What to Bring on a Fishing Trip: Expert’s List of Essentials
If you’re an expert angler who has been fishing for decades, you probably have a list of things you take with you on every trip. If you’re new to the sport, you need to get to that point, but we can help take the trial and error out of it to get you properly equipped right off the bat.
Even if you’re a pro, you might find something on our list that you never thought of.
Here’s a list of what to bring on a fishing trip to make sure you have the best experience possible.
Let’s get started!
1: Tackle Box and Main Rig
When you think of what to bring on a fishing trip, this is probably the one thing you think of regardless of how new you are to the sport. After all, it’s required to get the job done. However, we’ll still list it.
You’re gonna need a tackle box with a decent variety of hooks, weights, lures, line options, and bait.
You don’t have to have the fanciest tackle box or $3000 worth of lures stuffed into it, but you do need to have enough variety to let you switch up your approach several times throughout the trip.
When we say your “main rig”, we’re talking about the rod and reel setup you plan to use. As you’ll see, this isn’t all you should bring, but you need this to get started.
We recommend beginners start with a medium rod and a suitable high-quality spinning reel to go with it. This will give you a great all-around primary option when you’re just starting and don’t have tons of go-to rods to pick from, and you can use most techniques with it.
2: Secondary Rig
You should carry at least one secondary rig that is set up for a specialty technique. If you use a medium spinning rod as we recommended above, you can do most things, but you’ll either want to try certain techniques that don’t work well on it, or you’ll need to switch to smaller or larger lures for what you’re targeting.
It’s best to match this to the type of fishing you’re doing and the lures you have.
Keep in mind that you can’t always use a second rod. At most lakes, you’ll only be able to use one at a time. However, having one nearby and ready to go can help dramatically.
3: Backpack
If you’re going to be on the bank, invest in a nice backpack that can carry all your necessities and keep you comfortable.
It should be able to hold your tackle box and everything else we list beyond this point, and it should be durable enough to handle being carried through brush and dropped on rocky banks.
Bank fishing is a lot more mobile than people realize when you’re trying to fish effectively. You don’t just sit on a lawn chair and relax. You’re constantly moving around, and a backpack makes that a lot easier.
4: Nail Clippers
This is an old-school fishing item that you definitely should bring on a fishing trip. There are plenty of fancy fishing pliers on the market that have line cutters, but a basic set of nail clippers you can attach to your vest zipper or belt loop will give you a cheap, easy-to-use, and effective option for cutting lines.
Plus, you won’t be nearly as mad if you lose them.
5: Bug Repellent
When thinking about what to bring on a fishing trip It’s always a good idea to throw a bottle of bug-repellent or a few of those bug-repellent wristbands into your tackle box.
Nothing ruins a great fishing trip more than getting eaten alive by mosquitos while a new personal record is on the line.
6: Hat
A fishing hat serves multiple purposes beyond being a fashion statement.
Of course, there’s the benefit of keeping the sun out of your eyes, but it’s a safety implement. You can’t imagine how many anglers have botched casts and ended up with hooks embedded in the back of their necks, on top of their heads, and even in their faces.
A hat isn’t guaranteed to always save you, but it does provide a little protection, and it’s a lot less stressful to dig a hook out of your hat than it is to pull it out of your skin.
A wide-brim hat that drapes the neck is optimal, but a baseball hat will suffice. Especially if you turn it backward and use the bill to protect the back of your neck. That’s where most hooks tend to wind up.
7: Wading Boots
When most pros think of what to bring on a fishing trip, even they don’t think about wading boots. However, while you don’t want to have to wear these, they can be extremely useful.
These rubber boots can be strapped to your backpack or stored on your boat since you shouldn’t need them at all times, but if you need to wade to retrieve a lure or get out and give your boat a push, you can protect your feet from hooks, rocks, and other threats in the water.
8: Water Bottle
Snacks are optional, but most fishing is done on warm days and in bright sunshine. You can easily end up dehydrated without even realizing it. Make sure you bring a large water bottle filled with water or an electrolyte drink to stay hydrated.
If it’s really hot out, you should also make sure your fluids are at room temperature. Your body heats up more to heat the water, and in hot conditions, that can be dangerous.
9: Smart Phone
This should come as no surprise, but you need to make sure your phone is fully charged, on your person, and protected against water.
If you find yourself in an emergency, you might need your phone to get help. Especially when you fish in more remote spots.
