Hey, John Crews here, pro bass angler, and I am in my office. That's right, BassResource, you're gonna get to see everything in my office today. I've got my Bass Cat Puma STS. I love this boat. I love how it lays out. I love all the storage in there. I'm gonna walk you through every single compartment, show you kind of how I organize my stuff and really why I put things where I put them.
So up here in the front, I got my three crazy graphs. I know it's ridiculousness, right? But I do have my new Power-Pole MOVE. Trolling motor, absolutely love that. I just wanted to mention that stuff up there. HydraWave, I'm a big fan of the HydroWave. I use that in the tournaments. But as you can see in the Bass Cat, the one thing that's unique about it, I'll start here, is that they have a net scabbard. So you can put your entire net down in here. But in the Bassmaster Elite Series events, you can't use a net. So what am I gonna do with this?
Okay, I have all of my storage, all of my covers for all my graphs. I store all those in there. And then I also store my plug knocker. So I have me an old reel and a little stub of a Cashion rod and I have my plug knocker right here that if I, in case I hang up one of my favorite crankbaits, I can throw that on there, run it down there, knock it off. And I keep it in that little compartment right there because it's easy to get to.
And then this other, the one other thing that I'll show you in here, is I have a little baitwell net. Why would I have that? Well, the livewells, which you'll see back here in a minute, I'll show them to you, the livewells are very big in a Bass Cat. They're very deep. And if I'm catching like 13-inch spotted bass, those little suckers are hard to catch in the bottom of the live well. I'll be honest with you. And if it's like 45 degrees out, I don't want to be sticking my arm down in 40-some-degree water. So I can take this down there and scoop out those little ones when I catch those four-pound spots or those four-pound largemouth, and I'm culling out those little squirts. It saves me a lot of time and effort, and coldness. So I keep that in there as well. First thing I'll show you is that little net stabber. But if you fish team tournaments, that is very handy.
On each side of the front, there are two compartments that are very similar. They actually connect in the back there. And so up here in the front I'm going to be doing my hard baits. The things are not quite as heavy. And as you can see, I've got some sentimental lures up here. These all have personal meaning to me, so I like to kind of keep them in whatever boat that I'm running for that particular year. But the first thing I'll show you, this is all my leaders. This is all of my leaders are in this Sunline bag. Everything that I use, from Carolina rig leaders to my spinning rod leaders, my Maboroshi leaders, bigger diameter leaders that I might be putting on topwater, the new Tepa tapered fluorocarbon lead. I've got all my leaders right here in this one bag so it can stay there.
That goes in there, but then also I have topwaters and some different swimbaits. Like I have all of my MegaloJohns in this in this little pouch right here, this little SPRO pouch. These things are extremely handy, the little SPRO pouches. I have my topwater baits. This is a Gamakatsu box. All my different topwater baits in there. And then some of my other crankbaits are in there as well. And then I have just a few random glide baits and other swimbait-type stuff on that compartment.
In this other side over here, I have more of my treble hook baits. Now I've been fishing up north, so I don't have all of like my Little Johns and all of my stuff that I'm going to be shallow cranking with like in the springtime in Texas or North Carolina or Virginia. But this side always is where I put my treble hooks. Up in front of the boat, I want stuff that weighs the least. I want stuff that doesn't weigh a whole lot. So, all of my Gamakatsu hooks are in these waterproof SPRO boxes. I don't have to worry about these things getting wet or getting moisture in there because the boxes are totally sealed.
And then I have more of my G-Finesse hooks and a few other a few other hooks. I got some SPRO hooks back up in here. Some more stuff. all my jerkbaits and the deep jerkbaits like I said been fishing up north in my Gamakatsu box there in the and then in the SPRO box got more of the deeper jerkbaits.
And then, last but not least, my little Spin John box. Look at this little jewel, huh? Look at all those little Spin Johns. The spy baits, that's right. We got two more events up north before we're filming this video, so these are absolutely not coming out of the boat. I will probably catch a lot of smallmouth in the last two tournaments on a Spin John. So they're going to stay up there. But that's what I keep up there in the front, things that are lighter, don't weigh as much.
And in each of my boxes, you'll see a common theme. I'll have a microfiber towel. So if I want to clean off my graphs or if I need a towel, I just throw one in every single box. It keeps things clean. If I want to clean off my sunglasses while I'm fishing, easy enough to do that.
We'll make you step down, Glenn. Okay, cool. I didn't want you to fall down, Glenn. I was concerned about you, sir.
And then so we've got a few things in here. Been doing a media event, so I've had to wear a lot of hats. I wear a lot of hats all the time. I typically don't put them all on at the same time, but we got a few extra hats in here, and then I just took my sunglasses off. So we'll take these out.
