I have seen a lot of threads about people showing their tackle box asking for suggestions, instead of reading though a ton of comments and trying to figure out what some of the brand names are referring to, why not just show what you would bring. Personally, I'm going in mid August and should have access to a variety of lakes that are mostly clear and I should be able to fish for just about anything, but I do want to keep this a bit generic so more people can use the general sense of what to bring. I don't closely follow fishing gear so I don't know the name for everything so if you could list what things are that would be great, if that's too much of a hassle then that's fine too. If you want to go above and beyond then you can also say how you use the gear as well so we know not only what to bring but also why and how to use it.

I just think that a thread like this would be more beneficial to others searching for tackle box help at this time of the year rather than only the personalized threads about specific lakes and dates. Also if it makes any difference, I plan on bringing 3 rods. A baitcaster with braid, an open reel with 8-12lb test mono line (don't remember what I put on it last year but it was the low vis green), and an open reel with 4-6lb test mono. I'm thinking I'll go with 6 unless there is a good reason to go with 4.

There are snaps and snap swivels in the film canisters

I wrote an article called Grand Slam Lures ( for the BW and Quetcio ). If you would like to read it, send me an email at - queticomike@yahoo.com - and request the article.

quote AmarilloJim: "
There are snaps and snap swivels in the film canisters"

I'm sorry but your image is too small and I can't see any details except for some type of lures, plastics and jigs.

quote A1t2o: "

quote AmarilloJim: "
There are snaps and snap swivels in the film canisters"

I'm sorry but your image is too small and I can't see any details except for some type of lures, plastics and jigs."

If you have a " view " button on your PC at the top of the screen, click on it and zoom in. If you have windows you can hold down the "ctrl" button and press the " + " button and you can enlarge the photo

quote QueticoMike: "

quote A1t2o: "

quote AmarilloJim: "
There are snaps and snap swivels in the film canisters"

I'm sorry but your image is too small and I can't see any details except for some type of lures, plastics and jigs."

If you have a " view " button on your PC at the top of the screen, click on it and zoom in. If you have windows you can hold down the "ctrl" button and press the " + " button and you can enlarge the photo"

Much better than saving it then enlarging that image but still blurry. Are those husky jerks and standard rapalas there in second row from the bottom? I think I see some tail dancers in there. Maybe a couple rattling rapalas?

I didn't think you would bring so many of the same lure.

DD and regular husky jerks
Taildancers
Shad raps
blade baits
Assorted jigs(1/4 to 1/2oz)
Assorted 3" curly tails
I thin out more crank baits every trip.
I target LT and eyes primarily
Don't use live bait

I rig the weights in line like a down rigger when I need to go deep.
Just snap them on/off when portaging or needing more depth.

quote AmarilloJim: "There are snaps and snap swivels in the film canisters"

What's a film canister? :)

We fish mostly for walleyes, but will fish for northerns for fun. Since we're in Q, we jig with Twister Tails and probably do so 75% of the time. The other 25% of the time is spent trolling or casting. We don't bring many (if any) "what if" baits. We bring the tried and true methods and keep our weight and bulk to a minimum. And we fish almost non-stop for the week.

Here's all you need:

Smallmouth: soft plastic jerk baits ( Strike King Zulu or Zman ShadZ ) in some type of pearl color, Super Pop-R in shad color, Green pumpkin tube (1/8 or 1/4oz), Bullfrog magnum torpedo, chartreuse BooYah double willow blade 3/8oz spinner bait

Walleye: J9 jointed gold Rapala, Gold Rapala Husky jerk, gulp fake leech, black twister tail jig, perch shadrap

Pike: Mepps bucktail spinner bait, Bullfrog Lucky 13, Red and White Daredevle spoon ( or basically any lure you have in the box )

Trout: Dr Spoon in hammered silver, a 4-1/2” nickel plated Dardevle Spoon, and the one ounce hair or plastic jig in white, Purpledescent deep diving shadrap

quote Jackfish: "
We fish mostly for walleyes, but will fish for northerns for fun. Since we're in Q, we jig with Twister Tails and probably do so 75% of the time. The other 25% of the time is spent trolling or casting. We don't bring many (if any) "what if" baits. We bring the tried and true methods and keep our weight and bulk to a minimum. And we fish almost non-stop for the week."

I'm slowly getting my tackle box to look like yours! Or are you stashing extra junk in with your kids pack? LOL

I'm currently in the transition stage from carrying all their stuff to vice versa.

quote Basspro69: " "

Rapala Jiggin Raps for the win!

