Went walkabout today...

[AllenOK]

Did some exploring.  Headed over to Manchester, Mi.  I intended to fish The River Raisin for Smallies.  Got to the first spot, that had wading access.  I'd hesitate to call this a "river" at this point.  More like a creek.  But, it's shallow, fairly clear water, and screaming to be fished.  Pulled out my 8wt, tied on an Olive Wooly Bugger, and started making casts to cover/current breaks.  Nothing.

Did I mention we had a strong cold front come through?  It started SNOWING on me!  Krikey!

I packed it up, and headed further downriver to do some more exploring.  Stopped in Clinton, MI, where they have a township park that fronts the river, and has fishing access all along it.

I ended up catching three Smallies out of there, and lost a Mepps spinner that's been in my box for a few years.  Time to start making a few more of my own

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After that, I headed even further downriver.  Found a few nice holes.  However, the "river" had grown from a "creek-sized" to a small river, and the current was moving a little to fast for the lure I had on.  THEN I realized that I had NOT put the box with my heavier jigs into my tackle bag.  The only jigs I had with me were smaller, panfish-sized things that wouldn't get down in the heavy current.  Nor had I stocked that new box with some split shot.  Heck, I didn't even have my catfish gear with me, and I probably could have caught a few if I had that, and some bait with me.  Live and learn.  At least I got out, and caught a few.

 

[Jig Man]

Looks like you did good ta me...

 

[duffy]

Looks like you did all right with what you had to work with! :icon14:

 

[AllenOK]

Yup!

I normally carry A LOT of tackle / gear in my vehicle. So much so that I often refer to my vehicle as "the Rolling Tackle Shop".

I've started keeping more stuff at home since we moved up here to MI. Not sure if/when I'll go back to my old ways. It is convenient to have a dozen rods and two or three soft-side tackle bags full of stuff, but....

Should someone see my gear, and decide they need it more than I, I'm sure a window is going to busted out fairly quickly. I keep enough stuff "in stock", and decentralized in my storage, that even if I get hit, the perps aren't going to get it all, and I'll be back fishing soon.

All that said, I have:

A) Put the plano box with my bigger, bass-sized jigs into the Rolling Tackle Shop.
B) Finally put all those swap jigs from the swaps I've participated in over the past 16 months in that same box. Now I get to try some of that stuff out

I guess I'm going to have to start inventorying what, exactly, is in the Rolling Tackle Shop before I set out. Hopefully, so I won't forget some basic gear.

Maybe I just need to build some kind of platform that fits inside the back of my Traverse (back seats are folded down), so I can slide stuff up under that and hide it from view.

 

[Fin and Fur]

Nice fish. I hike into water most times. I would like to think my fanny pack style bag has a little of everything. Although I've had to improvise a number of times to make something work, sometimes better results come of it. Hopefully I get my boat done soon so I can get my floating tackle box back on the fish.

 

[duffy]

That's what I do in my GMC extra cab pickup. I fold the rear seat down and stuff what I can either under that seat or between the cushions. the rear windows are tinted pretty heavily so you really can't see anything behind the drivers area. I'm really bad about taking too much stuff with me too. The boat weight limit is ok until I throw in the tackle boxes and usually don't even look at a 1/4 of the crap I take.  :beat-up:

 

[AllenOK]

That's me when I'm fishing out of my kayak. I usually take at least 2 - 3 plano boxes and a couple rods. Rarely use much of it. And then, I always had more gear in the Rolling Tackle Shop that was never too terribly far away, so I could just paddle back, and swap out boxes/poles and change up my fishing.

It's going to be interesting this year. I had two plano boxes for Bass lures. One was for jigs and spinners, the other was for crankbaits. Back in February I bought a second soft-side tackle box, came with four more plano boxes in it, and room for maybe three more on top of those I just finished splitting my jig/spinner box into two boxes, one for jigs, the other for spinners. I plan on splitting my crankbait box into two boxes as well, one for diving plugs and the other for topwaters.

Fin and Fur, I have a small backpack that I use to haul fishing gear with when I'm on foot. It's big enough to hold two plano boxes, maybe three, plus some soft plastics, spools of various line for leader material, lots of various floats, and other related gear. Again, it's like when I'm kayak fishing. I'm rarely more than a quarter-mile from the Rolling Tackle Shop, so if I need to swap out some tackle, I can easily do that.

 

[hookup]

Nice smallies -

I fish out of a yak and you really need to think like a back packer when you fish

Leave most of the tackle & home & bring jigs, plastics, couple jerks & cranks, and a couple spinnerbaits - that's about all you need

Buddy of mine brings 7 rods in a yak & flipped losing 5 of them - he learned

 

[Barefoot]

Great pictures and story Allen. I will be making my first trip to Michigan in July and hope to do some fishing.
I have evolved into a minimalist when hiking, carrying only a pocket fly box of a few jigs but I still pack everything when loading the boat. I doubt I will change as I usually run from fresh to brackish then salt on the same trip. I only carry one rod everywhere but pack a spare spool in the boat tackle.