By Capt. Cefus McRae
I spent my growing-up years in the Boy Scouts. Through it all, the motto “Be Prepared” was driven into us at every troop meeting. While we can’t prepare for every eventuality, we can learn from our experiences to help in a variety of situations.
For us anglers, being prepared covers a lot of ground: having a seaworthy boat, the proper safety gear on board, and having the right tackle for the day. How many times have you witnessed a feeding frenzy on the surface only to realize everything you have tied on are crankbaits or jigs?
Some years ago, I finally got smart, and today I always have a ready rod at arm’s length. What’s a ready rod? It’s simply a rod rigged with something you don’t really plan on fishing with but have standing by just in case.
Here’s an example that convinced me to change my ways. I was fishing for grouper in the Gulf. All our rods were rigged with heavy weights and either live bait hooks or big jigs. After all, we were bottom fishing and that’s what you use. The ledges and rock outcroppings in grouper country take their toll on leaders and mainline, so we had a bunch of rods pre-rigged the same. When a leader broke, you could simply grab another rod and continue fishing.
Mid-morning, a large cobia swam by the boat within casting distance. Not one rod was rigged for casting a jig, or freelined live bait, and before we could rig anything up, the cobia calmly swam away. A spinning rod with a bare hook for a frisky live bait or a jig with a trailer tail would have been sufficient to put some tasty filets in the boat. That changed my way of thinking. Having the option to quickly react to a fish-catching opportunity can be the difference between a high-five and a ‘dang-it’!
Oftentimes, the biggest fish of the day will be caught on your ready rod. For my arsenal, I rig up two spinning outfits: one with a heavy jig that I can quickly attach a plastic trailer to and another with a live bait rig that I can attach a live bait or even a piece of cut bait. I also keep a downrod handy rigged with an egg sinker and a live bait hook. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve trolled over an area, hooked up, and then discovered the main group of game fish is about 30 feet below the surface. Having a rod ready to drop bait immediately can be the difference between fishing and catching. All these rods stay out of the way in my t-top rod holders, but anyone can grab one when the opportunity arises.
There’s one other thing that I put in the ‘ready’ category and that’s having pre-rigged leaders. The night before my trip, I tie up twenty leaders with hooks on one end and a swivel on the other. When I lose a rig, I can slide an egg sinker on the main line, and tie it directly to the leader swivel, and I’m back fishing in about 15 seconds. If you make a habit of changing out your leader when the slightest signs of leader abrasion show up, you’ll bring more fish to the boat.
The point with a ready rod is to have ‘something’ ready to throw to a fish that only presents itself for a brief moment. Not being ready can equal a missed fish, so before your next trip, think like a Boy Scout and be prepared.