Weapons 

Prepare for battle 

the air travel setups

Okuma CitrIx travel rod

Low Down Customs travel rod

Daiwa Tatula reel

13 Fishing Concept A3 reel

Abu Garcia Revo Toro Beast reel

You don't need a ton of rods and reels to catch fish. Just grind with what you have. Bring what you can, but do the recon on the lake you are traveling to. What are they biting? What's in the lake? Be ready for battle - have all water columns covered have a wide range of colors and don't forget a scale and a good camera for when you smash into that big one! Oh, and a heads up... Southwest Airlines lets you check two bags for free, so that's one full bag of swimbaits (as pictured above). You can also carry on travel rods. I have a tube that will fit two travel rods and I put my reels in my backpack and bring them on with me. The rest goes into the checked bag.

shore bangin setup

Lowdown Customs White Label

13 Fishing Concept A3 reel

Baits to cover anything I might need for that time of year

Extra reel 

Pack light for a few-hour session. You don't need three bags of baits. Swimbait fishing is not like jig fishing - it takes time to land that big bite. You don't just throw a bait for five mins and re-tie another bait. So stick to what you know. What you see above is basically what's in my bag, depending on the time of year, give or take a few.

boat slaying 

Lund Jon Boat - 14' flat bottom

9.9 Outboard Motor

80-pound 24v cable foot-controlled trolling motor

Lowrance HDS 9 (in the front)

Humming Bird Helix 5 (in the back)

You don't need a $50,000 bass boat to catch fish. Get something that won't break the bank. Get something you don't mind smashing around. I personally like smaller, lighter boats - easy storage, easy in-and-out of the water, and easy towing. A $2,500 boat with $3,000 in electronics is what I choose. Let those $50,000 boats watch you pull in a 10-lber in your murdered-out Jon boat. It's a great feeling!