By Bob and Ginny Riege

I’m sitting down to write this in the middle of March. The last sport show is a couple weeks away, I only have a few seminars left to do and I picked up my new boat yesterday. I’ll have the boat rigged in just a few days, so now the fun can begin!

Organization and planning will allow you to be comfortable on the water this year otherwise this is what could and many times does happen.

Picture this! The lazy summer afternoon has made people in the next boat a little tired and some are having a snack. Others are looking at the speeding boat that has just passed by when all of a sudden a limply held rod bends towards the water and the next few minutes resemble something out of a Keystone Cops movie. People are jumping to their feet, rods and sandwiches are set on gunnels of the boat, and some one yells get the net. Some one is standing in the net but doesn’t realize it as the trophy fish rises to the surface and looks in disbelieve at the commotion in the boat. With a blink of an eye and a flip of the tail the trophy walleye frees itself from the hook only to slip away. The people in the boat now start blaming each other for not paying attention and all of this would have been averted if only they had been organized.

Starting with my rods, I use Pole Pouches. Each of my rods are sheathed into a nylon sack that fits snugly around my pole when placed in a rod locker. I don’t care what type of rod locker you have when you put a number of poles into it they get tangled up. Therefore, all my poles have the Pole Pouch around them to keep them free from tangle and ready to use when I want them.

My Drift Master Tournament Series drift sock, when not in use in the boat, will be put into it’s own bag so the ropes will not get tangled in the equipment in my boat. Also, if I am using one of these while fishing with others I go through a little training exercise with all of them to see if they can pull in the drift sock when a fish is hooked. That makes everyone in the boat experienced on what to do if a fish is hooked. It also helps others to get the boat organized and for everyone to perform some specific jobs.

If I have rods rigged with special lures for the day I will wrap the lure up with a lure wrap. This keeps the lure from snagging other equipment and keeps hooks out of peoples hands and clothing. In fact, my net is even wrapped in a cover. It allows the net also to be as tangle free as my lures until needed and then the cover is slipped off.

I also rig my boat for rough seas, just in case. All my equipment is bolted down and I check all of this before the boat enters the water. I strap down my kicker motor so it won’t rock back and forth or bust off the transom, believe me I have seen a few that have. My depthfinders are secure and I have even screwed down The Judge Ruler. This keeps it in place but also keeps it handy to when needing to measure the recently caught walleye.

I have my Lindy Marker Buoy holder mounted next to where I am running my kicker motor so I can easily keep my eyes on the depthfinder and reach for the marker buoy to toss overboard.

An angler needs to spend some time getting organized and orientated again with their equipment. I can remember my dad’s tackle box, you know the one I am talking about. It weighed about fifty pounds and when you opened it, it grew with length and different levels so it took up the entire length of the floor between the seats. All the tackle that dad and you had purchased over the years was contain in that box. Some of the tackle was in need of repair, but it still had a place in the box next to all the other tackle that was housed there. Today many of the tackle box companies provide the angler with clear finished boxes that make the identification of their contents easy and quick when you have to select in a hurry. They also make sense in the aspect that you don’t have to have that old box like your dad’s.

When getting ready for this fishing season spend some time going through your tackle box and maybe it is a good time to get a new box. Check all the compartments and remove all the lures and set them aside so you can wipe out the box itself and let it dry. Don’t use chemicals or industrial cleaners, a damp rag will clean up most of the plastic boxes that have been out there for over twenty years. Then inspect your baits and lures. Do they need to have new hooks put on them? How sharp are those hooks? Now is the time to touch them up with a file and get them sharp for the up coming season.

This is the time to discard those items that you know you will not need or use. A good friend of mine always said, “In order to be successful on the water you have to spend some time in the garage”.

My organization has caused me to have three mini command centers where I run my boat from; the bow, the console and the transom. In these areas I have all the pliers, hook outs, and lure hangs right at my fingertips. Anytime an angler perform to many things all at once important loss of concentration will happen an affect your fishing outcome.

Concentration is also part of being organized. When I am on the water I pay attention to what is happening with my rods, the surface of the water, the sound of my engines the depth change and structural fluctuations. I always expect the next strike to be a trophy fish and that keeps me organized.

So, when you are on the water remember some of these helpful tips and you will have a well run boat not one that looks like the Keystone Cops have come to fish.