What’s In Your Bag? Tackle Box Show & Tell

One of the challenges shore-bound anglers face is packing the right lures in a practical surf bag solution. It can take time to figure out your ideal surf fishing bag configuration.

Some of the MFCC members have discovered their own tackle organization methods that work for them in the surf, and I'd like to share some of those with you today!

Member since 2013​

I returned to fishing about 6 years ago when I realized I was working too much. I have fond memories of fishing Cape Cod Bay out of Green Harbor with my father and uncles when I was a kid. 

We had a 14’ wooden dory with a 10hp Johnson motor. Filling the bottom of the boat with mackerel, pollock, haddock, and cod was a common occurrence. Ironically, we never fished for stripers!

Now, I exclusively enjoy fishing for stripers and blues. Most of my fishing takes place in the daylight, but early evenings I'm often on the beaches or at the canal. I'm sure there are a lot of anglers on this site with different fishing methods and experience, but I will give you a brief summary of my own tackle setup.

For schoolies, I am usually fishing in the day so all I carry are the pliers and the smaller belt bag with a mix of small metals, rubber, and jigs.

Everything is under 1-1/2oz in weight. I use either a 7’ rod or an 8’ rod for schoolies. I actually use the 8’ rod a lot in the summer also for daytime beach fishing (St. Croix Mojo, 1-3oz., VS-125 reel).

For the beach I usually carry two rods, a 10”SC Legend with a VR150 and the 8” rod. On the belt I have the tube bag with no more than 6 lures in it, the poach bag with metals, rubber, snag treble, teasers, and leaders, the pliers, boga grip, and flashlight.

I'm a retired engineer, so I like fishing gear that works correctly, is made well, and will last a long time. I hate it when my toys break! Hence Hthe VS titanium plyers, Boga grip, Sog knife and Gear Up bags you see in my pictures. I almost exclusively fishing with lures and metals.

Sometimes, I use rubber lures like Al Gags and Hogy's, especially for schoolies. You can see them sticking out of my bag left and right!

This winter I decided to invest in a dedicated canal bag, and two belt bags, one for lures and one for metals and rubber. I bought the canal bag from MFCC and the two Gear Up belt bags at the Rhode Island Salt Water Fishing Show.

The only modifications I have made have been to the canal bag. I replaced the shoulder strap with a longer strap (I am 6-2) and I removed the metals insert piece and replaced it with a slim Plano case for metals and rubber. I think the canal bag is perfect for the large lures. It also fits perfectly in the bike basket. The picture below illustrate how I use the canal bag.​​​

Member since 2016

Though I'm always working on my surf bag configuration, I'm pretty pleased with my current setup.

The way I fish, my bag gets totally submerged about 3 days a week, so keeping my terminal tackle in good shape is a challenge.

To keep my hooks, sinkers, and clips in tip-top shape, I seal my terminal tackle tray with electrical tape. 

This works far better than one would imagine. The same tape has been on there for two seasons now, despite going into the tray a few times per outing.

Member since 2013

For this post, I put together three assortments that represent what I bring with me in a few different situations when fishing: 

The photo below contains what I normally pack when fishing the Cape Cod Canal.

From top to bottom: Guppy pencil, Wally pencil, Sebile, Canal Bait stick shad, Super Strike popper, Joe Baggs Patriot fish, Joe Baggs Patriot fish, Ned Bean (member of MFCC) original bucktail, Savage sand eel. 

The pencils and poppers are used only during the day, but the others can be used either day or night at the Cape Cod Canal.

This next photo contains what I normally pack when fishing beaches & boulder fields.

From top to bottom: Two Guppy pencils, Bone SP Minnow, Canal Magic Swimmer, Sebile Custom Paint, Blurple Daiwa SP Minnow, Super Strike Needle, small Savage Sandeel, Tsunami sand eel, small Joe Baggs Patriot Fish, Smilin Bill Jig with Cocahoe Minnow trailer, 4 assorted minnow and sand eel teasers in lower lefthand corner.

In general I will use the dark colored lures s at night, and the lighter colored lures during the day. I use the same teasers day or night.

And in my final photo below, I have included the lures I use when fishing estuaries and docks (which I usually fish only at night).

From top to bottom: Mag Minnow, Canal Magic Swimmer, Yozuri Squid, Rattle Trap, Redfin, Jumpin Minnow, small jig with curly tail grub, small Savage Sandeel.

I rarely fish dock areas (marinas, harbors etc.) during the day. The action is best at night. This is when I use the "shadow line" fishing and "squishing" techniques which work well at lighted docks.

You can learn more about fishing shadow lines in this post.