My apologies if this has been beat to death.  I was wondering if anyone makes a separate bag of the baits and setups they expect to use on a specific tournament day.  I was thinking of this on Sunday that it would have been nice if most of the lures I was using had all been in one place.  Several times when I changed baits I had to dig through 2 different bags, 1 to get the terminal tackle and 1 to get the plastic bait I wanted.  I was thinking I should have had all the stuff in one place so I wasn't having to dig through stuff to get what I wanted.  I know you can't always predict but I'm thinking next time of trying this.  Maybe 2 bags, 1 for hardbaits/spinnerbaits/jigs for the day and 1 for plastics.  I had even thought of pre-rigging some soft plastics with a leader line so that I then only had to tie the leader to my main line.  Anyone do this?  Just trying to figure the best way to change baits quickly during a tournament.

I usually make a plan A box and plan A bag

Based on what I believe the fish will be doing at time of year

 

Lots of tourney experience has taught me that I have favorite lures I use for most situations

In instances when the favorite lures are not working, more often than not neither did other lures

The lack of confidence in the lures that are not my favorites led me to switching back to the lures I did have confidence in. Meaning the switching of lures proved to be a bigger time waster than just grinding it out with my favorites. If you find a group of active fish you will be able to catch them with a variety of techniques and lures. Too often tournament time is wasted with anglers trying to convince themselves an area is as active as we think it should be.

 

15-30 minutes before blast off I will pull out the items I plan on fishing from their bag, bin, compartment to limit digging during the day.  I like doing it then vs the night before as it lets me settle down any excitement and focus on what my game plan is. 

 

Have a small box on the deck with the terminal stuff I believe I will use.  Prevents digging for things and also limits clutter.

 

Only item I really prerig is trd's.  I can lose a lot depending on how I'm fishing them, other is weight and color change.  

Boater or non boater?  Bass boat or kayak?

41 minutes ago, Wildbillb said:

Boater or non boater?  Bass boat or kayak?

Currently a non-boater, likely to become a boater.  Backed in my 20's I fished tournaments a lot, then had kids and stopped.  Now I am testing the waters to see if I still like to do it.  In my 20s I never fished as a true non-boater as I fished all team tournaments with the same guy. 

One thing I hate doing in a tournament is having to dig through things to get what I want.  I am pretty well organized (jig box, 2 crankbait boxes, terminal box) already but looking to see what else I can do to minimize time wasted when re-rigging something that requires different hooks or jig heads, weights, etc.  

I maintain one 3700 marked 'primary".

I update the contents the night before.   I generally keep a couple jigs, a variety of terminal, one or two each traps, bladed jigs, squarebills,  jerk baits, etc.  I adjust contents frequently between trips, based on season, type of water I'm headed to, etc.

I just wrote an article for Yamamoto on this very topic called “Road Trip Blues” that covers how I rig for backseat fishing.  It’s on Yamamoto’s website if you want to read it.  It’s frowned upon to put links here.  

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

I just wrote an article for Yamamoto on this very topic called “Road Trip Blues” that covers how I rig for backseat fishing.  It’s on Yamamoto’s website if you want to read it.  It’s frowned upon to put links here.  

Awesome...thanks!  Look forward to reading it.  I felt like I had the overall day pretty well organized...I had some trouble locating some plastics which is why I asked about the "special" box.  For the next one I plan to have some baits pre-rigged so I'm not digging for hooks and sinkers as much.