Welcome to the Fishing Finatic Blog!
Space in a fishing backpack is at a premium. As fishos, whether you are walking sand flats, wading through rivers, or hiking down cliff faces to get access to rock-fishing zones, chances are, you have complained about the weight of your fishing backpack at least once.
Your fishing backpack needs to be light enough for you to lug around with you as you trudge, hike, and wade, from fishing spot to fishing spot, or else putting in the miles will become a tiresome activity. Trust us, we have been guilty of packing too much into our fishing backpacks over the years, and our backs and legs regret it each and every time.
We hope by reading this, you come to realise every item packed in your fishing backpack should be well-considered and consolidated where possible.
Picking The Right Fishing Backpack
Your decision to keep your fishing backpack light starts when you purchase your fishing backpack, which can be a daunting task because there are many fishing backpacks on the market.
We recommend you buy more than one fishing backpack to suit the different fishing adventures you go on. For example, you do not want to carry the same backpack with you when you are wading the flats, as you do when you are walking 8-10kms chasing Australian Bass or Murray Cod in more rugged terrain.
Backpacks are sold in litre metrics, so when selecting a backpack, you need to take notice of the litre/volume metric. We use a 35L Legion backpack for our longer fishing missions in more rugged terrain, and a 18L Bolt backpack when we are wading the flats. These are both cheap brands from Mountain Warehouse, which are not necessarily the ‘fishing branded’ backpacks because we find those brands to be overpriced for what they are.
At the time of purchasing our backpacks, we spent $44.99 on our 35L backpack, and $28.99 on our 18L backpack. This is proof you do not need to splurge to purchase a backpack which is fit for purpose. Our bigger backpack (35L) holds lots of fishing gadgets and gear, and the smaller pack (18L), is the perfect size for when your fishing mission only calls for ‘the essentials’.
"Our bigger backpack (35L) holds lots of fishing gadgets and gear, and the smaller pack 18L, is the perfect size for when your fishing mission only calls for 'the essentials'."
The only tip we have for you when selecting your backpack, is to select a backpack with multiple compartments and pockets, so you can arrange and organise your backpack methodically. That way, if you need an item from your backpack in a hurry, you can access the item quickly and efficiently.
What To Put In Your Fishing Backpack
Now we have helped you make the decision of selecting the right backpack for your fishing needs, it is beneficial to know what you should actually pack when heading out for a fish.
To help you, we have compiled a list of items we recommend you pack in your fishing backpack on your longer land-based fishing missions. We have ordered these items in order of priority (lower the number, the more important the item).
1. Snake Bandage. The first item on the list is not going to help you catch more fish, unless you are speaking with a morbid sense of hindsight. Simply put, you will not catch fish if you are not around to catch them. Australia is home to 21 of the 25 most venomous snakes in the world, consisting of some very scary specimens such as the Inland Taipan, the Eastern Brown, and the Tiger Snake. It is all fun and games, until you have no phone service and are face to face with a venomous snake that is within striking distance of your feet, and you are a long way from help. Even if you do not die from the venom, a bite from an Australian snake is sure to ruin your bloody day and may very well result in a helicopter site seeing tour to the nearest hospital. Be snake safe!
"A bite from an Australian snake is sure to ruin your bloody day."
2. Tackle Tray(s) Full of Hardbody Lures and Jig Heads. It is a necessity for the land-based fisherman to bring a tackle tray of lures and jig heads with them. The land-based fisherman will see the most success if they can cycle through different lure types, colours, actions, and swimming depths, so having choice when it comes to selecting lures will only see you be a more successful angler. It is best to have one bigger tackle tray for your lures organised by lure style/diving depth, and then a smaller tackle tray to hold your jig heads, organised by weight.
3. Soft Plastic’s. Soft plastics are another necessity in this day and age when it comes to land-based fishing. Never in my years, have I headed out for a fish without a selection of both soft plastics and hardbody lures. As such, you should have a varied selection of soft plastics in your fishing backpack. We recommend you pack some paddletails, curly tailed grubs, jerk shads, and some creature baits.
If you need more information on lure and soft plastics fishing, we have a brilliant article titled “The Beginners Guide to Soft Plastics, Lures and Retrievals” which will put you on the right track to see you catch more fish.
4. Leader. When lure fishing, we recommend fishing with braided line. Braid will enhance both casting distance and sensitivity throughout the rod blank. When fishing with braided line, a leader is required to entice the bite because braid is easy to see underwater, whereas leader is less visible to the fish’s eyes. Leader comes in pound (lb) breaking strength increments, and if your fishing backpack has room, we recommend you bring along multiple breaking strengths because you can then downsize and upsize your leader depending on what the fish are willing to eat on the day. Do not forget to pack yourself a pair of braid scissors to cut your braided line/leader. In my experience, nothing is more frustrating than trying to cut braided line with a blunt rusty pocketknife.
