What's in your wallet, I mean....fishing tackle?

[ctom]

Olsarge's thread on his latest rod/reel purchase got me to thinking about what everyone takes to the water with. Me? Pretty simple....I fish crappies 90% of the time and that's where my primary focus is when it comes to tackle.

Three years ago last spring I found a St.Croix Panfish series rod, the PF69ULF, that fit me well and I sprung for it while it was on sale. It's a 6'9" one piece rated for 1/32 to 3/16 baits and 2 to 4 pound line. Absolutely love the rod and even with 4 pound mono I get amazing distance with those little 1/64 jigs. About a year ago I took a peek at the companion rod to it, a PF70ULF, a 7' one piece rated at 1/16 to 3/16 and 2 to 4 pound line and felt like I had to have it. Love this one as well. Both rods now carry Shimano Nasci 1000 reels and are spooled with 4 pound Trilene XL. The second rod I had to go full price for but no regrets whatever. Both rods have very fast tips but have plenty of backbone in the event a pike comes along. Except in late fall, when I go to the water these two rigs come with me.

For the most part both of these rods are rigged with Do-It's 1/24 ball heads with the keeper wires and carry either the Do-It 1.5" Thump-It, or a 2" Kietech Swing Impact, or a 1.5" Jacobs Silverfish baits. For what seems like a million years I used 1/32 heads exclusively, but that 1/24 has won me over for most all of my cork and no cork fishing. Occasionally I'll go back to a 1/32 if hits seem tentative and I'll go to a 1/16 corkless if I have to get real deep. Basically I keep my tackle pretty simple and compact anymore. These three baits are done in purple/chartreuse tail, junebug/chartreuse tail and the partycrasher glitter in clear, chartreuse tail. You will never find a solid color bait in my gear and you'll never find any without at least a chartreuse tail, but I will do a very few with a fire orange or merthiolate for dirty water use. I no longer use plano boxes for the plastics: each style goes in a dripless ziplock and gets a liberal shot of Gulp juice added. Without fail, the only color of jighead I use is my own purple/ ultra fine blue glitter color or a plain un-painted head. As said, everything is very simple from the rods and reels right down to basic tackle.

I do have two St. Croix super ultra light rods that I bought as bare blanks from a custom lot done for a private entity several years ago when St.Croix still offered blanks for sale thru their Wild River outlet store. these are rated at 1/64 to maybe 1/16. I built these identical and both carry Shimano 500 series Symetry reels spooled with Clam's 3 pound Frost line. Rated at three pounds the line has about a 6-7 pound breaking strength in spite of the line being hair thin.....and I mean a blonde hair thin. These rigs are exclusively for late fall dock fishing where the pilings are jigged vertically with nothing but the jig/plastic and no jig over 1/32 is used. These rods, with this line , will show an upward hit from a crappie as well as a spring bobber used for ice fishing. On some rare occasions when we find suspended crappies in the summer I'll bring these two rods out to vertically fish but for the most part they see about a month of use each fall and I wouldn't part with these two rods for any reason.

I have a couple rigs I use to jig walleyes with spooled with light braid and I also have a couple rods dedicated to bass/pike that are spooled with 8/30 braid. My two Lake Superior rods are both 10'6", carry six pound Trilene XL and 4000 series Symetre or Pflueger President reels. I have maybe ten other rigs for either crappie of walleye that I no longer fish with but just can';t seem to let them go.

[olsarge]

Several years ago, I used to fish ultralight rigs exclusively.  I changed over shortly after moving to missouri due to bycatches.  Larger bass and catfish taking a shot at my small jigs and raising havoc with my equipment.  At that time I was using the old style whippy 5.5 foot ultralights that were pretty much the standard of the day.  I went to all light action rods which gave me more backbone yet gave me a fighting chance.  But I had to sacrifice the ability to cast the 1/64th and to a lesser extent the 1/32 oz jigs I was so fond of.  Hence my previous post.  I am solidly back in the ultralight camp and glad to be here!  By the way I have the St Croix panfish rod but in the 7 foot light action.  It is a fine rod.

[Muskygary]

It's hard to part with rods. I have over 50 from my tournment bass days (70's). No way can I part with these. Just like all my lead and plastic molds. I told my wife that when I die someone's going to be happy! LOL

[basscatlildave]

I have so much stuff it's not funny. I have piles of rods then I started making rods so that added to it I have baits that I bought that I have forgot about and seen them hanging up and it's like Christmas again.

[olsarge]

I have so much stuff it's not funny. I have piles of rods then I started making rods so that added to it I have baits that I bought that I have forgot about and seen them hanging up and it's like Christmas again.

I hear you.  I recently found a package of yum curly tail grubs that I forgot I had and over 200 crappie tubes.  They will be taught how to swim in the very near future.

