Angling Prep & Organizational Skills
Published: Monday, May 27, 2019
By: Dan Armitage
Now is prime fishing time across the Great Lakes and the best prepared among us are going to net most of the angling action. I know fishermen with garages painstakingly organized to allow them to function like a well-oiled machine when it comes time to tackle auto maintenance, home repairs, or yard tasks.
You know what? In most cases, their landlubbing organizational skills translate to their fishing boats, where a rod or landing net or pliers or a washed worm are always within arm’s reach when needed. The resulting efficiency in time-savings alone usually results in their hooking and boating more than their share of walleye, bass, trout, salmon, and perch.
Landing nets and fishing rods handy aboard this well organized Great Lakes boat resulted in the successful hooking and landing of a nice steelhead.
One of the best things you can do to better organize your fishing boat is to tackle the proper storage of your most vulnerable tackle: your rods and reels. You’ll need two types of rod holders: those used for storing rigs between uses and holders meant to secure the rod in a handy position while fishing.
Storage styles are often referred to as horizontal or vertical. Just as they sound, the former holders store rods horizontally in racks along the inside of the gunwale, in the cabin, or in lockers built beneath the deck. Vertical rod storage options include rod holders built-in or affixed to the sides of the steering console, rocket launchers atop T-tops and behind leading posts, and other racks or tubes that secure the rods and reels in an upright position. Both storage options work, as long as the rigs remain out of the way and secure enough so that they stay in place while the boat is underway.
This muskie angler gathers and organizes the lures he intends to use while on the way to the fishing grounds. Note the common tote he uses for storing his baits.
Rod holders meant to be used while fishing are of the vertical style, allowing the rigs to remain easily accessible to the angler, and are often designed to hold the rod at an angle facing out and/or aft of craft. That angled position allows the rod to be secured in the holder between casts, while bottom fishing at anchor or while drifting or trolling, trailing the line out and away from the boat. Many popular rod holders are adjustable, to allow the rig to be held in a variety of angles and positions. Flush-mounted rod holders sunk into the deck, a bulkhead or gunwale top, are not adjustable, but are popular because they remain out of the way when not needed.
Landing nets are another important accessory to organize. You need a long-handled model to muscle fish over the transom of most Great Lakes boats – which exacerbates the stowage problem. Telescoping handled nets help address that issue, but you still want a rack or holder that keeps the net from being underfoot yet accessible, for when you need a landing net, you really need a landing net. Like for fishing rods, both horizontal and vertical net holders are available. And some large diameter rod holders will accept the handles of fishing nets, but you want to make sure the rod holders are secure enough to hold the net, especially when the boat’s underway and the netting catches the “breeze” and tries to fly overboard.
As with a landing net, when you need a pair of pliers, you may really need a pair of pliers, to disgorge a hook, cut a line, crimp a split shot, or other task. Whether placed in a sheath worn on a belt or placed in racks handy to the helm or fishing stations, having a pair of pliers handy is key to being organized for angling.
An accident waiting to happen on several levels – although credit can be given for at least trying to keep lures handy with the pool noodle over the windscreen.
So is having your tackle organized: lures and hooks and swivels and sinkers all deserve their own place – and that’s not strewn atop the steering console or tossed onto a bench seat. Most anglers organize such tackle using plastic snap-top, tray-style boxes with slots that can be custom-sized using tray dividers to separate items based on size and shape. On my own boat, I have a box for terminal tackle like swivels, hook and sinkers, another two for lures, and a fourth for jigs and bobbers. I store them in a bag designed to carry the popular Plano models I use, then set them out based on the type of fishing I am doing so they are handy.
I do my best over the course of the fishing day and season to make time to place and keep all my things in their proper place, so that I can count myself among the organized anglers as opposed to the other kind. Step aboard their boat and you may find rods stashed in a tangle behind the bench seat, an anchor resting within a nest of knotted rope, crankbaits scattered across the helm console, and cup holders serving as vessels for loose hooks, sinkers, swivels, and assorted terminal tackle. With nary a rod holder in reach or a landing net handy, it’s a wonder these anglers find time to wet a line – let alone land a fish – between untangling and searching and wondering what essential piece of gear is where when needed.
While it may look a little cluttered at first glance, note that this organized skipper, Michigan’s Captain Lance Valentine, has his priorities straight, with safety gear visible and accessible and every locker clearly labeled regarding its contents from PFDs and fire extinguishers to fishing lures.
The thing is, they do. Catch fish, that is. Despite the disorganization and the clutter... and often more fish, and bigger fish, than those of us who pride ourselves in maintaining a ship-shape fishing vessel. I’m hoping that it’s because they spend more time studying the fishery and locating the best fishing spots, while we’re swabbing the deck and organizing our crankbaits by color. ‘Cause I’d hate to think they are simply better fishermen.
About the Author
Dan Armitage is a popular Great Lakes-based outdoor writer and host of the Buckeye Sportsman show (buckeyesportsman.net), syndicated weekly on 30 radio stations across Ohio. Dan is a certified Passport to Fishing instructor and leads kids fishing programs at Midwest boat and sport shows, and is a licensed Captain with a Master rating from the US Coast Guard.
This article first appeared in the Launch Issue (May/Jun) 2019 of Great Lakes Scuttlebutt magazine.
tags: Fishing
