Organize Your Boat Like A Pro

Hey guys, this is Drew Cook with BassResource, and I'm going to show you how I organize and the things I have on my 2023 Bassmaster Elite Series boat, a 20 FXR Skeeter. Starting up at the front up here, I've got Ultrex, I've got every graph, I've got a Garmin LiveScope, a Lowrance HDS-12, and a Humminbird Helix. LiveScope 360, 2D, and waypoint management. That's kind of my thought process up here. 

Coming back, I always keep a little pair of pliers right here. One for tuning crankbaits, and whenever you have small fish and you get unhooked, have that, and it's got cutters on it if I need to re-tie something really quick. 

Moving back, the passenger side rod box is where I keep all my rods. You can see right here we've got a bunch of rods, but not as much as normal. One thing I do is I take this stuff you get from Lowe's, garage pad. I cut the garage pad to fit on the bottom. So there's...I did it before when there was carpet because you had trouble hook baits that would get stuck in the carpet. Now, we don't have a carpet, but I do it to keep the rash out of them, you know, where it's not rubbing on something. I run it up the side for the spinning rods, and I kind of keep my spinning rods over here and baitcasters over here just for that very reason.

Coming back, this is probably one of my most used boxes on the boat. This one and that one. This is just a little box. It's got some essential stuff, extra sunglasses, my scale. You know, some medicine, things like that, that you use all the time. I open this box. However many fish I catch in a day, I open that box every time. I've got a towel in there to wipe my hands, clean your glasses, whatever. 

This is the other important box. This is also a hook hanger, in case you can't tell. When you have something that you cut off that you might use in practice, it's right here. You've got screw and weights. Ned Baits, you know, you name it, I've got it. 

But this is a catch-all box right here. This is a box that I'm going to have, you know, my glues and sharpies and dipping dyes and, you know, line, extra reel. It's a catch-all day box, whatever. You know, I've got fingernail clippers in here just for tying FG knots. You know, lead wire for when you're putting...trying to get a crankbait deeper or jerkbait to spin right. You know, everything I need to tinker and fiddle and have right here at your fingertips right there. Wacky rig bands, all that.

And in this box right here...well, I'm actually going to do this one first. Then that box will make sense. So right here. This is my tackle storage. I put everything in this box. I don't use a back box for tackle. I keep very minimal boxes in here. I want everything right here so that way I'm more efficient. I'm not going back there, whether it might only take an extra 15 seconds. If you did it five or six times a day, then you're talking about a minute, and that's a lot. But whenever I do put this stuff in here, I try to keep the heavy stuff back and the lighter stuff forward. 

So I have about 20 pounds of weights in this weight box, and everything is, you know, pretty pretty simple. I've got Texas rig weights, drop shot weights, and then specialty weights, so flipping more drop shot and eco weights. Keep some Carolina rig stuff, and all the bobber stops. Very, very simple but very heavy. So this is the first box that's in here. And you do that for...if it's next to a light box, it's not going to beat it and crack it. Then I've got like a Ned shaky box that has Ned Rigs and shaky heads in it and then a hook box which is super light, but it's all...it's kind of a little chaotic right now, but it's super organized. So you got drop shot hooks, you got wacky rig hooks, I have hybrid hooks, EWGs swimbait hooks with spinners, swimbait hooks without spinners, heavy braid flipping hooks, and G-Finesse flipping hooks. You know, it got some beads, some swivels, and then just, you know, some other thread on drop shot hooks and things like that. 

And it's all very, very simple. You know, I could really make this box about that big. Because I use, you know, just the same couple hooks over and over and over again. 

But, like all my heavy stuff is down here. The plastics that I have in here, you know, are as far back as I can get them. Like this is a plastic jerkbait, you know, box. And you can see it's fairly simple. You know, got brim color. I mean, I would say that these two are probably the most uncommon. You know, a June bug one and a pink one or a methylate. You know, those, but everything else is pretty simple. Most of my plastics I keep very simple, stupid. You know, about six colors, maybe four colors, two sizes. And that kind of gets you everywhere, everywhere you need to be.

My jigs that are in here, I keep a jig box. This is a very basic. So I got... flipping jig, punching jigs, all the way to finesse mango jig, other little tiny finesse jigs to itty bitty, you know, 1/2 ounce football jigs. There's a little bit of everything that I can get by with in this box. So I only have to keep one box. There's a little ball head jig. I just keep this box in the boat. 

Now, obviously if we're going to somewhere where we're gonna be using a lot of jigs, I'll bring, you know, extra jig box that has just the rock flipping jigs or wood flipping jigs, things like that. But I keep that in here. I keep my gloves in here. I keep a catch-all box. This catch-all box has just got a bunch of stuff in it that you won't carry all the time, like Johnson spoons. I keep my buzzbait in there, a swimbait, just things that if you get that little idea in your head, I've got it there.

I've got some smaller boxes up here. Now, this is a spy bait box. These smaller boxes fit in the little...whatever cutout this thing was for, I don't know, but that's I get three small boxes up there, two small boxes back here, and I don't know how many I can fit in here, but I'll line them all the way up the side you know as far as you want and have plenty of room to have all the tackle that I need. 

This is a pretty cool little hack. I wear gloves all the time. I used to have a problem with A, keeping two of them and B, keeping them from stinking. So what I do at the end of the day, put my hands in the water, get them really soaking, take them off, dry them off, you know, squeeze them out, I hang them up to dry, put them right here. Now I've got dry gloves and both of them the next day whenever I get in the boat.

