I have never owned a true bass boat, nor even fished from one other than one time back in the 1970's. Still, I suspect I can infer from the equipment on modern bass boats that much of that equipment has a great influence on how one can fish. I am wondering if the same is true of small craft like kayaks and canoes.

Specifically, assuming your small craft does not have the same ability to establish and maintain a precise waypoint, especially in current, do you fish with different tackle than you might in a given situation?

Might you use spinning gear rather than baitcasting for the simplicity?

Might you employ longer casts rather than shorter?

Is your choice of tackle the same regardless of boat?

Do you have better things to do with your time than answer dumb questions like this?

I’ve had bass boats, jon boats and small, personal watercraft. I’ve never chosen my gear based on the boat, I choose what gear to use based on the fish I’m after and the lures I plan to use.

The Bait Monkey determines the amount of gear I bring fishing.

I determine how much gear I’ll bring based on the boat. The boat has no decision on what gear I’ll bring. The body of water and species have a huge impact on this

Way back when I had my 8’ plastic boat/floating suitcase, I limited myself to 2 rods, a Tackle Logic worm bag, and a Plano “Mini Magnum” full of hooks, sinkers and jigheads. There were a couple of those 79 cent Cotton Cordell spinnerbaits (blue/yellow of course) in the worm bag as well.

I can’t tell you why, but I was absolutely convinced that the second I put my vast collection of hard baits (at the time enough to almost fill my Woodstream “Bass Boss”) in it, they would be good as gone.

Now I have an 18 foot fiberglass floating tackle shop and look back wondering if I might have been onto something back then.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by ElGuapo928
Autocorrect hates me

I use the same tackle in my kayak that I do in my bass boat. Some things are easier to do in my boat than the kayak, like fishing big swimbaits is easier in my boat because of the stability and ability to control my position better, but I still catch plenty of swimbait fish from the kayak. I stand and fish less in my kayak than I do the boat, but that's kind of technique dependent.

With purpose built fishing kayaks that have a lot of weight capacity it can be both easy and tempting to bring teh entire kitchen sink out there. I have learned to pare down the tackle I bring, which also helps decrease the "paralysis of analysis."

I know what I want to bring for the local lakes that I fish. If I'm out of town for tournament week I keep a storage bin of potential baits in my Bronco, but I don't load up my kayak. This allows me to swap out some baits each day, or even go back to the ramp and swap baits if I think that would help.

Besides, all you need nowadays is a Coike, spinnerbait, bladed jig, and a plastic worm!

I’ve gone from 12 foot barge kayak, to co angler, bank fishing, and back into a 10 foot yak.

Gear quantity has actually decreased over time. In my Titan I brought everything. 10 rods, two graphs, motor, 150lbs of soft plastics in 6 colors of each bait.

Now everything except the rods fits in a 13x13 black pack. Same gear moves to my backpack if I’m bank fishing, into the co angler bag if I’m in someone else’s boat.

I know what I like to throw, and I know what I have success with. I don’t really chase trends or buy what’s hot this summer so there is very little bloat. I haven’t bought a soft plastic in two years because I bait monkeyed a stockpile. Whatever gets used or lost during a trip is restocked from the pile and I’m ready to go back out.

Maybe in a couple years I’ll try the urchin baits. For now I simply don’t care.