Now, I carry a second small tackle bag. It has a few spare deep taildancers, some wacky worms, a few spare bags of zulus, and a few luhr jenson diver thingys

Still some room for a few more lures. I may fit a Cowgirl in there. Also a diving plug or two in pink. That was a hot color last time up 3 years ago.

I have a small box for jig heads and a pouch for my plastics. A lot in a not so huge package.







Here are the jigs I am going with. Going with Ned Rig jigs and Megastrike standup jigs, which can be rigged weedless or non weedless, for all my bouyant plastics. Also have a few other types but looking fwd to giving these two finesse types a good try.

quote Kawnipi1: "





Still some room for a few more lures. I may fit a Cowgirl in there. Also a diving plug or two in pink. That was a hot color last time up 3 years ago.

"

Ha! Kawanipi, a man after my own fishing heart! Many of your lure selections are also mine, even down to the color selections. Makes me wonder if I have a mole in the highest levels of MT Enterprises?

i have one objection however ;-)
I know you are fond of the Cotton Cordell Wally Divers but they need to go. I have spanked guys using the cheap brightly colored small piece of plastic several times on Erie. They are good for getting "eater" size walleye IMHO. Popped any over 6 on it?

Replace them with the Mega Bass Deep Six and you will never look back. Do NOT send me the bill for this much needed upgrade.

I like your Headlock color choice over mine.......looks groovy. But who knows, I haven't even got mine wet yet. Pretty soon!

Nice gear! I'm a little surprised by the size of some of these lures I'm seeing. I always fished for eaters so maybe I was missing out on the big ones, but hardly any of my lures had even 3 hooks or was much over 6 inches. This time I raided my dad's tackle box and took his bait caster rod as well to go with my reel. I'd feel bad about taking as much as I did except his rods were still in his travel rod holder from his trip to Canada 3 years ago. (I did ask first too.) I snagged his big lures for northerns and rigged up some big hooks to some pearl colored fake bait so I think I am ready to go. I did pick up some husky jerks (regular and deep diving) last week to round off my tackle box as well so wish me luck.

Any suggestions on how I might troll differently with larger gear? Same thing or do I want to go deeper when targeting bigger northerns? Also, I picked up some 30lb fluorocarbon to go along with my 30lb braid on the bait caster. Is the 30lb fluoro heavy enough for a leader? I was a little apprehensive after I brought it home. Should I exchange it for 40lb? Maybe even bigger? I'm new to everything except mono on spinner reels so I realize I might be making big mistakes.

quote mastertangler: "


Replace them with the Mega Bass Deep Six and you will never look back. Do NOT send me the bill for this much needed upgrade.

I like your Headlock color choice over mine.......looks groovy. But who knows, I haven't even got mine wet yet. Pretty soon! "

MT yeah I will pare out a couple of them Wally divers and try your suggestion. I don't need 4 of them. I will have two spinning outfits so I will be able to troll two cranks side by side a time or two to see which one wins out. Unfortunately they do two different things. One dives 20' plus and the other about half that. Does the Deep Six float or suspend when still or does it sink? I like floating divers in a canoe so If you stop for any reason lure doesn't sink and snag.

I checked out them Mega Bass Deep Six and your not kidding about the price. I would hate to lose one to a Pike. Lake Erie sounds like the perfect place for em. One is more than the 4 Wally Divers in the picture combined. I'm definitely shopping for one.

The Supernatural Lure I have is a Mattlock. It is designed to troll at slower speeds than the Headlock so I should still get action in a canoe. It is Carp color. I have a Walleye pattern but I like that the Carp has Gold side like the Walleye but a orange head to add a little color. Only room for one.

quote A1t2o: "
Any suggestions on how I might troll differently with larger gear? Same thing or do I want to go deeper when targeting bigger northerns? Also, I picked up some 30lb fluorocarbon to go along with my 30lb braid on the bait caster. Is the 30lb fluoro heavy enough for a leader? I was a little apprehensive after I brought it home. Should I exchange it for 40lb? Maybe even bigger? I'm new to everything except mono on spinner reels so I realize I might be making big mistakes."

I have a rod holder that locks in the rod so I know it isn't going overboard. I have used the old rod between the toes holding method but when trolling for big fish I would lash a length of para cord with an easily released clip so no threats of losing on a strike.