5. Personal Location Beacon. (PLB). PLB’s are not cheap, and as such, owning a PLB begs the question, what price do you put on your life? A PLB may just save your life one day and are well worth investing in.
6. Water. Hydration is key. We recommend taking note of how many litres of water you drink per kilometre travelled, and then pack your water accordingly. You want to find the right balance here. We recommend you pack a little over what you will need for the day, just in case of an emergency. In the past we have used a life straw so we could filter and drink directly from the river, which we found significantly cut down on our backpacks carry weight.
7. Plyers. If you want to practice catch and release, plyers are the easiest and most fish friendly way to unhook deeply hooked fish. Plyers make it easy to perform de-hooking surgery. We recommend a pair of long-nosed plyers for de-hooking fish. Plyers will also come in handy if you ever suffer the misfortune of hooking yourself, however, we recommend going to hospital over doing surgery on the banks of a river because deep hooking can cause nerve damage.
8. Knife. You just never know when you might have to re-enact 127 hours, and must cut your own arm off. A knife is handy to have in case of emergency. If you are keeping a feed of fish, a knife can also be used to dispatch fish. We recommend investing in a good quality pocketknife.
"You just never know when you might have to re-enact 127 hours, and must cut your own arm off!"
9. Cigarette Lighter. Much like number 8 above, a cigarette lighter can be used in an emergency to start a fire to cook on, or to light a fire which you can use to stay warm in case of fishing in cold environments. We recommend checking your lighter still works every time you head out for a fish because sometimes the flint will rust and cease to work.
10. Lip Grips. These make fish handling easy, but in all honesty, we are not a huge fan of lip grips. We find when used incorrectly, lip grips can puncture the fish’s lips, causing damage to the fish. We instead recommend thumb gripping Australian Bass and Murray cod, which in turn will cut down on your backpacks carry weight.
11. Head Torch. If you are going to target fish in the low light periods of the morning and evening, you will likely be fishing or hiking during times when it is dark and hard to see so carrying a good quality head torch is a must. In the event of an emergency, a headtorch can also be used to get the attention of emergency services. We currently use an Olight Perun 2 as our fishing headtorch.
12. Stone. A small stone (like one you use to sharpen your kitchen knives) is a spectacular way to sharpen up your hook points to ensure good hook penetration during your hooksets.
13. Sunscreen/Zinc. Sunburn sucks and Cancer sucks even worse! This speaks for itself. Be sun safe. If you sweat easily like us when hiking, we recommend using zinc because it will not run down your face when you sweat.
14. Camera Gear. In the modern era, a lot of fishermen might argue that you did not catch any fish if you did not post your fishing pictures to social media, and in particular, to INSTAGRAM. To make sure your Instagram is worthy of having a following, good camera gear is essential. Good camera gear can mean having a good quality phone camera, a go pro, or a DSLR/Mirrorless camera. Remember here, camera gear is heavy and requires you to carry additional kit, such as batteries, gimbles, or tripods. If you are feeling weighed down by your fishing backpack, we recommend you just carry your mobile phone.
"In the modern era, a lot of fisherman might argue that you did not catch any fish if you did not post your fishing pictures to social media, and in particular, to INSTAGRAM.
15. Bug Spray. If you are one of those people like me, who the mosquitos absolutely love, we recommend packing some bug spray, so you do not have your night ruined by pesky mozzies. We recommend “Rid” or “Bushman” branded bug spray.
16. Hiking Pole. This will not be for everyone, but a good quality hiking pole has stopped me from breaking ankles and legs, more times than I remember. The perks of a hiking pole really come into play if you must frequently wade through waist deep running water (rapids). Water higher than your kneecap really does have some power and you can become unstable on your feet when the rocks are slippery, so a good quality hiking pole can save you from slipping, even if you do look like Gandalf the Grey in the process.
Closing Message
Some of the above items can be left out depending on the species you are chasing. For example, there are always less items in my fishing backpack when walking the flats to chase flathead because there is less risk of being bitten by a snake, or for needing safety items. On the flats, there are usually a few people around to offer assistance if needed so cut down on weight where you can when fishing the flats.
To get your fishing backpack to an acceptable weight to make hiking easier, there will always be trade-offs. Do I swap out this item for that? Do I forego that item for this? Do I only take the bare minimum? Do I pack everything I own?
Making sure your fishing backpack is not too heavy, but ensuring you have everything you need, will be a work in progress and will take a little tweaking, but we hope this article has given you some items to think about packing the next time you head out for a fish.
Comments