Inside Bassdozer's Bag

By Russ Bassdozer

Learn how to strategically pack a sumptuous smorgasbord for bass when you take a peek inside Bassdozer's bag. The bag was inventoried for this article in February 2003. The very next trip, the inventory was changed, which is easy to do with the following system. Rest assured, if the bag was inventoried one year earlier or later, or from season to season, the specific lures and overall contents would be dramatically different... and some of the organization principles will surely be different by the time you may read this. But the key point is to learn just that - constantly calibrating the organization and contents of the bag for optimal success looking forward toward your next trip! Please enjoy a peek...

INSIDE BASSDOZER'S BAG

Most everything I fish with fits inside a Plano Model 3370 soft tackle bag. In the bag's main chamber, I stow:

• Two Plano Model 3730 utility trays which hold over 50 bags of soft plastic baits and 250 hooks
• One Plano Model 3700 utility tray, which holds about 50 hard plastic or wood baits and 50 spare treble hooks.
• A second Plano Model 3700 utility tray which holds about 300 jigs and 300 sinkers

Although I have my own boat (a Ranger 461VS / Mercury 175EFI), I do not stow extra tackle in my boat lockers. I work out of my bag, especially because on someone else's boat, my bag would be the only source I have for tackle. So I discipline myself to only work out of my bag, even on my own boat.

All of the weight is only in the jig and sinker box, so if I am shore fishing, I leave the jig/sinker box in the parked truck, and take out a handful or two of sinkers and jigs I think I will need. The bag has a padded shoulder strap, and can be worn high on your back to fish shore or wade all day.

BOX 1 - SENKOS & HOOKS

There's no denying that Yamamoto Senkos, which come in 10 models, are a pervasive part of my fishing. About 1/2 the soft baits I carry are Yamamoto Senkos, and I dedicate one Plano box to Senkos. The box is important. Plano Model 3730 is well over 3 inches tall, which enables me to stand a bag of bait upright in the box. With adjustable dividers, I divide each of the four rows into two parts, or 8 compartments total. In each of the eight compartments, I am able to easily stand 3 or even 4 bags upright, over 24 bags total. For longer 9L and 9X Senkos, I divide one compartment on a 66% - 33% division, so 3-4 long bags go on one side. On the other small side, I keep all my bags of hooks, primarily Gamakatsu, Owner, Yamamoto and Daiichi hooks in the original packages. If I am on a big fish location, I divide more rows on the 66% - 33% basis to carry more longer 9L and 9X Senkos. The other remaining rows are divided on a 50% - 50% basis, where all regular sizes of Senkos fit.

It's important to keep bait in their original bags so you can add or remove baits on a bag-by-bag basis. It is impractical to empty baits out of a bag, loose in a compartment. When loose, they tend to take a bend which makes them fish improperly, colors can bleed into each other, and what do you do when you want to replace 10 loose chartreuse Senkos with 10 loose blue ones? Point is, it is a lot easier to replace a bag of chartreuse Senkos with a bag of blue ones than it is to replace loose ones, the baits won't bleed badly in bags, they preserve their original intended shape better, and it's easy to switch them out on a bag-by-bag basis.

The label on the front bag prevents you from being able to tell what bait is inside, but the back of the bag is transparent. So I stand the baits back-to-front to see what is in them. I also keep a permanent black laundry marker in the bottom of this box, so I can mark the series number (9, 9M, 9L, 9X, 9S, 9J, 9C, etc.) on the top edge of the bag. In this way, I can read the number on each bag without even opening the box, or without having to rifle through each one blindly searching for a specific item. All this saves beaucoup time during the day, especially in a tournament.

The black magic marker is also useful for unpainted sinkers or jig heads which are too shiny. The black magic market will dull them down. I do this on the spot. Although the marker says it's permanent, the ink will rub off all over your tackle if you do this ahead of time, and will rub off in storage onto your trays. In addition, the black magic marker can be used to color soft baits, but it is messy and not permanent. Especially chartreuse, orange or red baits can be blackened over 80% of their surface, showing only a belly stripe of the original color. Quite effective! Even a watermelon, smoke, 326 or 168 bait can use a good stripe of black down its back from time to time! Mark your bags, dull your jigs and sinkers, muffle your bright colors, and put racing stripes on your baits. Stow a black marker in the bottom of your Plano box.