BIG Northerns prefer cold water. They are often in open water feeding on schools of deep open water baitfish and whatever wanders out there. I have also caught large Walleye and Smallmouth seemingly suspended out in open water. Of course all of these can and will move up shallower on structure to feed.

Much depends on what time your planning on fishing. If you happen to be out in middle of the day I troll deeper water preferably adjacent to known structure and move my way into it. As the sun is low on either horizon move closer to structure.

I would suggest checking out several of the satellite views available and look for mid lake humps. Mark your maps and fish them. Example Below.

I would have gone with the heavier flouro leader. They can't see the leader being flouro. The weight of the fish should not be the issue however thicker is better when it comes to them teeth. Better safe than sorry.

Kawanipi we also share the same belief in bigger fish moving laterally off mid lake structure (instead of vertically) and often suspending in open water. I have seen this typically in late summer........speed trolling over 40 ft basins with bombers which might of went down to 20 ft on lake minitaki (Sioux Lookout). These were typically heavy bodied walleye between 6 and 8. Very nice fish indeed!

I also seen the same thing on a few select reefs on Basswood. Connecting over 70 ft of water while I made the turn to troll back over the top of the reef. Again very nice average size and my biggest thus far out of a canoe.

I typically outfished the Wally Divers on Erie with weight forward spinners......much bigger walleye came to my hand vs the popular Wally Divers which had quite a following on Erie back in the early 90's. I have not had a side by side comparison with the Wally Diver and the Deep Six. Certainly the floating/diving Deep Six goes much deeper with depths of at least 20 ft attained rather easily.

A1T20.........yes the 30 floro is to light. Even 40 might be to light, just depends. But bear in mind that heavy stiff fluorocarbon will hurt smaller crank bait action but is fine for larger swim baits, bigger spoons etc. I do not lose many crankbaits to pike fishing without wire but have lost a few which broke my heart (as in towed the boat big). I was schooled in the art of finesse leader via Kingfisher which uses very light titanium wire (Knot-2-Kinky) and very small snaps and barrel swivels. He ties his own, measuring about 9", and I see little to no drop off on his walleye success. It was rather eye opening when I seen the hair thickness of the wire he uses.......skinny stuff indeed in the 15lb test size. Be sure to test your work.

I also agree with Kawanipi that a good solid rod holder is a must when running bigger gear. It needs be rock solid, not only does it help in setting hooks but it also provides security for you rod. I had a rod think about leaving on a hard strike last trip and I was glad to have had a safety clip.

As per depth of bigger pike.......Again I agree with Kawanipi, pike like cooler water. In August, while trolling for walleye in 25ft I usually catch several decent pike per day in the 33" to 38" class. Oddly enough my experience has been to find the ones bigger than that shallower and in August they can and will come shallow indeed and 15ft is about right especially in the evening.

Just take um all...

quote FlambeauForest: "

quote Basspro69: " "

Rapala Jiggin Raps for the win!"

:-)

quote blutofish1: "


Just take um all..."

+11111111111111111111111111111111111111

So what pound test fluoro do you recommend?

For a leader?
I use 40lb and I have had some larger pike engulf crankbaits while trolling. If you use any techniques where you are pausing your baits you may want to try stronger. I'm pretty happy with 40 for knotability but any larger you may want leader sleaves.

quote A1t2o: "So what pound test fluoro do you recommend?"

Well much depends on what your using. I recently read in the In fisherman pike and Muskie issue (VERY whorthwhile reading BTW > I never fail to read each issue) that one author liked a brand of fluorocarbon I had never heard of and that in 40lb test but what was different about this brand was that it was stiffer and denser. Who knows?

I fish big stuff and therefore like heavier line........I like 60. But for most ordinary "larger" pike baits I would use minimum 40.

Do you trust me? Good, I'm glad to hear it! Do yourself a favor and get a Tie-Fast tool to use while working with your heavier fluorocarbon. I regularly use it to tie knots with mono or fluorocarbon as high as 80lb test. It is the trick......do not use thin wire barrel swivels or snaps however as to thin of wire can actually "cut" through your line under extreme pressure. Use 100lb test swivels.......I get that its way more than you need but the extra thickness assures a good kno connection. But here's the rub with heavier fluorocarbon......use only 3 or possibly 4 wraps on the tie fast tool with the 40. Use just 3 wraps with 50, 60 or 80. When you feel the knot "turn over" and "click" into place and the tag end stands straight up you have done it right. Trim close and your set.......very easy to tie and rock solid.