[bassinfool]

I hesitate to put into writing lest my wife find it and try and persuade me to sell some of it off 

[Les Young]

I hesitate to put into writing lest my wife find it and try and persuade me to sell some of it off 
[/quoteI hear about all of mine everytime she walks into the garage, but she knows i ain't selling. 

[Muskygary]

My wife made the comment a while back that she might have a viking funeral. She'd put my body and all my hunting and fishing stuff in my boat, pour gasoline over it, set it on fire and push it out into the lake. My oldest son said " can't you at least wait until we get the guns off"? (LOL)

[WALLEYE WACKER]

I have why to much for one person should have. I have 6 rod’s and reel’s for each fresh water fish that swims. And tackle too go with it. My children’s grandchildren won’t run out of tackle. Wish in hind site is way to much. But when you don’t sit in the bars and don’t much of a things is how I’ve justified it for all these years but in hind site I still have way to much and I I didn’t think I would ever say that.

[efishnc]

I'm sure glad I built a bigger garage (pole shed) because my fishing stuff now doesn't even fill a quarter of the outbuildings... it feels like I barely have enough!   

[BareKnuckleJigs]

Where do I begin?  🤭

2021 Shimano Twin Power XD 4000 is NICE.

Shimano Teramar XX shows promise.

What I carry to the water depends on the intended quarry.  I fish everything, but not all at the same time.  I pack as light as is reasonable (in relative terms).

I do, however, keep versatility in my rods/reels, so that I don't pile up a mountain of gear (and cost) for every species, salinity (or lack thereof), or presentation.

I have 7 rods that I use that cover everything from Sacalait (Crappie) to heavy Catfish/light Offshore.
I have 2 rods that I call "throw-aways" that can be beat up and it doesn't matter.

[Les Young]

According to my wife i'll never use what's hanging on my garage wall. If she only knew how much was in the boat & the crates. 

[olsarge]

Well, it looks like this is starting to turn into a confessional of sorts, so here we go.  I just now ordered my 50th mold plus a 5 gallon jug of plastiisol and some new powders and colorants.  The kicker is that I only make baits for myself plus a few that I give as Christmas gifts and to kids that I see are struggling to catch fish.  I have literally thousands of plastic baits and yet I still make more!  The old axiom that you can't take it with you certainly applies to me.  But I am having fun and I am guilt free.  It don't git  no better than that.

[BareKnuckleJigs]

...and OlSarge passes the candle...
...ooohhhmmmm.....

[bigjim5589]

I've got a good number of rods & reels, about 18 baitcasters, 15 spinning, 22 fly rods, and 10 trolling rods. None are high end, and they're various brands. The same with reels. Most of my baitcaster rods are older BPS Extremes, which have been good rods for me, and I have them paired with ABU reels, again, mostly older round reels. I do have some low profile reels, Revo's and Silver Max, and a Shimano Calcutta round reel. I have two custom fly rods, likely the most costly rods I own, in 3 & 4 wt, one built on a sage blank, the other on a Loomis, both old now.

I have several older 60's & 70's model Penn reels that are used on the trolling rods, which were primarily used for chasing Striped Bass, and also surf spinning & casting gear, mostly with Daiwa Emcast Plus reels on them. I also use some of that gear for catfish now since I live next to Santee Cooper and have not been to the coast in several years. The surf rods are Daiwa Beefsticks, which are fiberglass, so they're heavy, but I've never had to be concerned with breaking any of them. The same with the trolling rods, all are solid fiberglass.

I recently bought a couple of spinning rods, s-glass and inexpensive. one an 8' Shimano FX, the other a Sea Striker 7 ft. I've never seen much advantage to spending a lot on a spinning rod. I bought FX rods & reels for my kids years ago and we caught a lot of fish with them. They're very inexpensive, but did what was needed.

Some of my favorites, are a TFO 10 wt rod that I use for both LM Bass & Stripers, a couple of 7' Quantum Teton Trout ultralight rods paired with Mitchell reels, and a BPS Extreme Woo Daves spinnerbait rod which I've used for everything and have it paired with a ABU Revo SLX.  Also a Shakespeare Micro Series 7' fly rod that I only use for panfish. I paid $20 for it, paired it with an Cortland Rimfly reel and a Scientific Anglers DT 4 F line. I may have $50 in the entire outfit, but it's been a fun setup to use.

I keep what I acquire, and some of the rods & reels I have are 40 years old or older. I don't need the latest & greatest to come along, and can't afford them anyway.  If I had the means, it would be nice to have & use some "better" gear, but what I have has done what I needed and to me, that's all that matters. I also take care of what I buy, so it does last me a long time.

I certainly have a lot of lures & flies, and keep adding more.  I have a lot invested in tying & lure making, now having around 400 molds, and I don't even pour plastics. Of course I make the majority of flies that I'll use and many of the lures.

I don't believe that price equals enjoyment, which has no price, and have not ever been concerned about spending on what I want, but only within what I could afford at the time. What I have accumulated has taken me around 40 years to gain, so a little at a time over that time.