Summer is one of the best times to hit the banks to target bass. The days are long, the nights are cool and there are tons of opportunities to break away for an hour (or the day) to hit the banks. There's no one-size-fits-all technique to packing that perfect bank fishing bag, but Burly Fishing's Paul Glass breaks down a few key factors to consider to keep things light, accessible and efficient.  

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Video transcript:

Speaker 1:
What is going on, everyone. Welcome back to the MONSTERBASS Channel. Today, I am in a different spot that I normally am. I'm at the bank.

Speaker 1:
Usually you catch me on the kayak, but today we are on the bank. And why am I in the bank today, specifically? That's because we are going to talk a little bit about bank fishing, picking the perfect and also packing the perfect bank fishing bag for you. There's a lot that goes into it. And even if you're an experienced bank angler, or sometimes there's some things that you sort of forget about, or maybe haven't found the perfect solution for. We're looking to help all of you good folks out today.

Speaker 1:
Yes, we love boats. Yes, we love kayaks. Yes, we love being way out there. But we totally understand here at Monster Bass you can be fishing from anywhere. And a lot of folks, they just like to catch some pan fish in the bank. Or maybe you don't have a boat, you don't have access to a boat, or maybe you just got a piece of water that is fished very well from the bank and that's how you like to fish.

Speaker 1:
So we want to help you out today. But before I get into all the tips and the tricks and the fun stuff and the helpful stuff. I want to say, thank you so much for checking out this channel. Thanks for clicking on this video. Thank you for hopefully smashing the like button ringing notification bell, and subscribing so that you can see more Monster Bass videos. All right.

Speaker 1:
Now, before I get into this video, I first want to say there is no perfect answer. There is no perfect bag. There's no like top three bags and you go get one of those top three bags and you're just going to be perfectly happy. That situation does not exist. And the reason is we all fish for different species. We all have different ways that we like to fish and we all target and we all fish in different places, right?

Speaker 1:
So what I will tell you and what I'm hoping to give you with this video is, what are the things that you need to consider in order to pick that perfect bag that is going to match your specific needs as best as possible and make and give you the best possible fishing experience. Make you efficient, make you effective, and hopefully make sure you have a great time when you're walking the banks. So what are some of those things that you want to consider? To me, the first thing is where you fish. The next thing is how you fish. And then the third thing is picking a bag that matches those first two criteria, the best. So let's start with where you fish. I'll give you a great example and why this matters so much. I'm here at a very open bank that requires potentially some longer casting, because there's a little sandbar right here before the water starts to drop off.

Speaker 1:
What does that mean and why does that, how does that affect my bag? Well, that means I can have a roller bag kind of like this one where I can have like four rods. I've got a little arm here where I can drag the sucker out and I can literally just walk from the parking lot to here with these like you know, wheels that are at the bottom of this bag. It also means I can pack way more tackle. It means I can drag my bag around with me as I walk the shoreline cause the shore is actually mowed and it's super open.

Speaker 1:
When it's super open, I have open back casts. I don't have to have all my stuff like really close to me. I can bring whatever I want and do whatever the heck I want while I'm out here. That's awesome. That is great for a lot of people. That means you can attack a lot of shoreline. That means this can be a really good place to fish. However, if you fish choked banks, if you fish river banks, if you fish a place where you have to walk maybe a half mile or a mile before you get somewhere, and maybe there's no path for your comfy handy dandy wheels, then you're not going to want a situation like that.

Speaker 1:
You might want a situation like this one. A full on backpack that you can take on and off. That you can set down wherever and that you can walk potentially a long distance. Another thing to consider is do you have a place to put your stuff down? Like I just talked about, having this bag and been able to put it anywhere is really important. But let's say you're fishing out in the muck. Let's say it rained the day before and you've got nothing but you know sandy, wet, garbage everywhere.

Speaker 1:
Or maybe you've just got nothing but tree stumps for you to sit on. Or maybe you're in a place that has like this one does. There's like picnic tables everywhere. One of my favorite picnic table sort of fishing bags is a bag like this one. A little tiny bag. So where you fish actually matters. Maybe you're fishing the river and you're going to want like a man purse, right? I mean, I run a sling pack every time I fish the river. Every single time. But there's some limitations to that as well. So where you fish is really important. I mean, it's going to mean the size of your bag is going to matter. It means you may have to carry more out with you or it means you may have to carry less out with you.

