How many of you usually take about at least twice as much fishing equipment you ever use(another twenty pounds you never use). I usually take one extra rod and reel for the two of us. We have lost 1 rod over board and have broken a couple. Actually the two times the rod was broke I was actually by myself and had only the one rod with those trips. I cut the lower end down so I could put the small upper end in to the lower end and spliced and than finished off with duck tape. I usually use only about half the differant lures I bring. I am learning that if I don't use something on one or two trips its out. getting tired of extra baggage.

My first few trips I bet I took close to 20# of gear. I brought my whole tackle box which is more like a bag with a strap. My girlfriend (now wife Sara) slung it over her shoulder while she portaged a pack. Then on my second trip I was fishing for trout on Ahsub when a young lady came down to the portage with a pack slung over her shoulder just like my girlfriend. She was complaining about it with every step "If it wasn't for this $$$$ tackle box these portages would be easy" and then she was making fun of her boyfriend about it whenever he wasn't around. It was hilarious.

As they paddled off my brother looks over and said, "Do you think that's what Sara does?" I stopped laughing and said, "Yep."

I've really worked to bring less. Now I am down to just one plastic compartment full of lures/jigs, plus some bags with plastics. Maybe a couple of pounds now? I bet I still only use a 1/4 of what I take. I do bring an extra rod and reel as well--not always but most of the time.

It is really hard to bring less--every time I am packing the "what if" factor always creeps in.

T

Ya! My tackle box is stuffed and I come home with unused stuff.....It's my vaction, why not! I don't think the box weighs 20 Lbs though....take a look.

Yep, always bring more then we use. It's the one place where some of this junk works...LOL! Seriously though, we like to fish and experiment with new/old stuff when are proven methods slow down or just for a change of pace.

We bring 5 rods for two people and the reason for that is it makes changing lures so much easier. Let's face it if changing lures isn't easy your probably not going to change and experiment as much. I generally have one my rods rigged with my favorite and then the other is the variety rod where I easily switch lures with a cross-lock snap.

Lost a rod in 2008. Thought I had everything organized nicely in the canoe and when I went to put the anchor(rock) down on a rockpile a nice St.Croix went over with it. I immediately put down a blade bait to try and retrieve it. Never did get the rod back but 3 minutes after losing the rod c&r a nice 29" walleye trying for it. If I would have lost that walleye before getting a photo I really would have been disappointed.


Dave

Fishguts, Say I like your tackle box.

I take too much. It's an annual trip for me and I want to be prepared. Like mentioned above, I use less than 20% of it. But it's just so much fun shopping the clearance tags! And, like Fishguts says, "It's vacation".

Fishing lures......they catch a lot more fisherman than they do fish!

Thanks! PINETREE! it's a hoot keep'in it packed with goodies for the next trip, and discarding stuff that is not used to make room for hew stuff.....:)

Fly tackle is much lighter than conventional tackle. But of course, I am taking both but just a minimalist spinning kit. I take 2 fly rods and one 3-piece spinning rod, all in tubes. I also take two tackle boxes, one fly, one spinning for 2 people sharing.

"Discard"!!! What do you do with the stuff you discard, fishguts? :-))

Jeriatric,

I have a box of "older"stuff.......I don't through away any lures.... it's just stuff I don't take on a canoe trip.

Holy Crap Wallidave! That's a heck of a lot of plastic! I bring too much stuff, but I think I would bring a couple of each thing from each bag, and consolodate into 5 or six bags. I'm quite jealous of the collection though. :-)

You guys with the massive crankbait collections, do you get mostly smallmouth and walleye on those, or do you also get large numbers of northerns? We threw tons of crankbaits last year (in mid june) and got very few northerns. This year I would like to target northerns a bit more and I'm wondering if I need to bring more than just crankbaits and spinners?

For big Northerns you need Big Baits

quote fishguts: "For big Northerns you need Big Baits "

so to get the real monsters you need to paint th ebottom of your canoe red with a white stripe and tow a grappling hook?

Most of this stuff stays at home...