DO NOT use crimps. These can be prone to failure and add extra fluff where you don't need it.

How are you going to tie your braid to the swivel? Two ways........I like the FG knot (Saltstrong method on u tube) and a nice long leader and omit a swivel entirely. But you can also have a more typical leader of say 18" ..............with that I would double my braid and tie a 4 turn 1/2 uni knot. Be sure to have fingerless gloves to work with as all braid needs to be tested vigorously. Wrap around your wrist and pull hard!

quote A1t2o: "So what pound test fluoro do you recommend?"

You may be tempted to just use the 30........here is a little story. I also thought 30 would add some protection from pike and yet give me a good shot at walleye. While fishing a big Cobra jig on a weedy large flat near North Bay on Basswood I watched as a rather ordinary 30" northern followed my jig and promptly engulfed the entire thing. I snapped my wrists (Cobra jigs are very sharp) and promptly got cut off with the 30. The first and only time I have used 30 as a leader. Might be fine for ice fishing but not open water.

Look at it this way.......40 has more in common with 50 while 30 has more in common with 20 (if that makes any sense).

quote mastertangler: " Do yourself a favor and get a Tie-Fast tool to use while working with your heavier fluorocarbon.

How are you going to tie your braid to the swivel? Two ways........I like the FG knot (Saltstrong method on u tube) and a nice long leader and omit a swivel entirely. But you can also have a more typical leader of say 18" ..............with that I would double my braid and tie a 4 turn 1/2 uni knot. Be sure to have fingerless gloves to work with as all braid needs to be tested vigorously. Wrap around your wrist and pull hard! "

I have a tie tool, just am not that experienced with it. I have tried to practice but I didn't want to use the 30lb fluoro until I knew it was the right stuff. Now that I know it isn't, I returned it and am picking up some 40lb.

Should I use a swivel? I was going to tie it line to line but I guess a swivel makes sense, I was only going to add one in when I threw on the red eyes or other spoons. My plan was a double uni knot for line to line and the Kreh loop knot for attaching the lure or swivel.

Also, how long should I make the leader? I was going to go with something pretty long so I could cut the ends off and retie periodically, maybe 6 feet. Is that way too long? The spool I am looking at getting is 30 yards of fluoro so I don't see any reason to stick to only 18 inches unless there is a good reason. Not when I could reuse the 6 feet by cutting off any nicks and retying once in a while until it gets too short to use.

A1t20

You say you have a knot tool but do you have THE knot tool? The Tie Fast knot tool is the one to have. Check out the instructions and learn to tie the Gryp knot. It is not the "be all - end all" in the world of fishing knots but it comes as close to it as is possible. The Gryp knots coils surround the running line. The tighter the line gets pulled, the tighter the coils get. It is distinctive and does some things better than any other style of knot I am aware of. It excels particularly well with light line (the tie fast is a trout fishing tool).

As I have stated numerous times the tie fast ties mono or fluorocarbon to lure eyes and swivels which have a larger diameter than the line. Few, if any, other knots do this task well. It also works wonders with florocarbon and heavy mono. I can tie up to 125 lb test using the salt water version of the tie fast. The proof is in the putting with several black grouper over 30 and one over 50 plus several kings over 45lbs.

I have had not one but 2 charter boat captains compliment me on my knots after inquiring of my Lb test after having a hard time breaking off from bottom. You are only as good as your knots.

The Tie fast has a weakness however. Try tying to eyelets or swivels in which the diameter is smaller than the mono / fluorocarbon and it can slip. Then numerous other knots can be employed rather easily and the Polamar or improved clinch will do nicely.

I like a long pike leader as well and that requires line to line knots. I favor the FG knot (saltstrong video tube) over the double uni which I previously used for several decades.

Why the loop knot? I like tying jigs and jig heads to fluorocarbon via a loop knot (perfection loop) but for most applications you will likely do better tying direct or as in the case with large spoons and spinners use a substantial ball bearing swivel which incorporates a snap. The reason being is the connection is just stronger.

OK.......do well. I know a big part of fishing is doing things your own way but what I have lain out is tried and true and will give you a solid foundation to build upon. Let me know if you have any difficulties.

BTW......do not get the combo tie fast tool as it is a bit harder to work with IMO. Just get the regular.......and avoid the cheaper "White River" Bass Pro knock off, not so good (been there, done that in both instances).

MT

This is what I took up last time, but it's been refined a bit since. Pretty sure I have things covered.