10: Fishing Vest
A fishing vest isn’t always fashionable, but it’s worth it. This provides you with an extra layer of protection from errant hooks or sharp brush while you’re walking around, and it can keep you warm if you’re fishing for bass in winter.
However, there’s another great reason to wear one year-round. Storage.
A fishing vest typically has lots of pockets. You can use those pockets to organize all the most necessary and frequently used fishing gear you have.
Think about it. Having to get into a tackle box every time you switch a lure, have to sharpen a hook, or need one of your tools, is a major pain.
It takes time, and you have to lug that big box of stuff all over the place unless you want to end up walking back and forth from the spot where you’re fishing and wherever you’ve placed your box.
With a fishing vest, you can have your favorite lures tucked in a pocket-sized box on your chest, carry your fishing pliers, keep some terminal tackle on you, and more. You can even get a water bladder to keep a supply of drinking water attached to the vest.
This is an underrated tool that has fallen out of popularity in recent years, but it’s something that you should bring on a fishing trip.
11: Shades
Whether you have a hat to wear or not, you should bring a good pair of shades on your fishing trip. On a sunny day, light will bounce off the water and blind you nonstop. It becomes almost impossible to track your line in the water, and it’s uncomfortable.
12: Digital Scale
This should be in your tackle box. If you’re going after game fish, you likely want to keep track of your best catch even if you’re not actively trying to break a state record or anything. Far too often, anglers forget their scales at home, or they simply don’t get one to begin with.
Photos are great, but being able to keep track of the weight of each fish adds a new layer of challenge to your fishing journey. Besides, if you do catch something particularly large, you’ll have something at the ready to see if it’s worth taking to an official scale or not.
Few things feel worse than getting excited over catching a big bass, taking it to an official scale, and causing its death, just to find out it was a whole pound less than the lake's record.
13: Multi-Tool
This isn’t a fishing item, but you should have a multi-tool on your belt when you head out. You’ll be using a lot of gear, and there’s a high likelihood that you’ll need to adjust something, repair, or something else.
Fishing pliers are designed to do quite a few fishing tasks, and they’re similar, but they’re just not cut out to do general tool work like a multi-tool is.
Try to look at your equipment and determine what screws and parts it has that you might need to mess with. If you can, pick a multi-tool with a bit driver, and get a bit kit that matches those parts.
A multi-tool can also come in handy for a wide variety of other tasks that can pop up while fishing. So, it’s always good to have one on hand.
14: Lighter
Even if you’re not doing anything that would typically require you to have a lighter, it’s good to have one in your pocket.
They can be used to fuse plastics, singe off loose strands after your clothes get ripped, use shrink tubing or hot glue to make quick temporary repairs, to your gear, and more.
15: Trash Bag
One thing every good angler does is leave the fishing spot looking better than it did when they arrived.
Unfortunately, a lot of anglers and weekend warriors don’t respect the natural environment they’re fishing in, and they throw trash everywhere, cut off rigs that get jammed, and more to make our favorite fishing spots covered in litter.
You’ve probably seen bundles of old fishing lines on the bank, food packaging, and other things.
Bring a trash bag or old shopping bag with you to throw those things in as you find them. You can carry that stuff around with you until you get close to a trash can instead of being forced to stop what you’re doing and throw things away because of someone else’s laziness.
16: Local Emergency and Resource Numbers
You might need to make an emergency call while you’re out, or you might think you have a record breaker and want to call the park manager in charge of evaluating catches.
It’s a lot faster to get help if you can directly call the emergency service you’re trying to reach instead of 911, and in the case of a park resource, you might not be able to find the number in question until long after you were forced to throw the fish back to save it.
You can put this info on an index card and toss it in your wallet in case you need it, and it’s easy to find online.
17: Old Rag and Hand Sanitizer
You’re going to get your hands dirty. Whether you pull a fish through pond scum and have to clean it off by hand, or you end up digging around in something gross, you can’t stay clean on a fishing trip.
Bring an old rag so you can rinse off with lake water or some from your water bottle and scrub yourself clean, using hand sanitizer will help prevent you from running around with any dangerous germs on your hands when you go to eat.
What to Bring on a Fishing Trip: The Most Important Tool
So far, everything we’ve talked about has been a physical item, but there’s one more thing. The BassForecast app.
Your phone isn’t just an emergency item. It can be an encyclopedia of information, and our app maximizes that potential.
You’ll find detailed maps of all waterways in the US, real-time weather data, a spot-on solunar, and more to help enhance your fishing trip. If you’re wondering what to bring on a fishing trip, this is a must-have resource.
Get our bass fishing app today.