Dave

quote john 800: "

quote fishguts: "For big Northerns you need Big Baits "

so to get the real monsters you need to paint th ebottom of your canoe red with a white stripe and tow a grappling hook?"

I like it John! And for live bait: train you St.Bernard to water ski, with one BIG trailing hook.

Wow, that looks like a small fishing store.

quote Wallidave: "
Most of this stuff stays at home...



Dave"

Now thats impressive :-)

All you need to take is a couple of packages of zulus, a lucky 13, a chartreuse spinnerbait, a pack of watermelon tube baits, and a gold jointed rapala and you are good to go. Don't forget the titanium leaders so you don't lose any of your baits. With all that being said I take 10 times this amount and typically only use what I just mentioned, but you never know! I also try to take along something new each time just to try out, something my partner doesn't have in his tackle box :-))

Did you ever had one of those days where you lost about ten lures? I don't bring all that much for variety but I bring two or three of every crankbait and lots of jigs.

seems like I lost that many in one day. Reason rotten line that I was too cheap and too lazy to change before going north. Result losing lures at between 5-8 dollars a crack. and lost of my favorite sentimental lure that was with me forever. Everybody must have a old favorite or old yellar in their tackle box.

quote PINETREE: "seems like I lost that many in one day. Reason rotten line that I was too cheap and too lazy to change before going north. Result losing lures at between 5-8 dollars a crack. and lost of my favorite sentimental lure that was with me forever. Everybody must have a old favorite or old yellar in their tackle box. "

How could you go up there without changing your line first? I don't think I ever went up there without new line on the reel and the spare spool for each rod I take. Fishing line and knots are like insurance, if you don't have good line or tie good knots you are going to lose a lot of fish (and lures).

Quetico Mike: I know-I know and I learned the hard way. The line looked good,but looks are not every thing. I think the sun and elements break the line down over the year. I ALWAYS have new line NOW.

Oh goody, there's a picture above I can show my wife which will make me look moderate by comparison. "Look Bert," I'm not so bad."

quote Jeriatric: "Oh goody, there's a picture above I can show my wife which will make me look moderate by comparison. "Look Bert," I'm not so bad.""

That's exactly what I did last night. "See honey, my 3 or 4 large tackle boxes are spare change, nothing at all really. I really dont have a problem." Then I spent another $85 on random tackle this afternoon to play catch up to WalliDave!

quote PINETREE: "seems like I lost that many in one day. Reason rotten line that I was too cheap and too lazy to change before going north. Result losing lures at between 5-8 dollars a crack. and lost of my favorite sentimental lure that was with me forever. Everybody must have a old favorite or old yellar in their tackle box. "

I change my line at least twice a year and My old yellar lures stay at home .

Yeah, you got to get the unique one in your box to mess with your buddies minds, however only works if you catch a fish on it, lol. Otherwise dead weight. Usually dead weight for me, lol.

Also, got to have the "go to" confidence one, to break the fishless spell. Well I could go on, but that gets expensive.

Wallidave just one question are you married? If so. Dose she have a sister

Wallidave- don't you go over the 4 canoe limit per party permit to carry all your gear? Quite a impressive collection.

quote jb in the wild: "Wallidave just one question are you married? If so. Dose she have a sister"

Yes, I am married and yes she has TWO sisters! LOL

Did you guys forget, my wifes got her crazy clown collection in that cabinet that reminds me of a coffin...not to mention her clothes, shoes, purse, etc collection...so it's pretty easy for me to justify my fishing stuff:-) We get along GREAT!!!


Most of the stuff that goes to the Quetico isn't even in that photo so I feel pretty good that I've cut back some.LOL

Dave

Oh! No! Not "The Dreaded Clown Collection" say it isn't so!

quote fishguts: "Oh! No! Not "The Dreaded Clown Collection" say it isn't so!

"

Sleep well Fishguts...

Dave

Haunted by "The Dreaded Clown Collection", I may never sleep again........and then there is Krusty

Put some trebel hooks on those, you might get some defensive strikes.

This is all I take and I think it is too much. Along with two rods.