BOX 2 - MORE SOFT BAITS

This is also a Plano Model 3730 box, well over 3 inches tall, which enables me to stand a bag of bait upright in the box. With adjustable dividers, I divide each of the four rows into two parts, or 8 compartments total. In each of the eight compartments, I am able to easily stand 3 or even 4 bags upright, over 24 bags total. For longer 7X or other long baits, I divide one compartment on a 66% - 33% division, so 3-4 long bags go on one side. On the other small side, I keep 3-4 small bags of bait. If I am on a big fish location, I divide more rows on the 66% - 33% basis to carry more longer baits. The other remaining rows are divided on a 50% - 50% basis, where all regular sizes of baits fit.

It's important to keep bait in the bag so you can add or remove them on a bag-by-bag basis as seasons change or as you fish different bodies of water requiring different baits. For example, early in the season, I tend to carry a few more bags of craws. During bedding season, a few more bags of lizards. It is impractical to empty baits out of a bag, laying loose in a compartment. When loose, they tend to take a bend which makes them fish improperly, colors can bleed into each other, and what do you do when you want to replace 20 or 30 loose crawdads with 20 or 30 loose lizards? Point is, it is a lot easier to replace a few bag of craws with a few bag of lizards than it is to replace loose ones. Another example, you may motor into an isolated cove and suddenly discover bass on a wide-open shad bite. The next day you head there, you may want to re-arrange your bag heavily towards more 11-series skirts, single and double tail grubs, Ikas, Senkos in shad colors. Keeping baits in their original bags makes switching easy on a seasonal, lake-by-lake or even trip-by-trip basis. You cannot do that with loose baits.

The label on the front bag prevents you from being able to tell what bait is inside, but the back of the bag is transparent. So I stand the bags back-to-front to see what is in them. I mark the series number or name (HULA, CRAW, LIZ, IKA, etc.) on the top edge of the bag. In this way, I can read the name or number on each bag without even opening the box, or without having to rifle through each one blindly searching for a specific item. All this saves time during the day, especially in a tournament.

I also keep several Spike-It soft plastic dye markers in the bottom of one of the compartments so I can add color accents to baits right on the spot. Chartreuse, orange or red dye markers can bring out the best in a bait. A belly or back stripe on a craw, lizard, Senko, Ika or hula can be quite effective, or a red ring around the collar right around the gill area!

BOX 3 - JIGS & SINKERS

Suffice it to say, there are hundreds upon hundreds of jig heads and sinkers inside Bassdozer's bag (all quite necessary), primarily from 3/16, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4 up to 1 oz. Keep in mind, this is my taking with me what I think I could need for only one day's fishing. Although there are hundreds and hundreds of jigs and sinkers in this box, if I get dialed into catching fish on only one specific size and shape, then I may only have 1/2 dozen of that item with me for the day, you see? I will keep mental track of what I take out, and each time I return home from a trip, I will replenish whatever jigs and sinkers I used during the day.

This box is a Plano Model 3700, which is about two inches tall. Because there are so many hooks, this box is very vulnerable. If it gets damp inside, hundreds and hundreds of jig hooks will rust. I have tried many but not all makes and models of hooks. Certain Gamakatsu hooks are among the most rustless I have come across to date. Regardless, you must avoid getting moisture inside this box. If you even think it's gotten damp, this box needs to be religiously left open to dry indoors. Otherwise, your jigs will soon be useless.

At this stage of my fishing experience, I do not need to know precisely what weight jig or sinker I am using, but I am very concerned whether it is fishing relatively heavy or relatively light for the "water" that day. I am constantly evaluating whether I may need to switch to one that fishes lighter or fishes heavier than the one I currently have tied on the line. I consider light to be sizes up to 3/8 oz. I consider heavy to be subsequent sizes up to 1 oz.

