Thursday, May 28, 2009

What do you bring when you bring it?




A lot of folks ask me what sort of gear do i bring when fishing the flats?

Answer: As little as possible....but it depends on where we'll be fishing and what sort of fishing.

If we're wading a flat while fly fishing, i take my trusty Cabella's medium chest pack with a small fly box jammed with flies i'll be using or might need, (this is hard), scissors, a few pre-made leaders, face cover and the trusty camera. i keep my tackle bag with everything else handy on shore that has my Evan Longoria batting gloves for those long days casting an 8 weight, a few Nalgene's, pliers, and the big fly box. If we're fly fishing off of a seawall, i'll use a stripping basket and fore go the chest pack and just carry my fly box and scissors in my pocket.

As a rule, i never carry a radio or MP3 player or anything like that because i need to experience the solitude even though we often are "urban fishing" as it were....and we always need to field all of the usual questions.....

"Hey....are you fly fishing?/is that a fly fishing rig?"

"What do you catch in saltwater on flies?/ didn't realize you could fly fish in saltwater"

"Yeah....we used to fly fish for trout up north...."

Yeah, fishing at Coffee Pot Bayou tends to generate other problems too such as making sure your backcast doesn't get snagged on a tree/jogger/cyclist/car, or making sure your child doesn't jump over the gated docks with the "Keep Out" signs all over them to retrieve a miscast lure because those people can be nasty.....but it's a great place to fish because it's full of docks with snook under them.....plus it's really close to the house.

Sorry to get side tracked....

If i'm fishing with spinning gear, i'll usually carry the whole damned tackle bag with me as it has the box full of plugs and soft plastic lovelies the we all know and love as well as the "idiot rig" gear (corks, hooks, sinkers) and the always popular live bait bucket with air pump as well as leader material, first aid kit and headlamp (this comes in handy at night). If we're fishing from a bridge, we'll oftentimes mix in a floating light.

So....what do YOU bring when you bring it?

2 comments:

  1. i carry as little as i think i can get by with for where i'm going to b fishing. that can b as little as 1 small fly box, shirt, shorts, sandals, hat, glasses, hemocuts, and a rod/reel. but it can b as much as waders, boots, wading coat, gloves, handgun, bear spray, small backpack, chest pack or vest full o stuff, wading staff, fleece under-layers, 1st aid gear, lunch, quite a bit of water/gatorade, a water filter pump, several boxes of flies, 2 fly rods, a 2 extra spools for the reel...or 2 reels w/1 extra spool each.

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  2. Good Lawd....i'd look like some sort of half assed astronaut if i took all of that gear.

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