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Be sure before you set out for that fishing trip ,  That you have all your equipment ready.  Take it from an old fishing dude who knows after making many mistakes in his life. Not to say that everything I have done for fishing has been mistakes.   But I made a few. Here was one of them.    I once went out fishing with a couple of guys I worked with and I  messed up what could have been a much better five hour fishing event for myself on an inland lake.  I had all my equipment but I shared  some of it with my son.  This is how it went.

We had made plans a few days in advance to go out fishing for a few hours in one of my buddy's bass boat.   Except I should had looked over my fishing gear a couple of days prior to the day of the fishing trip.    Here is where I made my mistake. I grabbed my poles, rods,and reels and tackle box on the morning of the fishing trip.   I was in a hurry because we had to work that day and we would leave right from work to go out..   My thoughts were everything looked OK. and as far as I remembered It was all in order from the last time I went out fishing.   I remembered that I changed my fishing line late last season.Bought some extra tackle I was ready to go.   After a long day at work we were ready to go. . I loaded all my equipment in his truck and away we went.   There were three of us on this trip. We got to the boat landing got everything set and ready and we took off across the lake where he knew of a good spot for Gills and Crappie. 

The other two guys had better Rods and reels then I did.   But that wasn't so bad.   Although they were  fishing with ultralight rods and that is the way to go when fishing smaller game fish.   However I had an older inexpensive rod.   OK no big deal.   But then one of the guys asked me what pound test line I had on there.   That was my first mistake I noticed.   I forgot that my son took it to lake Michigan and he used it last fishing season there.   I changed the line alright.  To a heavier test line for larger fish.  I forgot.  All the while I was thinking I had 4 to 6 lb test line at the most.  I realized it was more like 8 or 12 lb.  What an embarrassment to say the least.  I had a small steal leader on it and split shoots. I think two.  I open up my tackle box and had no bobbers or much in the way of smaller game fish tackle.  I remembered that my son and I went out on one inland fishing trip before he went to lake Michigan by himself.  On the day that him and I went inland fishing I let him keep some of my pan fishing tackle to add to his collection.  I was going to pick up more and I forgot to.  So whatever tackle I needed was in his box.

Here is the worst part of that story.  His tackle box was sitting right next to mine in our garage. Because him and I go out fishing together we just kept it that way.  I left good tackle behind and had to heavy of line to fish the smaller fish.  Although I caught a few small ones but let them go. . I learned. I am cleaning up that act and I won't make that mistake twice.  I will also change my fishing line at least twice a year.  So time to buy some more tackle and  a couple of newer poles including one Ultra lite.  We were fishing with wax worms and minnows as well as our tackle but the gills and perch seem to be hitting on the rubber black tails with jig heads and wax worms.  But I had to lose the steel leader and the swivel and the lead shots and switch to what they were using.  Except I had to borrow the rubber black tail off of one of the guys. What a trip.  That sucked because I'm usually more prepared.  I will be next time. That's a promise that I'm keeping to myself.

 

Written by :

drr1289