Well guys most of your ideas sound good. I been thinking about ivesting in some plastic worm molds. Anyone ever mess around with that. From what i understand you can reuse old plastic. Is it worth the trouble.  Lookin for Lunkers.

I made a decision a few years back to really cut down on what I carry with me. I used to come to a tournament with a large Tackle bag with 5 3700 planos inside and another full of plastic.

I'm a freak when it comes to my tackle. I believe in brand specificity. I make almost all of my own baits so I use one jig, one spinnerbait and my own plastics. It works for me. I use Bagley's or ThunderShad balsa cranks only. It works for me.

I got away from buying everything thast looked cool years ago. About 3 years ago I experimented by bringing 1 3700 plano box and a small 12" by 8" duffel bag for my plastics. I fished the next 3 tournament seasons this way, traveling extremely light and it worked out for me. I was never at a loss for having the right bait, so this is the way I've contiuned to do it.

Really taking stock in what I do have, I noticed I have a ton of stuff but it is all the same type of stuff. This makes it easier to cull things down a bit.

That said, there is no reason for me to carry the kitchen sink.

I generally carry:

about 25 assorted Grass Jigs

4 Traps

4 ThunderShads/Bagley's Kill r B's

4 Leverage Spinnerbaits

2 Sammy's

1 bag of Platy's assorted colors

several bags of tubes

some tube heads, plenty of hooks, glass beads, weights

assorted plastics like Fat Ikas, SD's, FatZillas and a few standard worms in the duffel.

Total weight.....maybe 8lbs.

I think some of you are on the right track, others may be a bit off here.  The problem isn't figuring out how you can carry all this stuff, it's how to eliminate a lot of this stuff you're carrying around.

My thinking is that if you carry everything with you all the time, you'll be thinking more about what lure will catch the fish, instead of what you need to do with a lure to catch the fish.  Most of us think about the lure too much, and not enough about the fish eating the lure.

Here's what I did before I bought a boat and was carrying all my stuff.  

1) Get rid of all the stuff you find in your box that makes you say "Oh, when did I get this?" or "Hmmm, didn't even know that was in here!".  Obviously you aren't using that stuff anyways.  

2) Start marking stuff when you use it.  For instance, if you keep your soft plastics in their bags, mark on the bag with a marker the date or even just a tick mark when you use it.  At the end of this season, any bags without marks get put into your reserve that you don't carry with you.

3) Start asking your wife before you buy a new lure or bag of lures.  Invariably she'll say no or complain about how much you spend on them already and you won't feel like arguing about it so you'll do with what you have already. (NOTE:  Not my wife, she's a good one )

Next year you'll be all set to gallop merrily along the countryside with a much lighter bag of goodies to tempt your prey from their hiding places!

Start asking your wife before you buy a new lure or bag of lures. Invariably she'll say no or complain about how much you spend on them already and you won't feel like arguing about it so you'll do with what you have already. (NOTE: Not my wife, she's a good one )

Now that's FUNNY!  LOL, LOL!  ask my wife?  I don;t think so.  I just do the old "puppy dog " trick and she feels sorry for me and tells me to go get it! ;D

You should open those jelly worms.Last summer I ahd a friend order me some 6" jelly worms from their site. i got the Motor Oil and the original Grape. I racked up on them,maybe the fish hadn't seen them in a while or maybe it's because they are the first worm I ever caught a Bass on. I really know I can catch fish with them . I ordered more for this year and a few in some longer sizes.

As far as rods go,I'm way out of control.I'lltake 10-12 rods rigged with various baits I "think" I may need.I can see a tourney basser doing it,but I'm just a weekend warrior.

Hey Mr.Ratllinrouge I dont even tournament fish and I was up to six rods,and I dont even know what Im doing 1/2 the time. So I just have 2 6'6" Fenwick Med. ros with fast action One l use for plastics the other plugs.A guy I fish with noticed that when I was using cranks baits I kept pullin the baits away from em as soon as I felt a bite.He gave me a E-glass rod and thats all i bring now 3 rods and Im paying more attention to what bait im using and why, I didnt need to be so compicated and now Im lloing foward to putting my boat in the lake tommorow and see what this season brings.

Reading these post got me thinking about what I could take out of my suitcase.  At least that's what my wife calls my tackle bag.  I have a small one that I wasn't using.  I put everything that I haven't used or could not remember what it's for into the small bag.  When I finished, you would have thought that I removed a couple of cinder blocks based on the weight difference.  I've been needing to do this for awhile now.  It's amazing how many lures I had collected.  Most of them I had to have,;D but they've never left the safe confines of a Plano box.

Yep. My box is full of lures that I paid for and then cast about 5 or 6 times before stuffing them back in the tacklebox and rarely ever using them again.

But the fancy lures make my tacklebox look really good.  

But the fancy lures make my tacklebox look really good.

Good Point.  I think I'll put them all back. LOL

That is an easy question to answer.

If I have not used it in the past year I have a couple of young, beginning, and financially restricted anglers I give my tackle I will not use. If you do this be ready for these young folks to catch some nice fish on tackle you cast away. What a great way to help others get hooked.