Got another fancy SPRO bag in here. This is some of the stuff we were shooting video with here. This is not normally in my box. The SPRO bags are, but not there. So if you look down in here, you'll see I've got a couple of these little Tackle Tamers so I can keep my Spunk, I mean my ChatterBaits with my Spunk Shads. This is a really cool bait. But the extra ones, the ones I'm gonna keep ready, I'm gonna put them in one of these little holes right there and then it can just not go anywhere.
You know, I got my little Chad Shad here ready. Got my Missile Baits Mini Magic Worms. I got all my bigger Magic Worms. I keep most of all my soft plastics in these Missile bags. They're very affordable. I think retail are like a buck and a half. So they're not gonna break your bank. And then you can keep, you know, like I have my Quiver 4.5, my Quiver 6.5, I have my D-bombs, they're all in those Missile bags. Just nice to be able to organize and keep that.
And then I have old... My Chatty Cathy box, these are all ChatterBaits. Just the whole, this is like 82 pounds of ChatterBaits right here. It's not. It's more like eight pounds, seriously. Not 82 pounds. But I keep a lot of my like to-go plastics, the stuff I'm using right here, the stuff I'm fishing with. And then my ChatterBaits have been fishing those a good bit.
And then I'll show you one other thing that I keep in here is that I have a couple of these that I'll keep categories of baits. These are all my destroyers and baby D-bombs together in this one little box. But it's nice because I set that down in there, and then I can set other things on top so I can stack and utilize the space.
What is that anyway? The box it's just one I got off of the internet. I think Amazon, maybe. I really don't know. It was just a clear tote container, and then I took measurements of my box in here, and then I ordered a box that was the right size according to how much space I had to fit that box in. So, I measured it, found one that fit accordingly, and it worked out good.
And then across the top here, there's magnets in these little holders that I put on there. They're Tackle Tamers. So, if you just set a hook on there, it will stay. And that's nice to have. I know it looks a little disorganized because I just finished a tournament, and we're doing this media event, so I've got a lot of stuff going on there. So we'll put my hat and sunglasses in. Another microfiber towel, look at that. Back in there. And then just kind of going down.
In the Bass Cats, they have room to put all of your tools. So, I've got almost exclusively all SPRO tools. I've got a few older tools. I've got the SPRO side cutters. People like to call them something else, but they're side cutters. And then I've got all my pliers, SPRO scissors. Got a few extra baits laying around there.
But we'll show you my rod lockers, they are packed, boys and girls. Sorry, they're just packed. There's all my rods. You can probably put 30 rods in this one side. I usually keep 20 to 25 in here. Most of my baitcasters stay over here on this side because on this side, when I order my boat, I have the individual rod sleeves. It helps keep that side a little more organized.
On my passenger side, I don't order those in there. On Bass Cat, you can order them on either side. On this side, I do not order that for two reasons. One is because I put my spinning rods over here and maybe a few baitcasters, but I put my spinning rods over here. You know, I'll keep 8, 10 of them, whatever. This is also where I keep my rainsuit. Keep my Striker, my Striker rain suits in here. I've got a helmet down in here. More Striker rain suit. Got a reel. I keep a helmet in here for running in. If it's raining hard, you better have a real helmet. It's a real motorcycle helmet, a good one. I'll put that in there. Now, I've also got my Garmin LiveScope black box in here. I keep that protected in there. And then I've also got a push pole in case I need to get a little pushy with my boat.
I keep extra hats. I keep my dock fenders. These things are huge over here. They're huge. I've got a dozen rods, motorcycle helmet, two rain suits, live scope box, hats, all kind of stuff. But then, as I'm running my wires for the LiveScope and other things, those wires go up in and out this way. If I put the rod organizer on this side, it makes it a lot more difficult to run all those wires. So I like having that access really easily to run up to the front if I need to or when I'm rigging my boat. So that's kind of the reason I do that.
And then I also keep my gloves, my Striker gloves in there, and then Striker or Missile Bait sun shields in there as well. I know I'm not wearing one right now, but we're doing video work, so I do have sunblock on, as always. But that's kind of the front of the boat and what everything looks like.
Now, there's a lot of compartments in a Bass Cat, so we're going to spin you around, buddy, and then we'll show you what these other compartments look like. So this is all my coangler, Glenn, it's all his stuff.
There's compartments under either seat. Under this seat, I keep a drill, keep it in a little waterproof Gamakatsu bag. And then I have a bunch of other tools, like a huge roll of duct tape. I keep a prop wrench in here, additional super glue, Loctite is my fave, various tape. I keep a jump box in here. If, for some reason, my lithium batteries go down, I've got a jump box, I can jump my big motor. And a few other tools in there. But don't worry, I have more tools.
And then this is the cooler. This is a little glove box right here. I keep Sharpies, a whole crap load of Sharpies and just a bunch of various stuff. I keep gum, headlamps, that kind of stuff. Then I have a cooler right here. It's a big cooler. I've got probably a dozen waters in there. Some sandwich stuff, whatever you need. I like it being right there.