Even the same size and model of sinker or jig may fish differently on different days, and you need to know when to adjust to a different size of the same shape or to a different shape of the same size in order to arrive at one that fishes right for the water that day. Yes, we are talking about feel here, and you have to develop it over many years. There's no shortcut to be good with rigs and jigs. To achieve a certain final level, there's nothing more you'll ever learn out of yet another article, book, video or TV program. You've got to turn it all off, go out and teach yourself after that point.

Current, wind and depth are easy-to-understand factors that can cause a sinker or jig to feel right or wrong from day to day. Atmospheric pressure, thermoclines, tongues, walls or pockets of unmixed water, thin sweet water spreading like oil across the surface from snowmelt or fresh springs, thick sour riverbed water still weighing its way along the sunken original channels, rainwater run-off...these are more obtuse factors we can attribute to why a jig or sinker does not always feel it fishes the same from one day to the next. Yet there are other factors that you can't describe why...except to feel them when you try different jigs and sinkers on days you aren't fishing well, trying to detect a difference when one feels almost imperceptibly better that day. The nitty-gritty is there are days there may not be much discernable current or wind or anything else, yet it feels the water is grinding a sinker or jig down onto the bottom much too hard. Other days you may feel the water is somehow buffeting the same sinker or jig to float too high and you have difficulty getting it to behave nicely near bottom. If you are an ardent rig or jig fisherman, you are smiling now because you know exactly what I am talking about, the thin razor edge of feel, except that you have probably never heard anyone try to describe this way you fish and adjust jigs and rigs by feel before. You probably have as wide a range of jigs and sinkers as I do in your bag, and you know when one fishes wrong, exactly which other jig or rig you will try that should fish better. This is a highly-advanced concept and few anglers ever approach this level, so if I've lost you, it's okay for now. Okay? I can't teach you this in writing, you can only teach yourself, by feel.

BOX 4 - THE HARD STUFF

Like a garden, your hard plastic and wood bait box needs to be pruned and groomed regularly. Lures that are not catching fish are dead wood and need to be removed pronto, so that more productive lures can replace them. There is no clear reason for it, but in every batch of one dozen of the same brand and model of wood or hard plastic lures, 3 of them may never catch fish well, 3 of them may excel, and 6 of them may only be average fish catchers. The top 25% of your hardbaits are going to catch most all of your fish. Pruning and grooming your hard bait box let's you identify and carry with you those 3 out of 12. If we use my box as an example, there are over 50 baits in it today. Doing the math, that means I had to weed out over 150 others (the other 75%) that were not exceptional fish catchers. This box is a Plano Model 3700, which is about 2 inches tall. This is easily dividable, based on varying lure lengths. In one small division, I have 45 loose spare treble hooks, plain and feathered, assorted split rings and snaps.

BOX 5 - WIRE BAITS

This is a special spinnerbait/buzzbait box, Plano Model 3503. I carry this separately, and occasionally forget and leave it behind. Fortunately for me, I always have up to ten of my very best spinnerbaits and buzzbaits I carry additionally inside my tackle bag too (see Box #6 below).

Down the sides of this spinnerbait box, I slip in bags of  trailers, and trailer hooks in their original packages. At times, using trailer hooks are quite necessary. When fish are striking short, you can miss an awful lot of bites if you do not use a trailer hook on your spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. At times, trailer baits are also necessary to sweeten a buzzbait or spinnerbait, and coax bass into biting it. Of course, you can use a wide variety of soft plastics as trailers, however the T-series trailers I keep in this box are made of a special hard plastic formula to not slip off or tear off a spinnerbait or buzzbait so easily. Black, white, smoke and chartreuse are my basic trailer bait colors. I'll opt for double tail trailers, yet pinch one leg off if a single tail seems what the fish want.

