The All Occasion Kayak Tackle Box

There are greeting cards categorized as all occasion why not a tackle box. After staring at multiple tackle boxes full of lures of very description I challenged myself to a kayak one box challenge. If I had to pack one #3600 Plano tackle box for bass fishing year round and almost any location what would the contents look like? The choices and why follow.
 The Jig – A lot more versatile the folks think, good at any depth, wide variety of colors, sizes and uses. Mimicking the look of crawfish, shad, bluegill and most anything found in and around the water jigs have fooled thousands of bass for me. Effective in open water and the heaviest cover, jigs can be cast conventionally, pitched form a distance or flipped in close. A Strike King www.strikeking.com 3/8th oz. in Bama craw and a ½ oz. in Texas craw. To trail my jigs a Rage Tail craw in color #229 Road Kill.

 A Spinnerbait – again for versatility, and the endless number of blade combinations earn a tray in the tackle box. The work horse for me is the 3/8ths oz. willow / Colorado combination which offers a great deal of flash, water displacement (vibration of the arm, not the blade) while matching the shine burst of a baitfish. My other spinner would be the altered double willow. I remove the front blade, add a 209 blue shad skirt for action from fall through the spring when bass are busting shad.

 Cranking baits – Lipless, oval bill and square bill crankbaits are a must have for any species of bass. Depth is controlled by the size of the bill, retrieve speed, line size and the length of the cast. Bass hungry for minnows, shad, bluegill and other bait fish will readily bite on crankbaits. Bottom bumping cranking lures can imitate the retreating motion of a crawfish also. Running crankbaits directly into cover and objects can draw explosive “defection” strikes. Three colors of any crankbait for me are shad colors, crawfish patterns and the colorful firetiger.

 Soft Plastics – worms, tubes, craws, creature baits and the often ignored curly tail grub. My box would have to include components to Texas rig, drop shot, wacky rig, Carolina and floating worm set ups. Slip sinkers, red beads and #3/0 or#6/0 hooks for balancing the baits by size.
 Accessories – I’d stash a Line Cutterz grin www.linecutterz.com for quick clipping chores when changing baits, a set of fish grips and pliers.

Note the absence of topwaters (which I add at times) no spoons, jerkbaits, chatterbaits and others. Day in day out these are the lures will catch bass anytime, anywhere, you might say on all occasions.