and an extra leader line with me.
Furthermore, I have an additional plastic tackle box for hard-body lures and baits.
I don’t carry a lot and typically it’s just a few topwater lures and maybe one or two subsurface lures.
Soft Plastic Lures
I always have BOMBERS, 2.0 paddletails, and jerk shads with me on every trip.
Most of the time, I take the F.R.E.D., Slam Shady, and Gold Digger colors for all 3 lure profiles out there with me for a total of 9 lure bags.
You should always have dark, light, and medium-color options to choose from.
I do travel and fish quite a bit and you never know what conditions you may encounter.
Moreover, the Power Prawn USA in both Junior and Original sizes are with me out on the water.
The same logic applies here with carrying the natural color, the Slam Shady color, and Gold Digger to provide me with some variation and the confidence to fish in all water clarities.
Further into my tackle bag, I’ve got Z-Man Pop ShadZ (Review coming soon!), Z-Man Slam Shady TRD lures, and Kicker CrabZ.
The Slam Shady TRD lures are the perfect match for the Ned Rigs and these really shine in the wintertime.
The Power Prawn ‘Brazilian Shrimp’ is still here as well and I’ve got them in my tackle just in case.
They are made out of a similar material to Z-Man soft plastics which are slightly more buoyant.
Now, where do I store all of this gear?
In my trusty 19-quart Engel Cooler that I use as a tackle box.
I rarely use it as a cooler, mostly just as a dry tackle box, and it comes out on the water with me on every trip.
Soft Plastic Lure Storage Tips
The Salt Strong packages of lures come in packs of 7-lures and often I buy more than 1 pack of one lure.
To reduce the number of small bags I take out with me, I toss all of the same lures in one small bag.
That way you have fewer bags to rummage through and find what you need.
This is a great way to stay organized and have plenty of lures out there with you.
When it comes to the Power Prawn USA lures, I usually bring 2 packs of each size and color.
You’ll have everything you need and it gives you a good visual of what you need to refill for the next trip.
Furthermore, it’s probable that you’re going to use more of your confidence lures.
For me, that’s the Power Prawn in Gold Digger and Slam Shady colors.
Instead of buying a 7-pack and a new clamshell, I’ll opt for the 100-pack instead just to refill the clamshell I have.
100-packs are available in the shop in most of our soft plastic lures and are an easy way to save money.
Insider Members get even more savings on these bulk bags of lures!!!
Tackle Box Organization
Fishing from a kayak means my gear and tackle box are behind me.
So before, I kept having to reach behind me and basically empty my tackle box in front of me to find anything.
Recently, I started using larger quart-sized bags to put all of the BOMBER bags in one bag, then the 2.0 bags in one bag, and so on.
That way, all that you need to do is grab the BOMBERS bag and you’ll have all the right lures to choose from in front of you.
The key is loading your dry tackle box the same way every single time so you can immediately pick the right bag of lures.
I load my lures from left to right the same exact way each and every time.
That way when I reach behind me, I have a general idea of what bag to pull out, and more often than not, it’s what I’m looking for.
I then take the rest of my miscellaneous tackle and gear and place that on top.
This is actually the first stuff to come out of the tackle box when I reach my fishing spot and go into the side compartments of my kayak.
All the gear you need is in one box ready to go.
Conclusion
Tackle organization is crucial to your inshore fishing success!!
If you’re on a hot bite, you don’t want to be fiddling around for hooks or lures way in the bottom of your tackle bags.
Get everything organized beforehand and repeat the same practices to sharpen your skills as an inshore angler.
What do you do differently?
How do you organize your own tackle?
Please share down in the comments, I’d love to hear about it!!
Head over to the Salt Strong Tackle Shop to get any of the gear mentioned
Finding The Fish Help
In order to help make sure that you are targeting the right areas based on the latest feeding trends and upcoming weather forecasts, make sure to use the following 3 resources because they will save you a ton of time.
1. Weekend Game Plans (updated weekly)
These regional game plans will show you exactly what types of spots to target in under 10 minutes… just click the video to start, and you’ll be informed on what to do on your next trip.
2. Smart Fishing Spots Platform (updated every 15 minutes)
This exclusive software literally shows you where the most fish are likely to be feeding based on exactly when you’ll be fishing. It factors in the tides, wind, and weather to help you quickly see which areas to target throughout the day.
3. Community Reports (live feed)
The Insider Community platform is what you can use to see what is biting near you, and you can get to know other members who fish in your area. Plus, you can use it to keep a log of your catches so you can use past trips to help predict future catches.
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I can only imagine the difficulty of maintaining ease of access to all your gear on a kayak. Bravo. I fish a small center console and “less is more” for me for two reasons. First, quick access to your gear means it’s in the water more, increasing your odds. Second, consolidating everything to one box (I have the same Engel dry box with four rod holders) means I can easily remove everything quickly in order to wash the boat.
Those dry boxes are a life saver for me! Glad you liked the video!