BOX 6 - WORKING STORAGE

As I cut off a lure to try another one, the lures I take off go into a working storage box. This box fits inside a large zipper pocket on front of the tackle bag. This box is a TackleLogic Model 3630. It is dividable into 7 compartments, including one double-wide compartment for spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. One compartment I reserve for hard plastic or wood baits. One compartment for rubber and hair jigs. The other four compartments, I segregate different color families of soft baits, so the colors will not bleed into each other. If the baits are on rigs or jigs, I will store them here still rigged, so the next time I want to tie one on, I do not have to go into the other Plano boxes for separate components.

This working storage box saves time putting away and taking out ready-rigged baits, especially during a tournament or when fish are suddenly biting right in front of you. It's like your dinner plate, where you've got a scoop of everything you like out of different pots and pans, and are ready to eat.

Like your hard plastic and wood bait box, this working storage box must also be pruned and groomed after every trip. If you tried a lure a few times during the day, and it did not work, it is dead wood. Remove it. Also, if there is a lure that has been sitting in working storage for the last two weeks, yet you haven't used it in that time frame, it is dead wood also. The objective with working storage is to have your very best lures of all types (soft baits, hard baits, wire baits) tuned and ready-rigged in this one box. In this way, you can work easily and instantly out of working storage without having to go into any other boxes for baits or components. So constantly eliminate all dead wood from working storage, and have only your very best baits in here, tuned and ready to tie on.

CUEING ON THE SIDE POCKETS

In addition to the front pocket, the Plano Model 3370 soft tackle bag has two side pockets.

In one side pocket, I keep sunblock lotion, two spare spools of line, a waterproof wristwatch and a Cul-M-Rite scale. The sunblock is wrapped in a separate plastic bag, so not to inadvertently leak all over my tackle bag. The pound tests of the spare spools are a compromise. One spool of 8 lb. test for re-spooling medium/light tackle, one spool of 14 lb test for respooling medium/heavy tackle. These line tests are for a temporary on the water fix. Back at home, I may respool again with precisely the lb test line I truly desire. The wristwatch is inexpensive (under $10). Although I do not look at it often, this spare watch has proven crucial to carry in more than one tournament. The Cul-M-Rite scale is as important in pre-fishing as in an actual tournament usage. It records up to the 7 largest fish weighed per day, and tells you exactly which fish to cull if you are keeping them in your livewell. On many tournament waters, there are events every week. You can prefish for your next upcoming event, and use the Cul-M-Rite to benchmark your biggest bass of the day and your multi-fish limit for the day against the results posted for recent events. If you have results from tournaments the same time last year, you can benchmark your pre-fish against that too. In this way, the Cul-M-Rite will record exactly where you would stand, even during pre-fish, even if you are releasing the fish.

In the second side pocket, there's a tube of MegaStrike gel attractant and a bottle of Yamamoto liquid attractant. The liquid attractant is wrapped in a separate plastic bag, so not to inadvertently leak all over my tackle bag. Even while applying it, I do not remove it from the plastic bag, so if a drip stays behind, it will be drip inside the plastic bag, not all over my gear or boat. The MegaStrike gel attractant doesn't drip or mess, and works exceedingly well on soft plastics, whereas the Yamamoto liquid attractant soaks better into hair jigs, on living rubber jigs or to soak pork. A couple small jars stuffed with Super Pork squeeze into the side pockets too. There is a compact Leatherman Wave folding multi-tool which has a scissors for trimming jig skirts and fiberguards, pliers, cutters, screwdrivers, knife and saw blades, etc. I keep a second pair of needlenose in a sheath and a second hook file in a sheath and . The sheaths are so the pointy or sharp ends of the tools do not tear my bag. With most high-end hooks, sharpening is not required. In fact, many are so sharp out of the box, that to attempt to file them would only serve to dull the point. Still, there are times when fish are right in front of you when you may want to quickly swipe a file over a hook that got dulled or bent from a snag, rather than stop fishing to take out time to replace it and re-rig right then.

In the mesh back pocket of the Plano bag, I always keep the seven stringers and color-coded floats that come with the Cul-M-Rite scale. However, I only use them if I intend to keep and cull fish in a tournament.

