Guest Post - What's To A Bag?

My buddy Spurky from central PA decided to send over a guest post the other day.  I always enjoy a guest post from Spurky because he's a top notch spin fisherman.  Posts from him change things up around here every now and then and take you from hooks and feathers to spinners and spoons.

In this post he explores the perfect fishing bag for the wading spin-fisherman...and takes a shot at his trout fishing nemesis.  Probably an inside joke, but maybe some fellow Pennsylvanians may have heard the legend of Spurky's adversary.

Please enjoy.

I go fishing a lot.  When I go I almost always go wading from ankle deep to chest deep, so I cannot carry a box for obvious reasons.  For years, decades actually, I have used a fishing bag.  Actually a Bass Pro Shops crappie management bag that I bought over 25 years ago.

This bag has been through it all, weather wise and fishing wise.  It was snowed, iced, rained, and submerged.  It was the bag I used to take my daughter fishing with for over 14 years.  It was big enough to hold live bait when she went with, which was 90% of time :-).  Though small enough to carry around wading, carrying everything I needed, even soda cans.

Last couple years she (the bag) started to die, so to speak, and I have been looking for a replacement, but nothing out there comes close to its size or shape.  I spent a lot of money and time trying to find a suitable replacement.  I found one that was perfect, but during a spring cleaning it disappeared. The bags that are close are for fly fisherman, so it is not really set up for a steel/plastic chuckers.

Not long ago on a fishing site, a friend said he accidentally thought he bought a bag, but his wife said no, it was a purse.  So I looked at the local second hand store and for 1/1000 of the price of what is now called a fishing bag, I got a bag to use with tons of storage, and at low cost, easily replaced.  It sounds funny, but when a design works for you and you cannot find what you want or need, you've got to adapt and use what is available.  In fact no one knows it is a purse unless I tell them.  The best is the price; my last one I bought was .75 cents, and I used it for 2 wading seasons.

The bags in the picture, the top row costs over 75 dollars, bottom row $2.25!   I just wish someone would cater to the non boat/kayak fishermen who wade/shore fish a lot, I mean really why not?  Are we second class people?

Ya well, I love to wade.  It makes fishing (to me) more fun, and closer to nature.  The best thing is in clear water you're lower in the skyline so harder for them to see, and a lot of time I get to watch the fish chase, hit, and run.  Plus if they do not hit, watching them chase is a lesson into how to use lure, and if maybe I need another color to use....whoops COLOR...color does not mean anything just ask the "super trout man" Mr. F. Nale....:-).......anywho, what in a bag?