Small Items to Replenish Your Mexican Fishing Tackle Bag

Every year in the late fall I empty out my boat to get organized and to see what needs to be restocked. Invariably I find multiple partial bags of green pumpkin 5-inch Senkos and junebug Baby Brush Hogs. Those are among my most-used baits on local waters and I live in constant fear that I’ll run out of them at a critical juncture – accordingly I have a tendency to throw a few extra bags in the boat on a regular basis. Better to have too many than too few.

The same goes for my travel tackle supply. I am a classic overpreparer and also a tad disorganized when I’m in the midst of a hot bite, so my m.o. is to take a belt and suspenders approach. That means that even though I have a huge supply of tackle stored at Anglers Inn there are additional small items that I restock every time without actually knowing whether they need to be supplemented. The good news is that they’re all inexpensive, take up little space and don’t weigh much.

This stuff is not particularly sexy, but it could make the difference between a personal best and a story of “the one that got away.” Here they are:

Bobber Stops

While many anglers prefer an unpegged sinker, particularly when dragging a worm in relatively open water or over structure, there are times when pegging your tungsten in place makes a huge difference – for me that’s when I’m flipping dense bushes or deep hardwood trees with lots of branches. If you don’t peg in those instances you can often end up with your lure on one side of the branch and your sinker on the other, leading to all sorts of unfortunate results. A simple bobber stop is an easy way to prevent those problems, and for that reason I often stick a set of them in my pocket. As a result, many end up lost, or mangled, or in the Anglers Inn laundry. They’re very easy to lose but also very inexpensive, so I restock for every trip.

Carolina Rig Beads and Swivels

I’m not a huge fan of the Carolina Rig, but there’s no doubt that it produces lots of fish and some giants at times when other presentations are not quite as effective. It also requires a whole bunch of terminal tackle, much of it easy to lose. Swivels migrate into other compartments and beads roll away, so I bring an extra pack of each on every trip.

Trailer Hooks

While I use a trailer hook on my spinnerbaits and buzzbaits the majority of the time at home, I rarely use one on my spinnerbaits in Mexico, and don’t fish a buzzbait much down there. Nevertheless, there are times and situations where it makes a huge difference. The one problem resulting from not using them often is that they tend to disappear in the depths of my tackle bags. Accordingly, I throw one pack of 3/0 trailer hooks in the selection of terminal tackle that I haul down each trip and I’m generally covered.

Super Glue

Whether you blow out a flip flop, need to glue on a rod guide, or run into any one of a number of tackle maladies, a quick-drying adhesive can be worth its weight in gold. Whether you prefer generic glue, epoxy, Mend-It or some other product, you’ll want to have some down there. Unfortunately, if you leave it down there and don’t seal it properly, there’s a good chance you’ll return to a petrified rock. That’s why I almost always bring a new supply. Just be sure to check TSA regulations so that you don’t cause an international incident.

All of those things together take up less space than a single deep-diving crankbait and may weigh about the same. They’re simple solutions to infrequent but potentially vexing problems. If you still have some more room in your luggage, here are a couple of other things to consider:

Dipping Dye

The Mexican guides swear that chartreuse dipping dye is the ticket to big catches and that soft plastics that aren’t dipped aren’t nearly as effective. That may be true in certain situations and I’m not going to thumb my nose at their expertise. Accordingly, I always have Spike-It down there. Whether you bring dipping dye or marking pens (aerosol spray is probably a bad idea for air travel), it never hurts to add another one to your supply – if nothing else it’ll bail out a friend in another boat who doesn’t have any or spills his own.

O-Rings

Unless I’m Neko Rigging or running out of the “magic color,” I don’t use a rubber O-Ring on my wacky-rigged plastics. For those of you who do, however, you likely know how easy it is to misplace those little suckers. You can get a big bag of them for just a couple of bucks, and they may pay for themselves in as little as a day.

And of course I bring a box of replacement trebles, split rings, and split ring pliers on every trip. I’ll write about how I stock that box that in a future article.