Hey, everyone, Mike McClelland here with bassresource.com. One of the biggest questions I think, as anglers, we get asked all across the country is how do you organize your stuff? How do you keep stuff in your boat? How do you stay prepared to go to the next tournament event? It does make it really really tough when you travel all over the country and experience so many different bodies of water, fisheries that when you fish around one area all the time you pretty well know what you're going to do. But when you travel all across the United States you have to be organized and prepared for about any situation. I'm going to say that I'm probably really unorganized when it comes to practice, but when it gets down to tournament days I really get my stuff together and kind of get it all in check.
When you start looking in my boat, and I have to say this 521R Ranger makes it super super easy to organize a boat. This is by far the best boat I've ever had as far as having the room that I need. I like the 521R because I like a big boat. I like a lot of room. I'm not worried about how fast I go anymore, I'm worried about how much storage I've got.
If you look in here, and I haven't actually counted lately, but this being my main rod box, I've probably got 25 or more rods in here. This is kind of the catch-all box if you really think through it. It's got ledges back here so it allows me to tier my rods. It's got just three shelves in the front so I can store my shorter rods on the bottom, the mid-size rods in the middle, the 7, 7.5 footers, and any of my bigger rods. 7, 6, and above I can go on top or I can utilize that to break it down into rods that have braided line on them, rods that have lighter line on them. It just depends on what fishery I'm going to.
The other thing about this box is it's so roomy. Whenever I get to a tournament, and there's those things that you think, "Okay, I'm going to really catch them on this," or, "I'm going to catch them on that." We were at an event just here a week or two ago, and I knew I was going to catch them on a rock crawler. So I throw extra one zip bags of whatever baits that I know I'm going to fish a lot of. I just throw them in here, and that way I've got them. I hate to take new baits out of packages and put them in a tackle box right off the get-go. I would rather put one or two of each bait in a box and have extras loose. But I've got a little bit of everything. I've got rock crawlers in here. I've got spinnerbait skirts, jig skirts, just a little bit of everything in this box, and plenty of room to do so.
Moving on over to the other side of the boat, the other rod box...and you can see there was no spinning rods in here. This side of the box is dedicated to when I have to get those spinning rods out. I mean, I usually keep five or six spinning rods rigged in here. You know you can see everything from a drop shot to a shaky head to a marabou jig. I mean, got a little bit of everything going on in here. I've always got a bag of line in here. It makes it convenient when I'm on the water if I get in a situation where I need to rig a rod, change something up. I always keep extra line in the boat so, you know, at the end of the day if you have time while you're waiting to weigh in, you can re-rig for the next day, get ready to go. Once again, this is kind of a catch-all box. We're up north you know there's going to be a lot of smallmouth fishing going on and you always got to have some McSticks in the boat.
So again, I keep a lot of new baits in Onezip bags and just kind of try to have a little bit of everything. A lot of my storage is in Onezips. I always have my leader lines as well. Got my Sunline leader lines for all different situations whether I'm Carolina rigging, drop shotting, whatever it might be. And I've always got a little bit of everything, you know. You never know when something might come up. I carry some Asegai braid, I carry some lighter braid for spinning rods. It's just a little bit of everything. Sunline leader line. I've got my leaders right here and, you know, I can change leaders of whatever I might need.
The other thing that this box kind of catches for me is you know just things that I think I might need. You know, I've got some Big Bite Finesse Swimmers in here. Anything that comes to mind as I'm getting ready to pack to go to a tournament, practice for a tournament, I just kind of use these bigger boxes to throw that extra stuff in.
Now, this particular box here probably becomes one of the more important boxes and this is what you know a lot of guys would refer to as their day box. When it comes to my day box I have got all of these SPRO bags that I have custom-labeled with whatever I've got. I've got my Big Bite Tour Series swim worms here. I have got my swim jigs in a bag. I just kind of try to break it down. I've got my vibrating jigs. I just want to keep everything easy, accessible. My Swimons there. Just a whole lot of different things.
And then another great organizing fact for me, every boat that you get is a little bit different. And it seems like I always end up at, you know, Lowe's, Home Depot, somewhere, when I first purchase a boat, with measurements of my boxes. And I always find, you know, some kind of a plastic container that fits well in each box of my boat. These little boxes here, I don't even have a clue who makes them but they're a real handy little box. I mean, this is my swim jigs and chatterbaits. Extra swim jigs and chatterbaits that I might need through the course of the day. Then I've got my little brown jigs that I love to throw. My flashy hooks. Some weights and hooks. And as you can see all that stuff's just stored in Onezip bags. So it's pretty easy to access. And I'm not just huge on working out of a you know a typical tackle box all the time, but that box is really critical to me. I've always got extra hooks. You know it's super important to change out hooks on crankbaits, topwaters, whatever it is. So I've got a hook box with tools, split ring pliers, whatever I need to change out hooks.