Excellent tips, Pat. I have way too many of those plastic cases and they’re all stored under the forward hatch of my skiff, making it a pain to go through them all and to access them when my wife is fishing up on the front of the skiff. I think I’m going to use your cooler method, put most of the stuff in bags and keep the cooler out on the deck where it can be easily accessed time and again. Thanks!
Thanks for watching and let us know how it works out!
Great stuff! Very helpful
Glad you found it useful Jelani!
I didn’t think that this was going to be a top video but, WOW! I was pleasantly wrong about that. It has always been tough for me to get organized and stay that way since I do so many different types of fishing. I fish Brackish water, inshore and back country as well as offshore. I try to live out of plastic organizers and keep some of them for inshore/back country and then I do some for Offshore (of which I have many) and well as keep my freshwater stuff together by themselves. I like plugs and subsurface hard baits but find myself using more and more soft baits. You idea as using a hard sided cooler was out of site for me. I have two different boats. One inshore and one offshore. So, some tackle is stored on board for that. Storing by types of rubber baits and minimizing the bags appeared so simple but I never thought of it. Until now after seeing it in the video. I think (now after seeing your video and thank you again), I will need to keep three different tackle boxes for my way of fishing along with back up supplies to make a surplus. One box to store my offshore rigs, One box for inshore/back country and one box for freshwater. I have many rods and reels and I take them as needed. This would help me to grab the box I need and get out quickly. I usually have my rods all set with reels, leader material already tied so it is a matter of just grabbing them and going. Now, I think I can just grab a tackle box and be assured that I will have everything I need. I have to remember, to grab duplicates of the common items so they are already on the boats. Thank you Pat, great video for sure!
Glad you liked it!
I’m sure with all the different types of fishing you do the amount of tackle you bring can be 10 fold or more. It’s hard to pick what stays and what goes. If I had the room I would probably organize some of it by season, maybe summer/winter but you even at that, it’s just a guess.
Hopefully this helps and thanks for watching!
Great tips Pat. Organization that you have shown is a foreign word. My tackle is in the chaos category Starts out great but then it’s “ where did they go they were just right there” My problem can be solved easily Bring less stuff. Thanks for the video. Hope to see you on the water
Thanks for watching Terry!
Tackle is one of those things that can get out of hand quickly, even in one day. I can’t say that it stays organized all the time but when it gets out of whack I have a system to wrangle it all in.
Now to tackle the back of my truck!
Thank you for this! Some of your tips, like combining the plastics into one bag, seem so obvious that I wonder why I never thought of that. I won’t be carrying 3 bags of the same thing anymore! That’s what’s so great about these forums. It’s awesome to get ideas from everybody. I’ve run the gamut from carrying my entire tackle box to carrying nothing but a few replacement plastics. And honestly, those days when I took essentially nothing, I didn’t miss anything. My tackle storage is always evolving, and thanks to this, it just did again!
Thanks for the great feedback Mark!
I go back and forth myself. I would love to be a minimalist with tackle but it’s hard for me not knowing where I’m fishing next.
Glad you liked it!
Hi Pat. I have always struggled with not taking too much tackle, especially fishing in a kayak. I light to keep it simple, and you have offered several ways to help. Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback Sherry!
In all honesty I bring more than I need because of me not knowing what the water is going to be like when I get there. If you fish the same water most of the time, you can really pair down a lot.
For me, when I fished the Indian River, I only brought a handful of lures and some rigging hooks because I knew the area. All of my tackle could fit in the center console of my kayak.
Good ideas. I follow much the same prescription only I use a soft sided cooler with a zipper top.
Those are nice too!
Thanks for the idea!
Great video Pat! Lots of information in this video!
Appreciate it buddy!
Hi Pat! Enjoyed the post! I’ve been using a milk crate buddy in my kayak for years. Currently fish out of a 22 Outback. I would like to see how you have your kayak rigged for fishing if you ever have time and think there would be enough interest. I now combine a few of each color paddle tails in one bag, and do the same with the jerks and bombers, as well as the shrimp in the blister packs. That way I have fewer packs in my side compartments and it’s easy to access what I need. Fortunately, (or unfortunately) I don’t go through a lot of soft plastics on an outing so I don’t bring as many of each as I once did.
I take 2 rods and fish with the confidence baits mostly but always thinking about how long to stay in a place before changing lures or just moving to another spot. Lately I’ve covered a lot of water searching but not much on the finding. I feel like I spend my time fishing the 90% of the water where there’s no fish, lol!
Thanks for watching Ray!
The milk crates are popular for carrying your stuff around. The only draw back is if it rains, everything gets wet. But they can hold a lot.
I have a tendency to carry a lot of plastics because of the range of water I fish in. If I fished the same waters all the time I would really pair it down a lot more.
We’ve had some request to show our set ups. I will make a video in the future showing it.
Sometimes it’s just an anglers intuition on when to stay and when to go. That sometimes is the hard part.