Speaker 1:
It means, oh I can leave a bunch of stuff in my truck and just run back and forth for my truck. If I really, really need something or if I want to swap out a different rod. That means you can carry six or 10 or 25 rods in your truck or your you know, your car or whatever. And you don't have to bring them out with you. That's why where you fish matters. Now let's cover how you like to fish. Depending on how you like to fish means the type of gear you're going to need to bring.

Speaker 1:
If you're a bank angler you're fishing ultralight, you're pan fishing. You may only need one rod and you only may need a couple of bobbers, a couple of drop shots and some live bait. That means a pack like this is going to serve you very, very well. If you are a surf fisherman, you're going to need a dang cart.

Speaker 1:
This is not even going to do it for you. You may need like a giant cart and you got to have all your swim baits, all your live baits setups, tons of different hooks, tons of different line. Oh look.

Jeff:
They'll let any old nerd in this town.

Speaker 1:
I know. It's a public park, guy.

Jeff:
Who, who's letting this guy film here?

Speaker 1:
The other half of Barely Fishing really sucks.

Jeff:
You need a license for-

Speaker 1:
The other half of Barely Fishing is really not a lot of fun. That's Jeff, by the way you guys, oh God. Now I lost my train of thought, oh yeah, surf fishing. Or maybe you're just a bank angler. And you love to bring every single thing that you have. I mean, totally get it. That is where I'm at right now, too. So all of those things are going to dictate the size of your bag, whether or not you need to have rod holders, whether or not you need to have wheels and all those sorts of things.

Speaker 1:
So again, how you fish really matters as well. Pan fisherman's going to have a different set of stuff than like a musky fisherman, right? Totally different. Now let's talk about the intersection of those two things, how you fish and where you fish and how a bag can maybe meet your needs more or less effectively. I'm going to go from smallest to largest bag type. And I am not going to cover everything, but I'll try and cover all the specific things that you might want to think about and I'll cover as we go.

Speaker 1:
Some things you might want to see inside of your bag. So let's talk about what I think is probably the easiest simplest type of bag. And that is a small, a small tackle bag, which is basically just a canvas bag. Now, a sling pack, anything of this size that generally fits two or three you know, boxes of plastics like a 32, 3700 size plastics is kind of what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1:
This is actually what I take bank fishing with my son. We're typically targeting bass, not giants, but bass. We're targeting panfish and we're usually using some kind of live bait, maybe running a drop shot or something under a bobber. Anything that's going to catch him the highest number of fish that is the gold. Now. Ooh, a little dirty here. Now the nice thing about a bag like this, it's got a couple of different pockets, right? But it's got one large main compartment. That's one of the things that I like in almost all my bags is a large main compartment. Why do I like one non divided large compartment?

Speaker 1:
That means I can swap out boxes and do whatever I need to do. That means I can stack on top of maybe one 3700 size with some bobbers and some hooks. On top of that I can either put two more of those boxes in something like this, or I can fit my live bait and a couple of snacks, maybe a water or a Gatorade or a whole lunch for my son in this case for my day inside of that large compartment. It's going to do whatever I needed to do for that specific situation.

Speaker 1:
But then you've got your side pockets and inside of my side pockets, I've got things like bobbers and hooks. And then back here, I've got my, what do I keep in here? Mr. Twisters, extra line. That's something that a lot of people forget is you need a place for extra line. I've got three spools in here, one giant, two of the smaller spools. But you can fit a ton line in a pocket like this. And then I've got some plastics over here, got my Mr. Twisters, which you know, you love to see.

Speaker 1:
But then it's also got some mesh pockets in the back and the sides for things like all of your tools, because you're going to need nippers and pliers and things like that. Something to cut your braided line and then you're also going to need to bring your fishing license. So those are all the types of things that I put in this bag.

Speaker 1:
This would be for like, you know a shorter session, a quick session, one where I can maybe set it down. It does have a water resistant bottom. That is a huge benefit for a bag. If you're looking for a bag, that's one thing that I recommend you always look for is a water resistant or at least a very durable bottom. This backpack that I'm going to show you in a second is one of my favorites and one of the reasons I got it is because it does have that rigid bottom. And it's also very durable because I never know where I'm going to set this down. The place may have a picnic table, may have a stump or something. It may have nothing. And I may just putting it you know, in the water. Who the heck knows? So quick fishing session, any kind of bag that's going to hold a couple of different boxes and a couple of different types of plastics.