As you come over here on this other side, I've got some other items. Additional sunblock in case I need some. In case nature calls, I've got some wine. Hello? Nature calling? Yes, thank you. Oh, you've got my back. Gotcha.
This is important. First aid kit. Mercury gave us this a couple years ago. But you gotta have plenty of Band-Aids, gauze, all that kind of stuff. Benadryl in case you get stung by a bee or have some other allergic reaction, always keep some Benadryl in the boat. That's what I've got there. My fire extinguisher is under the seat, more sunblock and bug spray. Bug spray. Very important.
So as we kind of go to the back, I mentioned the big livewells, I'll show you the big livewells. Look how big they are. They're huge. There's two of them. They're triangular-shaped.
And you might say, why are they triangular-shaped? Well, If you've ever carried water in a cooler before, you know that when you start walking, and that water starts sloshing back and forth, it will just absolutely slosh all the way back and all the way forward. Boat's the same way. If you've got triangular livewells, that water doesn't have the ability to slosh all the way back and forth. It's going to slosh and fold over, slosh and fold over. So, you don't get as much sloshing back and forth when you're in that rough water with triangular livewells. Plus, it's just a little better utilization of the space in the back of a Bass Cat. Leave it up to Rick Pierce to figure that out. But I absolutely love these deeper triangular livewells. I have amazing fish success with keeping these bad boys alive and happy.
So, behind my driver's seat is where I keep all of my hooks. This pack right here weighs another 14 pounds or something ridiculous. I have more hooks here, more Gamakatsu hooks there. And then I have my little Gamakatsu terminal boxes. These are all my drop shot weights and I have everything labeled so you can go, "Oh, I would like a half-ounce weight." Boing. There's a half-ounce weight so I can grab one, tie it on, close it back down and not everything is going to fall out. Or maybe I want an eighth-ounce weight. Boing. I can grab one of these little eighth-ounce weights and close it back down and everything doesn't fall out. And they're waterproof. I love these little boxes.
I have drop shot, my sea rig stuff, my bullets and split rings, a Necco box. Really really like that. All of my terminal-type stuff I keep back here. Just the best way to do it. I've got some other various terminal stuff but that's the goods. I keep my jigs back here as well when I'm fishing more of my jig stuff. Keep that back there.
This compartment usually stays open because in Bassmaster Elite Series competition, we're supposed to have this box open for co-anglers. Glenn is my co-angler for today so I went ahead and said I'm going to go ahead and put my stuff in there. I'm sorry, bud. And I've got some chunky D's, some extra Missile Bait stuff back there, some Craw Fathers. Things like that. My extra jersey. Didn't need that this morning. Wasn't as cool up here but that's another good compartment right there.
But I'm going to show you one of this really cool feature that Bass Cat has in their boats. They have this other little extra pocket but if you take that out, your Power-Pole pump is right there. If you ever have any Power-Pole issues or you want to program your Power-Pole, you can just get to it right there. And you have a livewell screen so that your livewell pumps don't get all clogged up because there's this little screen that I can take off and clean out so my pumps don't get all screwed up. It's got that little screen that I can clean up real easily. So that is slicker than you know what.
But one of my favorite parts about a Bass Cat in general are the big huge box, the big huge lids on the back. And if you get up on the back there, Glenn, you can see each side looks basically the same. You've got two giant gas tanks. You can get at least 30 gallons of gas in two tanks in this boat. I'm only running two Lithium Pro batteries, so I've got plenty of room back there. You can get to every single one of the pumps down in there. But then also back here, I've got another Gamakatsu waterproof bag, and I've got a ton of tools in here. I'm like Tim the Toolman Taylor back in this thing. I have so much room. This is probably 15 pounds of tools. Everything from Allen wrenches to deep sockets and blue thread material. All kind of stuff. And then I've got some extra John Crews sunglasses in there as well. So just an amazing amount of storage space in this boat. I try to utilize all of it.
But then I'll show you in this one last compartment one more cool thing. As far as my setup goes, there's my cranking battery, my one single cranking battery, and there's my Power-Pole Charge. And that's the charge allows the 36-volt and the 12-volt to utilize power from both sides and to where I only need two batteries in this whole setup.
So that's the little bit of my tackle organization and the boat setup and the boat layout. If you have any questions, be sure to drop it down there. If I don't see the question, I'm sure Glenn will send me the question, and I'll answer it and do the best I can to show you why I put everything where I put it in my boat. I've kind of developed this system over the years. I've developed all of the tools that I need over the years. If you're curious about, you know, do you carry this or do you carry that, I try to carry what I need to be able to fix my boat on the water. And then I also try to carry all the tackle that I need to be able to be competitive on the Elite Series events. So if you have any questions or anything, drop it down there. And as always, we appreciate you guys watching.