BASSDOZER'S BELT

We've peeked at most of what goes into Bassdozer's bag. Now let's turn to Bassdozer's belt, a Plano Model 3350 Outdoor Gear Belt. This is the final item that allows me to truly be self-contained, especially when backseating on another person's boat. On my own boat, I can put my bag and belt in a roomy side locker up on the front deck with me. As a backseater, I don't know where I am going to be asked to put my bag, and it may be awfully inconvenient when I need something. To solve this, I wear a Plano Model 3350 Gear Belt. It does not matter if I am fishing in a bathing suit or bundled into layers of winter clothing. No matter what layering of clothing I am wearing, the belt adjusts to buckle around my waist. Everything I need to fish is around my waist. Wherever I am in the boat, it's right there on me. I may not necessarily need to go into my bag or the boat locker all day. I slide the belt around so the pockets are in front, not behind. On the belt, I slide on a sheath to hold a needlenose pliers and a sheath to hold a file (see right side of photo). In the large center pocket, I carry up to five more bags of soft baits, a few spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. There is a drink holder pocket, which is an ideal attractant holder.

One side pocket holds the hooks and sinkers and jig heads I am using on any given day, preferably in their original packages. At home, I will also pack any loose jigs, sinkers, hooks into a few small zip-lock bags to stash in the belt.

The other side pocket holds pre-rigged dropshot, splitshot, Texas, Mojo, Screw-in and Carolina rigs, all coiled and ready to use in small ziplock bags. I use the black marker to write hook and sinker size on the bag. The bags are bunched onto metal clips, according to hook size, and stashed in the side pocket. All the pre-rigged leaders are tied off on top with small SPRO swivels. These are tied at home. One rig per bag. In this way, during a tournament or when fish are biting hard in front of me or if I can't easily get into my bag to get components...I can put on a pre-rigged leader using one knot only, and be back in the water in seconds, no matter what...out of my belt!

Since the hooks, sinkers, jigs and pre-made rigs are all in zip-lock bags, it is extremely important they are opened and air-dried if moisture ever gets inside.

If I've made the right decisions as to what belongs in my belt, I don't have to go anywhere else except into my belt for the day. That evening, back at home, I will replenish what I used from my belt, and replenish what I used from my bag after every trip. It's easy.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Let's pull it all together now guys...with the bag, spinnerbait box and belt, I am carrying approximately:

ALL THAT... GOOD FOR ONE DAY ONLY?

With all that is carried in my bag, you'd think I am set for the season. It may seem like quite a lot of bait, but it's not. In actuality, this is the amount of tackle I feel I require for only one day's fishing. Let me explain. Although I have 315 jig heads, they are spread across numerous sizes and styles. I may only have 6 pieces of any one size/style, and I have had days when I've lost dozens of jigs to snags. So, I can easily run out of the sizes and styles I desire before the day is done. Although I have 600 soft baits, they are spread across 50 models of baits. Doing the math, I am only carrying on average 12 apiece of any model. If I have a hot run on crawdads, I may be in trouble if I only have 2 10-packs of crawdads. The other 580 soft baits may not work as well. Rest assured, I will put several more bags of crawdads in my bag that night, and remove several bags of other baits. So don't think the lists above are cast in stone. The contents of my bag, especially soft baits and hard baits, changes every trip. For instance, when fish are on shad, shiners or minnows, the bags of baits I carry will be switched out for way more single tail grubs and 11-series skirts in shad colors in my bag, for example. Every day, some soft bait or hard bait tends to get the switcheroo.

I hope this peek inside my bag helps you to better understand the game we play, and how to play it. In preparing this article, a fellow at the office inquired what I was doing, counting bags of bait and all. I started to explain to him how I pack my bag, yet he interrupted me and said, "That's only your personal preference...so-and-so (a big name angler) dumps all his baits out of the original packages." I smiled and simply excused myself politely from him. To you, however, make no mistake. This is not just the next guy's personal preference, but it is 30 years of experience in preparing and packing a lure bag for bass practically daily. Pick up a pointer or two here, and you will pack not only your bag. You will also pack more and better bass into your livewell.