Speaker 1:
That's kind of what I'm looking for. Now let's talk about the backpack option. This is the ego fishing backpack. I really like this pack. I'll kind of show you why. Move the camera down here so you can kind of see this bag a little bit closer. So this is that ego fishing backpack I was talking about. I am a real fan of this bag. Again, this is where I'm going to kind of hit the majority of the features that I like to see in a bank fishing bag.

Speaker 1:
First things first, I like to see a pocket on top and it probably should be one of the biggest pockets. Why is that? It's the one that's going to be most readily accessible and it should hold the things that you use the most. So what is in mind? Pliers. A lot of packs have you know, places on the side to stash pliers. That's an awesome option. Even holster where you can just pop these in. I know these Rapala pliers do have one of those. But you're going to keep your pliers and actually keep a couple different types pliers.

Speaker 1:
Here's a pair of hemostats that I really like to use for pan fishing. It's got those small, tiny little pincers for getting those tiny hooks out. And I actually keep these on a zinger, just like this little retractor deal here. I keep them a lot of times just on my belt loop. So, but that's one thing that you can you know, attach to any one of the points that's on here or keep in there. And then here is another example of another. I actually really love these. These are like five bucks on Amazon. I don't even know who makes them, but these are just like generic. They have nice braid scissors, split ring, plier. Place for you to grab hooks when you need to, they don't weigh a lot.

Speaker 1:
And for like 10 bucks, you get three of these. These are awesome. But those are the types of things I'm kicking in the top as well as access to my fishing license. But you never know. If you're fishing at night, headlamp, all that kind of stuff. I want to see that close to hand right on top. So I want to see sunglasses, I want to see that right here. I also want to see some side pockets.

Speaker 1:
One of my gripes with this bag actually is that the side pockets are not nearly big enough. But I got bobbers and bells in this pocket and this other side pocket here. Got to love the American flag there on the side. In this pocket I've got my, if you're keeping fish, you're going to want a place to hold onto them. So I've got something like that in this pocket.

Speaker 1:
And then, then your front pocket, this is one of your main pockets. I'm keeping another pair of hemostats. I've got tons of extra hooks, all kinds of goodies actually. Steel leader for musky fishing, all kinds of good stuff. Now the, now the side pockets on this bag are generous and I love that. I love generous side pockets. So we're going to open up one of these and I'll show you what we got in here. I've got ah, a ton of different line. Got my soft steel, all my leader line right here. And two, two braid spools.

Speaker 1:
So that's five spools of line, all two or 300, depending on the brand right there in the side. Do not forget your line folks. There's nothing more frustrating if you're trying to finesse fish. Yes, you have unlimited braid because you got a ton on your spool. But if you forget your leader line, you are going to be sorely displeased.

Speaker 1:
Bring your leader line. Then on the other side we got another pocket. What's in that pocket? Scale. If you're a bass fisherman, you just bring a scale. You never know we're going to catch your PB. You absolutely never know. So my recommendation is one, always keep a scale on you and two set the hook like it's the fish of your lifetime. Every single time you set the hook. You know what I hate to see happen to somebody? You're jig fishing. You get a 75% set and it's a 12 pound beast. And all of a sudden you find that you did not do the job properly and you lose that fish. R.I.P to my soul, I'd lose it at that point. So yeah, always have a scale, more braided line. Yeah, that's what I keep in my pockets.

Speaker 1:
Now let's get to the main portion of this bag and why I like this bag a lot. But again, this is not about this specific bag. It's just, these are the types of things you're looking for. So in this case, lots of pockets. Oh, very durable bottom. In this one actually is a hard bottom. That means when I put this bag down, it sits upright. It's not falling over to one side or the other. It's able to stand up on its own, actually is a big deal.

Speaker 1:
Another thing to look for if you're a backpack fisherman, comfy straps. That was another one for me on this one. It has very puffy, but very durable straps with a nice durable handle for me to carry this around and the durable back pad. Why is that important? I find myself walking one or two miles, if not just the shoreline as I'm fishing, walking one or two miles just to get to my spot. So these are really important for me. And again, more things to cut stuff. These are retractors are awesome because you can move them to any different pack whenever you want, but let's get to the main compartment.

