A rusty knife, a handful of split shot, and a crusty brown something that at one time was either a sandwich, a snack, or bait—beyond those universal basics, catmen display remarkable diversity and creativity in how they get their gear to the water.

Some catfishermen use soft-sided tackle boxes stuffed with compartmentalized plastic trays. Others sling over their shoulders canvas backpacks or contractor’s bags stocked with carefully selected tackle. A lot of old-school catmen consider a 5-gallon bucket the epitome of transport efficiency, and a few minimalists view as excess anything that won’t fit in the chest pockets of a work shirt.

There is no right or wrong way to get your tackle, bait, and accessories to a fishing hole. I asked a few catmen how they get the job done—some of the many options that might work for you.

Catbags

Catfish In-Sider Guide Editor Rob Neumann inventoried In-Fisherman Editor-In-Chief Doug Stange’s legendary catbag in a story several years ago. It’s an old canvas bag nicknamed “Crusty.” Stange uses flat, plastic storage boxes to organize a wide assortment of hooks, and burlap shot bags hold sinkers of various weights and styles—flat no-roll, bell, casting, split-shot, egg sinker, and more. Assorted dipworms are packed in Ziploc bags. Many of the worms have had their treble hooks replaced with circle hooks.

A zippered pocket contains a variety of floats, including Thill Center Sliders and Big Fish Sliders. Another pocket has a bar of soap, a box of waterproof matches, glow sticks for seeing rod tips in the dark, insect repellent, sunscreen and some Band-Aids, all sealed in plastic bags. At the bottom of the bag is a vintage Rapala fillet knife for cutting bait, along with side-cutters, superline scissors, and a 50-pound spring-scale.

Dennis Iburg of Syracuse, Nebraska, who splits his catfishing between the Missouri and Little Blue rivers in eastern Nebraska, guides clients in a well-supplied boat (D&J’s Charter Service, 402/699-0038) but uses a contractor’s bag for his personal fishing expeditions. The canvas bags are durable, some designed to fit inside a 5-gallon bucket, with sewn pockets inside and out. Heavy-duty carrying straps handle the 20- to 30-pounds lead sinkers.

The bag’s pockets help organize smaller items along with tools, while the bottom is home to an extra spool of line for leaders, a bait knife, sharpening stone, a portable camera, and a Berkley scale and lip-gripper each with 50-pound capacities, which Iburg’s catfish often exceed.

Carry-Alls and Coolers

Marty Green of Rock Hill, South Carolina, co-founder of the Catawba Catfish Club (catawbacatfishclub.com), fishes mostly from a pontoon boat and keeps his catfishing tackle organized in two soft-sided tackle boxes. Bank sinkers, egg sinkers, and drift rigs, go into utility boxes, where they’re sorted by size. Drift rigs and leaders are kept organized and untangled by coiling each rig and stowing each in its own 3- X 5-inch Ziploc bag. A separate larger box holds accessories—tools for working on the boat and motor, flashlights, batteries, assorted pliers, knives, and screwdrivers.

Keith “Catfish” Sutton of Alexander, Arkansas, favors a soft-side tackle box with several divided Plano Stowaway Utility Boxes tucked inside. One box is dedicated to commercial dipbaits and includes various dipworms, special hooks, stirring sticks, beads, and paraphernalia associated with stinkbaits. Another box stores gear for trotlines and setlines—coils of nylon line, yo-yos (White Autofishers), and weights.

A third box holds hooks, and another contains an arsenal of sinkers. Outer pockets on the soft-side bag keep handy a digital scale, extra fishing line, marker buoys, a Gerber multi-tool, skinning pliers, fillet knife, hook hone, rod-tip repair kit, and a small flashlight. Fishing towels are clipped to the zipper pulls for hand-wipes.

Neumann uses a hard-side 50-quart Coleman cooler to tote his gear, saying that just about everything he needs for a trip fits in the cooler, keeping everything at the ready in one box when it’s time to load the boat. Hooks organized by type and size reside in Plano utility boxes, along with a hook sharpener. A separate float-rig box stores floats, float stops, egg sinkers, and swivels. Bell and no-rolls sinkers are organized by weight in separate heavy-duty bags.

The cooler has plenty of room to hold flashlights, headlamps, batteries, a set of portable, clamp-on nav lights, tools, a Q-Beam spotlight, fillet knife, a rag, some drinks, and a bag of snacks. As a bonus, coolers are waterproof and easy to clean. Neumann says he used to cut bait on the cooler’s lid, but now uses a about a 1-foot section of 1 X 12 pine. It’s good to keep the cooler lid clean for an extra seat, and cutting on hard plastic tends to dull a knife more quickly than wood.

Captain Shane Smith is stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, and runs Hilljack Catfishing Tournament Series when he’s off-duty. (A hilljack is a cross-between a hillbilly and a jack-of-all-trades, according to Smith at hilljackcatfishing.com). Smith uses a 2-foot-long by 12-inch-high Black and Decker plastic toolbox to transport sealable Tupperware stocked with sinkers, hooks, swivels, bobbers and other accessories.

Smith keeps pre-tied slipsinker and three-way rigs coiled neatly in their own Ziploc bags. Frozen, vacuum-sealed skipjack are carried in an insulated backpack-type cooler, while fresh cutbait resides in a 5-gallon bucket. A pair of MechanixWear Gloves for handling big cats completes his inventory.

The Minimalist

My boat is overloaded with tackle boxes and catfishing accessories, but I prefer a minimalist approach when I fish from the banks of local streams and rivers for channel cats. At most I carry an old Igloo Playmate mini-cooler to keep nightcrawlers, chicken livers, and other baits chilled on hot summer trips, and often bring along an empty 5-gallon bucket. Turn the loaded bait cooler on its side and it fits neatly into the bucket.

A dozen hooks in a Ziploc bag go in the left chest pocket of my chambray work shirt, a packet of assorted Lil’ Gremlin split-shot goes in the right chest pocket—everything I need to change terminal tackle at the ready. The over-turned bucket is my seat on a sandbar or mud bank when I fish deeper holes, as well as my transport system for bringing home channel cats destined for the supper table.

I leave the bait cooler and bucket at home if I’m not planning to take home any fish. On those trips I walk the bank with only my rod and reel, rolling over rocks and logs to pick grubs and worms for bait. Simple as pie.

Dan Anderson, Bouton, Iowa, has contributed to In-Fisherman publications for over a decade.