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Article - Packing for Success
Preparation for a task always begins with defining the objective, goal, or outcome desired. Some outcomes are easy to obtain but others really take a full blown all out effort to make it happen consistently. Consistency catching Crappie is achieved by few, participation fishing for Crappie is enjoyed by masses of Anglers. The goal of this article is to give a birds eye view of the extent I prepare to consistently catch Crappie Every Trip. It takes devotion, dedication, discipline, determination, and Drive to accomplish success catching Crappie every trip. I begin with how I expect to catch Crappie, from the defining of the expectations driving successful tactics to catch Crappie, to the equipment needed for each technique used. I to stick steel to a fat Crappie by planning to.
I begin with the biggest basic piece of equipment, the boat. Now assuming mechanically the boat is in great working order the next on the list is what fishing equipment and supplies, consumables are resident on board my boat. I define all the ways I plan on fishing for Crappie out of that boat. Vertical Single Pole Jigging, Pitching a jig for Crappie, Casting a jig for Crappie, Dock Shooting, Live Bait presentations again Casting, Tightlining, using a Float, Single Pole Freelining, etc. All the above approaches to catching Crappie is how I fish for them out of all of my boats. I keep one boat in storage near The Rez - Ross Barnett Reservoir in Central Mississippi the rest here at home. It starts out kinda disorganized, maybe Chaos is a better term.
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Then is starts coming together.
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I would like to give a Shout-Out to Takeum for turning me on to his Hand Tied Jigs and these fantastic jig boxes. I think about you every time I switch to Hand-Tied jigs.
These are the chosen baits needed for all the different ways I manipulate a Crappie into committing to the bite, it requires a extensive inventory of Jigs, Attractants, consumables, rods & reel combos ready to go, Plastics, Jigheads, a array of fishing lines on the reels, not taking into account food - daily & emergency, drinks, rain gear or a boat top, rags, towels, sunscreen, hats, safety equipment, etc. The proper storage of each item to maintain the absolute best condition to extract the maximum life & durability means a proper packing job is the best focus for the best success fishing Crappie.
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All onboard storage is stocked to refusal. The Edge Box is full of backup plastics. These are stored in the Camper on The Rez for replenishing the boat tackle boxes.
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To get in the weeds a bit I start with the rods & reels. After 9-10 months of Crappie fishing my rods get a coating of fish slime all over them including as far up as the stripper guide. I don't know if you can make out the dried coating of fish slime on the rod blanks before washing. The rest of the guides get a buildup of degrading vegetation sludge, the brown stuff floating back in the swamps, it creates drag on the line and I think dampens the feel of a bite transmitting from the line thru the guides into the rod blank. I wash every rod with degreaser, the purple stuff Sam's sells. Loaded in a spray bottle I wet down the blanks but not the EVA grips. After soaking a bit I wash them with a rag first then pressure wash them with the hose to free the stuff I can't see. The gunk on the yellow rag is a years buildup of fish slime & road grime off of just 3 rods.
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Once cleaned I break each rod down for travel. Speciality Rods I use are sacked in Sleeves I have sewn from trimming for Boat tops and Boat Seats I have made. Rolling up these long trimmings and I save them till a high quality rod sack is needed.
The reels are cleaned, the spools removed so the drag washers can be cleaned of road dust & dirt, if braid is on the spools 15-20ft of line is stripped off so fresh line is at the ready for a jig. Over time & use the coating on the Braid lines wears out allowing the braid lines to swell & fray. Additional spools of fresh line is packed just in case line is needed in the field.
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All the tackle boxes are pulled out, dry plastics are removed from the trays and re-oiled with Plasticizer oil and neatly restacked. All the Plastics are restocked to the top of the trays. I survey the jighead inventory, write down what's needed and get to pouring jigheads. I can continue with the preparation while the jigheads are baking the paint in the oven. Any area I see with rust in the box the rusting tackle is removed and discarded. Hooks, Floats, Bobber Stops, & weights are restocked before packing all the tackle boxes back in their respective boats. I don't have to think about rods & reels or tackle box conditions again so when the serious fishing starts I'm ready.
I use attractants so those are checked for replenishment, the injection syringes I make are assembled, Crappie,com's Slab Sauce is replaced if needed, and a good inventory of Crappie Nibbles are included, all packed into each boat.
Afterwards, attention is focused on the accessories, consumables, supplies, etc. Rags, fresh clean towels, fresh vacuum packed change of clothes, new sunscreen, all the moldy - sweat stained hats are pitched and fresh hats are packed. Rain Gear although I use boat tops, rain gear is checked for condition, unfolded, zippers & snaps checked, the hood is unrolled and checked for mold before folding up before rolling up and packed in a 2gal Freezer grade Ziploc bag. All the Inflation mechanisms on each Life Preserver is checked for rust, the Velcro folds are well creased back together and then the spare Life Preservers are bagged in HD Xtra Large Ziploc bags.
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All the Rods, Tackle, Supplies, & Consumables are packed in the Fishin' Expedition for the drive up so when I get there nothing is beat up from banging together in the boat while on the road.
All the Live Bait Buckets I own are washed with a Bleach solution then Neutralized before turning upside down to dry. All the batteries are replaced in every Bubbler I own since I do not know how much running time is on each from the previous season.
So you can see this takes me weeks to accomplish with a high degree of precision. Packing for Success makes the difference in going Crappie fishing and consistently catching Crappie. I hope the time to write my method of preparing helps you catch more Crappie in 2025.
