I caught my first "unaided by adult supervision" walleye in northern MN where i live at age 6 in the 70s, and interspersed with a long period of smallmouth bass obsession punctuated by very many quests for the largest Bluegill, i've been focused on MN walleyes for 50 years.
I have a medium sized Cabelas bag from the late 90s back-lined for storage full of odds, ends, and inventory and a proper mid-80s Rebel 6 tray, double sided tackle box – a treasure chest of vintage Bagleys, Heddon, Rebel, Rapala, Bomber, etc SMB-focused crankbaits and plugs now retired and left to the ages – but this is the bag i take everywhere. It's an odd mixture of different eras, varied approaches, stubborn ideas, and absent minded shopping habits, and often one of those smaller units gets pulled out and resupplied for use as the main box a BWCA trip, a bare bones "just in case / throw it in the trunk" thing, or an evening with a few casts off a friend's dock. While sorting through this and reflecting the other day, some truths about my personal approach to angling became evident, and i also decided to start phasing out the lead. A friend and i fished a local lake with live bait for several hours last week, caught and released numerous fish, and broke off not a single rig, so though i'm not a major part of supposed problem, it would be ok to handle less…or not any…lead over the course of my remaining years.
We're coming up on crawler drifting season, and weather permitting, there's been some discussion about a 10 pm to 2 am trip to troll for the trophies under the full moon on the 9th. Hopefully this maintenance won't jinx me into an open box tipped into the bottom of the boat. If it matters, I prefer Fenwick rods, Shimano reels, and I favor the green 6lb Trilene XT on the spinning reels and 8lb Stren on the baitcaster.
Posted by LookForDucks