Speaker 1:
So what am I keeping in here? I typically, typically like to see if you like your 3,700 size boxes, that's great. You can stack them up this way, horizontally and just kind of stack them up. This bottom pouch actually does access the inside, which is great. A lot of people like to fish like them. I don't, I like to have a larger size box that I can customize for my day. So I typically keep this box empty and I put what in, what I need in it specifically for that day. So I've got today because this is a little bit shallow. I've got jigs, top water, shallow run and spinner, shallow running baits.

Speaker 1:
And then a couple of like Mepps and bladed jigs, things like that. That's what I have in here today and a couple hair jigs. But I recommend keeping you know, one of these to where you don't need to take it with you all the time. Keep it empty and then just swap out what you need for that specific day.

Speaker 1:
That's my recommendation. I like to keep one or two of these in here. I also will find myself always wanting to make sure that I have the right terminal tackle. That can be really challenging, especially if you're a junk fisherman like me. I keep two larger Plano Edge boxes inside of my, my kit here. Now this bag is large enough where I can fit another two of these types of boxes. Plus the two terminal boxes. Again, how you fish matters. You want to have enough space to just give yourself the flexibility to fish for the things that you need. You may not need a backpack this big. You may need one that's twice this big, which will cover in a second. But the important things is again, make sure you have the space you need the and the and the style of space that you need.

Speaker 1:
Again, I like a top access cause I want the bag to sit up and I'm just pull things out of it as needed, kind of have my home base and then carry my home base around with me. That's how I like to fish for the places that I like to fish. Again, if you just have your truck, you can have a big duffle bag with all your crap in it and you can go to and from your truck. That's great. That means you can carry 10 rods, no problem, whatever. Me, I carry one or two rods. That means I can carry them. I don't need any rod holders on this bag. And I like it vertical. And I like to be durable. I also like to have plenty of room for plastics. I typically take one or two of these monster bags, Monster Bass bags with me, wherever I go.

Speaker 1:
And I slide them in here no problem. There's room for another two of them with the setup that I have here today. And then the last thing I'll say is you'll notice I have this like Yeti sidekick. There's molle all around here. Molle. There's molle webbing all around this. It's like a laser cut, molle. It's awesome. But one thing you typically forget about is you do have to bring your keys. You do have to bring your phone. I have to bring some camera gear. That's why I love having this strapped to the outside because it gives me waterproof storage where I need it. But cool little recommendation. Another way another cheat code to get around this without spending 50 bucks on one of those is just get yourself a waterproof bag that kind of rolls top roll, a roll top bag. That's waterproof. And then you can just clip it to wherever you want on the bag.

Speaker 1:
Little cheat code for you. 10, 20 bucks. Easy to get a hold of and we'll do the exact same job. That's the backpack. Now, let's talk about the largest option here. Ugh. This is the Okuma fishing lab bag, our fish lab bag, an Okuma brand. Heckin' awesome. Carries a ton of storage. You get four of these big boxes and one that's like a- ugh, the deep version. And they're all separated, which is really cool. And you can move them around as needed these little barriers, move with Velcro. And then down here in the bottom, plenty of storage for plastics and tools. But this is a big roller bag. Obviously is carrying the most amount of the most amount of stuff. It has storage for four rod holders. It's got the little duffle here, four wheels on the bottom, and then it does have a strap which I will probably never use because this thing will always weigh 50 plus pounds.

Speaker 1:
If there's space, I'm filling it. It's got the little pouch here at the top. And then when you zip open the very top, you actually have access all the way down if you want it, but you can fit a ton of plastics in here. I've got really a heck ton in here right now. And some jigs! I wanted these. It's going in that bag. But this would be an example of somebody who you know, potentially needs extra storage space, the most amount of space, but also want something that is going to wheel around. So if you're a pier fisherman, if you're a you know, a surf fisherman, this might be the type of rig that you would want.

Speaker 1:
All right, to wrap things up again. It's about how you fish, where you fish, and then you're trying to find the bag that has the right you know, accessories and the right qualities that will match the way you fish and how you fish the best.

Speaker 1:
There's no right answer for any one person. Again, it's all about your preference, but those are some of the things that I look for in a bag when I'm choosing my bank angling pack. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. I hope it was helpful for you. I'm going to try and do a little bit fishing right now. But sincerely, thanks for checking this out. Please, don't forget to subscribe. Smash the like button, ring the notification bell, and then tag us when you catch your PB on Instagram and wherever else, Facebook doesn't matter. Tag Monster Bass, and maybe we'll feature you on the channel. So have a great day. Maybe we'll catch you out on the water. See you guys.