Boat Organization

Show me an angler whose boat compartments spill over with clutter, and I’ll show you someone who fishes with a muddled mind. A boat in disarray invites, even promotes, cloudy thinking. It also wastes precious time when you can’t find what you need during a tournament.

On any given fishing day, you repeat the same steps dozens of times. You search for lures, tie knots, remove hooks from bass, measure fish, weigh fish when you cull them and more. If you fumble around looking for lures, line clippers, needle nose pliers and other stuff, you can easily throw away 30 minutes of fishing time. That’s a huge disadvantage. You simply can’t allow this to happen if you wish to compete at a high level.

Boat organization takes much thought, and probably more time than you would expect. It’s an ideal winter project because you can devote more time to it then. However, it’s worth the trouble anytime.

Eliminate Clutter
The first step toward an organized bass boat is to remove everything from your rod lockers and dry storage compartments. You’ll likely find lures and other odds and ends that have been missing for months, maybe years. As you sort through this gear, weed out those “just in case baits” that you never use from those that you truly rely on. The pile of tried-and-true baits will likely be dwarfed by the other.

Your goal at this point should be to organize your proven baits in a way that you can bring only those you need for a particular season and body of water. Leave the unneeded lures at home, and it will be easier to find what you want under tournament pressure. Paring down also lightens the boat’s load for better performance and fuel efficiency.

Flat Utility Boxes
You can’t beat flat, transparent utility boxes for organizing hard baits. Several companies make these boxes in a variety of standard sizes. Virtually every professional bass fisherman uses them, including Missourian Brian Snowden, a Bassmaster Elite angler and Table Rock Lake bass guide.

Snowden’s Pro Craft bass boat is always neat, clean and super organized. You’d be wise to follow his example. Snowden fills each utility box with one type of lure. For example, he has one box for topwater plugs, and others for jerkbaits, shallow-running crankbaits, deep-diving crankbaits, jigs, football jigs, sinkers and so on. This lets him grab one box when he needs a lure for a specific application.

Then Snowden makes labels for each box with a label maker he bought for $19 from an office supply store. It prints on a glossy, protected material that stands up to moisture and has an adhesive back. Snowden prints his labels with large, easy to read letters, and applies them to the top and edge of each box.
Many bass boats now come with slots for utility boxes molded into the sides of their dry storage compartments. Snowden’s Pro Craft has them in the compartments behind the driver and passenger seats. Here he puts the boxes that he is less likely to need.

The utility boxes that contain Snowden’s high-priority lures go into the largest of his two deck compartments. He stands most of the boxes on edge where each one is visible and within reach. You can insure that your utility boxes won’t shift or fall over by putting them in a hard or soft case that fits in one of your storage lockers. I’ve tried both types with excellent results.

I also use plastic shells from a hardware store that hold 3600 size utility boxes. They are marketed to home handymen who need a way to organize nuts, bolts, screws and similar things, but they also make excellent lure containers. The shells hold three boxes each, and they are small enough to fit in the driver’s side rod locker of most bass boats. I set the shells on their backs so they hold the edges of the boxes upright.

Spinnerbaits & Buzzbaits
Snowden has never found a utility box, or any other type of hard tackle box, that he likes for spinnerbaits and buzzbaits.

“They just don’t hold enough of these lures for the space they take up in your boat,” he said. “That’s why I like soft, zippered pouches, such as the ones you can get in Bass Pro Shops.”

What Snowden is talking about are soft binders that hold several pouches. Each pouch holds a dozen or more spinnerbaits or buzzbaits, so you can store hundreds of these lures in a small, organized container. The pouches typically have a clear plastic window so you can see the contents. The drawback with pouches is that you can’t put a wet lure into them. If you do, it will tarnish all the baits in the pouch.

Snowden organizes his spinnerbaits and buzzbaits by color and blade style. For example, one pouch is stuffed with chartreuse and white spinnerbaits with tandem willow leaf blades in all the sizes he uses; while another pouch has the same color spinnerbait with tandem Colorado blades. He carries two binders in his boat that house a wide variety of colors and blade configurations.

Soft Plastics
Soft plastic baits can also be stored in utility boxes, but most anglers prefer to leave these lures in their original zip-close bags. Since most bass fishermen use so many different types, sizes and colors of soft plastic baits, these lures can be especially challenging to keep organized. After I’ve narrowed down the soft plastic lures I intend to fish with for a given tournament, I place them, and only them, in a small zippered file bag that’s made for plastic baits. It rests on top of my utility boxes in a front deck locker.

Snowden keeps hundreds of different soft plastic baits organized in quart-size Sterilite plastic storage boxes he bought at Wal-Mart. Although these boxes are not intended for plastic lures, they are the perfect height and width for the zip-close bags that Snowden’s Zoom soft plastic baits come in. He places the bags upright in the containers, like cards in a filing cabinet.

As with his utility boxes, Snowden labels each of his plastic lure containers. He has boxes for creature baits, finesse worms, you name it. He can quickly put his fingers on exactly the bait he needs. The front storage compartment on the deck of his bass boat holds eight of these containers, with four stacked on four.

Fishing Tools
Line clippers, scissors for braided line and needle nose pliers are a bass fisherman’s most often used tools. You should always keep them in some type of holder so you know exactly where they are at all times. If you leave them lying loose on the deck or floor of your boat, they’ll dance into in hiding places during bouncy boat rides, and you’ll waste gobs of time looking for them.
Some fishermen wear pliers on a belt sheath and clippers on a lanyard to keep them handy. If you don’t care to do this, place your tools in some type of holder that is permanently fixed inside the boat, such as on the side of the console. Return the tools to the holder after every use, and you’ll never have to search for them.

The measuring board is another important tool. Some bass boats come with holders for these devices on the deck or on the underside of a compartment lid. I believe the best place for a measuring board is screwed to the floor with the turned up end flush with the base of the front deck. Here, it is always ready for instant use, and you won’t trip over the upturned end. Also, it forces you to measure your bass on the floor of the boat where they can’t flop back into the water, should they squirm out of your grasp.

Your culling tools must also be stored where you can easily find them. They typically include a scale, markers for your fish and a balance beam. Snowden puts these items in the storage compartment under his driver’s seat, along with a bottle of Rejuvenade®, so they are near the livewell where he intends to use them. He also stores a first aid kit and spare sunglasses under his seat.

Rods
Boats that have rod tubes in their rod lockers prevent your rods from tangling, which can be a major time waster. If your boat doesn’t have this feature, rod tubes are available. I use them regularly, especially on spinning rods that have large guides and are more prone to tangling than bait-casting rods.

 

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