Anglers Inn: Pack Your Tackle to Leave it Behind

One of the huge benefits of repeated trips to Anglers Inn’s properties at Lake El Salto and Lake Picachos is that you can safely leave a stash of tackle behind for your return. That means you don’t have to make as many tough choices about what to pack. You can even leave a tube full of rods down there if you have the inventory to spare and you’re partial to your own.

I’ve left tackle there for several years and it has consistently been safe, well-kept and available upon my arrival. Over time, I’ve learned some strategies to ensure that’ll continue to be true – and also to be certain that it’s ready to fish when I get there. With a little bit of extra planning and effort, I save myself a lot of heartache and wasted time.

First and foremost, make sure that your name is highly visible on all of the bags/tubes that you leave behind. This can take the form of luggage tags, sharpie markings or anything else that’ll stand out. I don’t doubt the honesty of the Anglers Inn staff, and I know that they’ll label and wrap it themselves, but it’s just one more simple step to ensure that they’ll be able to find your gear easily. 

Next come the rods. Check them for any damage, particularly to the guides. If there are problems, you’ll either want to bring them home (tough if you only have one tube), ask the office for repair supplies, or plan to bring your own on the next trip. After that, you might be inclined to slide them back in the tube, and while I’ve seen no evidence that they’ll be mistreated, take the five extra minutes and wrap them up properly – in rod sleeves or a bed sheet or both – as if you were about to fly with them. That way, if the tube gets dropped or rolled or turned upside down, there won’t be any undue stress on them. 

Your lures and terminal tackle are the hardest part to get under control. After a minimum of 3 days of fishing (and on our most recent trip, 12 days) your lures will be scattered out all over the place. You might have a pack of two Senkos in one pocket, a bag of 5 of the same color in another bag, and three in a Plano box. Start consolidating by size and color. The best way to do this, I find, is to just start making piles by category around the room or on the patio in front of it – Senkos here, big worms to the left, crankbait boxes another foot over, and so on. Put everything from a single category into a single box, or a big Ziploc in the case of plastics. 

Bring a bag of small rubber bands (girls’ hair bands, available for a couple of bucks for a hundred at any dollar store are a great option) and use them to secure the treble hooks on your hard baits.

Then you can throw many more into a storage box without getting them inextricably tangled. 

After you consolidate by category, it’s time to take an inventory. You can do this on a piece of notebook paper or on the back of an envelope, just about any surface that’ll accept ink. This will help you figure out what you need more of and then purchase it on Black Friday or during a similar sale.

If you know that during a hot crankbait bite you might lose three 10XDs over three days, make sure that you have enough – in varying colors – to cover the chance that you’ll lose a couple more. If you once went through 50 black/blue Power Worms, double-check that you’re covered. In my opinion, it’s always better to have too much of something than not enough. The list helps you make sure your memory does not deceive you. 

If there is stuff that you brought down on a hunch and despite your best efforts it never paid off, think about bringing it home. It might have some application, but it’s just taking up space at the lodge – space that I have no doubt you’ll need over time. 

I know that up above I said that you should place everything from each category in a single box or bag – now I’m going to go back on that advice. Take a representative selection (e.g., a few crankbaits, a few topwaters, a pack of each type of essential plastic) and place all of it in one bag or box. That way, if you want to fish on arrival day and time is limited, you just need to slide out that single box and you’re ready to go. It’s easier than having to build one from scratch. 

There are some things I don’t leave behind: First are my reels. Even though I’ve never lost a single item while stored at Anglers Inn, I usually bring some of my finest reels, and I need them for home. Furthermore, because I assume that the storage is not climate-controlled, I have no idea what the heat and humidity would do to them. For the same reason, I bring fresh spools of replacement line (braid, fluoro and copolymer) on each trip. I don’t think they’d survive in storage down there. 

This may sound ridiculously simple and obvious to some of you. It might also sound unnecessarily time-consuming to others. It’s a system that works for me so I don’t get to Mexico and find out that I have too much of something, not enough of something else, or none of the item they’re biting best. It puts us in position to succeed on every trip.