Co-Angler Tournament bag

Just starting to get into tournaments? Me too!! I have wanted to fish tournaments for years but I knew that: a) my original gear was not good enough and I had to upgrade most of it before trying to fish tournaments and b) I just didn’t have the knowledge and experience yet. Now that I have made it to that point, I feel like I am ready to jump in and have done some homework about being a “good co-angler” and have put together this list of tips I found to help me prepare for my first one.

Pack Light but Remember the Essentials – Most boaters do not want to see you carrying 10 rods and wheeling a shopping cart down to the ramp with your gear. As many others have posted around the web, the boater already has the equivalent of a small tackle store under their front deck and hopefully if he is on a pattern where you don’t have that specific lure, he might lend you one to help you out. Otherwise, try to fish to you strengths!! Also, don’t carry every rod you own on the boat for the tournament either. Most online sources suggest 4 being the best and 6 rods at most. You want to have a back up in-case your rod goes down but not too many that you can't get to what you need to easily. Remember, you are not going to have the luxury of a large front casting deck, rod lockers, and under deck storage for all of your lures, so the less clutter you have in the back the easier it is going to be for you to manage, move around, and do what you need to do. 

For a tournament, I would bring a large assortment of lures and rods with me, but those will not all make the final cut of what gets carried down to the boat with me. I have 2 boxes that stay in my tackle bag at all times, my terminal tackle (hooks, weights, etc.), and my confidence/panic box. My bag has room for two other 4700 boxes which is where I would put in whatever technique we are going to be fishing. After talking to the boater and my own off-the-water research, I would plan out and cut down my selection of what should go in the 2 open 4700 slots. From there, I would select the appropriate rods from my assortment of rods to fit the lures already chosen. By choosing rods second, it makes sure you are not packing a rod that is not necessary or loading up baits that won’t work – just because you had to have that one rod with you. When I am ready to board the boat I will be down to 2 backpacks and 3-6 or less rods.

The first backpack will have:

- Two 3700 boxes of lures for the boaters pattern

- One 3600 box of terminal tackle

- One 3705 box of confidence lures -- wouldn't you like to know what's in it ;)

- All tools necessary - including scale, measuring board, cull beam, & cull system

- Couple bags of plastics in the water bottle pouch. 

Second backpack:

- Raingear

- Snacks

- Water

- T. Paper

- Ziplocs

- Life Vest

- Sunblock

- Sunglasses

Other Essentials:

- FISHING LICENSE(S) -- if you are on a body of water that covers multiple states, get a license for all states to be safe. last thing you want is to not be able to fish because the boater chose a spot on the side you didn't have your license for.

- camera

- extra clothes in the car

- money for the boater -- its their boat & trailer and they foot all the gas and maintenance so the least you can do is help out with some cash.

My list of items may vary to what you feel you need to be confident but this is what I feel will streamline my tackle organization and will give me the best chances from the back deck as I enter the tournament world. Until next time, best of luck on the water!!