And right here, where I rig most of my tackle, I've got scissors, hook files, split ring pliers. Pliers, regular pliers, everything I need to do anything is right here because this is where 99% of the time I sit to tie on a rig or anything like that. 

In this box, this is kind of a box that I'll just have...a couple of packed baits, and by packed baits I mean like these Quarantine Craws. I mean, these are in a pack. I'm not going to take them out of the pack and put them into a box A, because they have the Scentsation for them that would really smell and B, I like to just keep enough in here to do what I'm doing. So, like I've got two tilapia packs, two black and blue packs, you know, very simple, two watermelon red packs and maybe two green pumpkin purple, and that's it. No more. And you know if during a tournament you know I know I'm going to be fishing that more I'll bring some more on. 

Then I've got, you know, some...got extra skirts and extra skirt materials. I can make my own skirts for whenever you know, there's something really fine-tune that I want to get you know where a regular green pumpkin brim color one's not working for me there's you know something I can change to make it better that.

And then I have a tote in here that is like a really catch-all, you know, stuff that I'm going to use a lot that I might need for this week. This gets changed every tournament. So whenever I'm going to a tournament, it'll have...you know, whatever I'm gonna be doing that week. If we're going to a sight fishing tournament, there's gonna be a lot of Fighting Frogs and a lot of baits that I'm gonna use bed fishing in here, quick and easy, and a lot of baits that I don't necessarily have a box for keeping the boat and baits that I go through a lot of.

Then I have my line storage right here. Nifty little thing. It's got pretty much all the stuff that I use. I got spinning reel braid, I got big braid for swim jigs and flipping, got leader lines. I carry a very simple line setup. I've got 10 through 12, or 16 through 12 Sniper. I've got Shooter 20 and 22. And then I've got 20 Sniper. And that's pretty much all the line I use. I do everything on that. Sometimes you get into a situation where you need a specialty line, you know, an 18-pound something or another just to get that jig to fall the right way. And that's whenever I'll notice that and bring it in the boat at practice. 

I keep one big box in here of swim baits. This is kind of... This is the best way that I learned how to store clamshell packs. So I've got about that many 2.8 baits in this little bitty thing right here. You know, that would be five packs. And you know, the colors are just put in here. They don't bleed onto each other. So you don't have to worry about that. And I've got, you know, stuff from 8 inch to 5 inch to 2.8, 3 inch, everything I need. And like I said, the colors are really simple. You got white. This is called G-Pog Money. It's a good clear water color. Then I keep a green pumpkin color and then like a brim color. That's pretty much it. You know, a baby bass is kind of in that with that G-Pog money stuff. 

That's pretty much how I store all those. It makes it more efficient and you're not crushing the tails. That was the thing about keeping them in the clamshells. I used to keep them in clamshells like this and I'd have one bag for 2.8s, one bag for 3.3s, one bag for 3.8s, one bag for 4.8s, and one bag for 5 inch and 7 inch swimbaits. That's a lot of bags. I put all that in one box. Made life a lot easier. 

But like this right here, it's got SoMolly Skinny Sticks, Cliff Hangers on it. And this is just, I'll carry, you know, just enough. This is blue to dawn, skinny stick, green pumpkin, really simple, simple colors. Same thing with the Cliff Hanger. I keep about four colors and about two packs of each. Same with the SoMolly’s. This has got a little bit more in it from just fishing a smallmouth tournament. But try not to carry everything you can because you want your boat to be light, efficient and decluttered. You want to be able to get to something as fast as possible. So that's that box.

All right, so the back of the boat right here at the console. Obviously steering wheel, the graphs. I got a Helix 12 and a Lowrance 12, like I said earlier. The waypoint management, storage mapping is all through the Lowrance. I will run LakeMaster back here. But this is really just for side imaging and 12 foot or less. 

I got my Power-Pole buttons. I got a Power-Pole button right here. So whenever I catch a fish. I didn't think about stepping on it up there at the front. I've got one right here whenever I can just put it down. Got one right there whenever I'm pulling up somewhere.

I've got a radio just because, but got my sunscreen, Hotfoot right here. I have a cooler, pretty straightforward. 

Back here this box is, I like to call this my marshal box. It's fairly empty. I've got a life jacket for my marshal if he doesn't have one. I keep a spare prop in here, a regular life jacket, but that's fairly open. So when they bring their bag, I've got somewhere for them to put it or a co-anger. They can put their stuff in there, don't have to worry about it. 

In this box right here behind the seat, I've got a pair of AFTCO rain boots, a rain suit, gotta have a flat of Vienna’s, the life jacket, I've got a small cooler right here that's got tools in it, so that way it's always dry, you know, fire extinguisher, flares, a little snack bag, pouch, gotta have your toilet paper, you know, all the essentials are in this box, quick and easy to get to while you're moving.

And then we go to the back of the boat. The back of the boat, I've got three Battle Born lithium trolling motor batteries, and I've got two X2 AGM batteries. I've got two switches. But I move my cranking batteries to the other side for weight because these Battle Borns only weigh 30 pounds a piece. That's about the weight of one of those batteries. So move everything over there. Got the Power-Pole charge. Runs everything. 

And that's pretty much the gist of my 2023 20-foot Skeeter FXR. And then you got the Yamaha 250 Show Power-Poles. I'm actually running 10-foot power poles this year. Really just for...the boat ramps up north if we're being honest. But that's it. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something about how to store some tackle for your next boat.