The Gear I Actually Take on Every Single Fishing Trip
After thirty years I've stopped guessing. This is what's always in the bag. I've owned a lot of fishing gear over the years. More than I'd like to admit, more than I've ever needed, and considerably more than my wife thinks is reasonable for a man who fishes a river twenty minutes from his house. But somewhere around year fifteen of fishing the Tennessee River regularly, my approach to gear changed. I stopped thinking about what I might need and started paying attention to what I actually used. Trip after trip, season after season, the same things came out of the bag. The rest sat untouched. These days my fishing bag is light. Everything in it earns its place. Here's exactly what's in it and why. The Rod and Reel Setup I fish two rods on most trips. Not one, not six — two. The first is a medium-fast spinning rod in the 7-foot range paired with a quality mid-range spinning reel spooled with 10 lb fluorocarbon. This handles about 70% of what I do on the rive...