And we've got some emergency stuff in here, you know, just a box with a bunch of swimbait heads, extra crankbaits as well. I'm telling you, this boat is a traveling tackle store is what it amounts to.
So you move on to this center storage and I really like the way Ranger has done this boat with the rod boxes. And probably the main reason why is this box here. I guess would be the box that the real work gets done out of. Typically the night before a tournament, the first four, five, six rods that I know I'm going to fish with on any particular tournament day, I'm going to rig and I'm going to store in this box. Because I know when the day starts, I'm pulling all four, five, or six of those rods out, they're going to be on the deck.
And then once I pull those rods out, this box is completely accessible. I can get to whatever I need in here. My boat, I'm always going to have SPRO Rock Crawlers in the boat unless I'm just somewhere that it absolutely isn't going to happen. SPRO Rock Crawlers, SPRO McSticks, I'm going to have a lot of boxes with jigs, just a variety of different things on hand.
I'm one of those that really likes to organize for a day. I'll carry a lot of stuff in practice, but when it gets down to tournament day, I'll kind of have a boat clean-out night and I'll go through my boat and I'll really get rid of the things that I don't want in my boat. Everything I need that particular tournament day is accessible. See down in here I've got my Avid Angler Solutions Toolkit. I've got everything I need in there. I've got my Avid Angler Glue, I've got my marker, screwdriver, scissors, hook file, whatever you could possibly need.
And then one of the most important parts, I mean, everybody knows Peepaw is going to have his own sweet ice tea. I've always got a cooler full of tea, gallon jug, got some snacks, you know, granola bars, some beef jerky, just a variety of things, plenty of water, and we're always ready to get it done. I mean, one thing about it, I got to nourish myself when I eat, and that's pretty much the front end of my boat. Let's take a look at the rear end as we move on back.
So moving on back to the rear of the boat, one of the biggest things for me...and again, I'm relatively organized, but always going to carry an extra safety or a life vest. Batteries are a huge thing to me. As you can see, I've got four AGM 31 Odyssey batteries back here. I don't ever want to worry about batteries during the course of a tournament day, and it is super critical to me that I've got the batteries that I can rely on. And Odyssey batteries are definitely the ones I do.
When you look, I've got a spare prop. I've got my rain sandals. Any time it rains, I'm not one of them guys that's going to pull out a pair of rain boots or something. I just throw my rain sandals on. I've got a little safety kit with my flares, all of that stuff, a little block of wood to change your prop out with. I've got a prop wrench in my box. Generally, I kind of organize my box in a manner where I've got access to everything. As you can see, I've got a little RITE-HITE prop wrench right here. Easy access. Definitely gets the job done when you get yourself into a bind, throwing you on a prop or damaged one.
So moving on forward, you've got a line spooler back here. So when you change some line during the course of the day, you can get that done. This box to me is another one of those boxes that I kind of use as a practice box. Typically, I'm going to have just a variety of different boxes with an assortment of Big Bite plastics, everything from finesse stuff to darker colors for situations where you might run into muddy water. I've got my Bass Pro Shops Cabela's guide, wear rain gear in here. And then just, extra stuff. This is my little emergency bag. I've got my Big Bite Turds. I've got some sticks. I have got some coon tails. Just little stuff, finesse stuff that if I get in a situation, I've got to get a bite. I've got my Mag Finesse worms back here. And then I always get in those last-minute thought processes where it's like, "Oh, I need some more swim-ons," or, "I need some more Big Bite sensation." And I'll throw these little one zip bag stuff just in the night before a tournament.
Cool thing about these boats, they've got this little ledge. I've got all of my camera equipment right here for running my camera during the course of the day. I've got a little Sunline accessory bag here that I keep gloves in. Never know when you're going to get up north and things turn a little bit cold and hairy on you and you need to pull those gloves out. So that is the storage behind the passenger's seat.
So that is the behind the driver's seat. Once again, I utilize different size boxes. I've got a couple of boxes here that it's no telling what I might have in those. I've got my drop-shot stuff here. I'm not one of those guys that likes to work out of a tackle box like I said earlier. I've got all my drop shots organized by size. I've got my Gamakatsu hooks, just a variety of everything I would need to do drop shotting. Pretty much right there is my drop-shotting arsenal. I've got my spare hats for keeping all my sponsors happy. And then we've got some toads in here in case we get into a buzz bait bite, topwater bite. Looks like I was planning on using a bunch of fighting frogs at the last tournament, which I did. And that's pretty much it.
Definitely want to make sure you got your safety equipment, fire extinguisher. I have got my TH Marine G-Force balance beam scale system so I can do all the culling I need to do.
And that pretty much wraps it up for today for how Mike McClelland organizes his boat. Net's here for those events where we can use a net. Throwable cushion right here as well. So glad you joined us here on BassResource. Get your boat organized and you're gonna catch more bass.
