Fishing Gear Checklist

On a Canada fly in fishing trip you want to take what you need and little more because you are likely dealing with a weight restriction. Many outfitters only allow 100 pounds combined weight per man. This means clothing, fishing gear and groceries.

It's easy to make a 100 pound pile of fishing gear alone. Figure in 3 fishing poles, 2 - 3 reels, a net, a minnow bucket, a tackle box and life jacket.

Your tackle box is one area you may want to conserve but you don't want to over do it. Nothing is worse than being on a fishing trip and losing the last lure in your box that's working real good. Even worse running out of something like swivels or steel leaders.

You want at least one back up reel and pole. If you are like me you want a pike rod and a walleye rod. You will have to decide if you want a lighter weight backup rod and reel for walleye or to just go with a larger rod that will handle both pike and walleye.

I suggest going with a pike sized back up rod and reel just for that reason. I can catch most pike with the walleye rod I use but I like to have a big pole set up for pike. I've had huge pike make short work of my walleye rod  on more than one occasion. It usually just ends up in broken line but sometimes on a cold morning or evening a fiberglass pole can shatter. I've never had it happen pike fishing but I have had it happen when fishing rainbow trout. Something big just crushed my bait and broke my pole in 3 pieces. Having my drag set too taunt didn't help much either but it can happen so take a back up. Make sure to bring at least one extra spool of of fishing line. Most reels come with an extra spool and I suggest spooling it before you depart on your Canada fly in fishing trip. I like to use braided line, less backlash problems, superior strength and minimal line thickness, you can't beat it. Just remember if you use braided line to be careful. Braided line is so strong it can cut right into your flesh. Be extra careful when trying to release from a snag etc. Pulling on braided line with your bare hands can cause injury. I like to wrap the line around my coat sleeve and once around my hand with a glove on. Pull the line with your arm not your hand. This usually retrieves your bait which is another advantage of braided line. Even still you want to bring enough leaders and swivels, they are lightweight and very important.

The heaviest items in your tackle box will probably be needle nose pliers, and all that lead from jig heads etc. Other fishing lures also have lead on them lead and it adds up quick.

OK here's what I suggest for a Northern Pike and Walleye Canada fly in fishing trip.

Walleye	Northern Pike	Johnson Silver Minnow A tackle box standard, this Johnson Lures classic spoon is weedless and can be cast, trolled, jigged or twitched on the bottom. Excellent lure when trolling for Northern Pike in northern Canada.
swivels	steel leaders
jig heads- 3/8 - 1/4 oz.	large twister tails
Twister Tails - all colors	trouble hooks
Canadian Wiggler Original	large bobber
Mimic Minnow	Canadian Wiggler Rattler
Roadrunner	Johnson Silver Minnow
Lindy Rig	Mepps™ spinners
Swedish Pimple	Mimic Minnow	Northland's Mimic Minnow combines the lifelike movement and appearance of a soft plastic with the vibration and flash of a spinnerbait.
Husky Jerk Rapala	Suick Pike Thriller™ Jerkbaits
floating Rapala	Large Jitterbug
live minnows	weights or sinkers
walleye scent	landing net
medium weight rod & reel	medium to heavy weight rod & reel
10 lb - 15 lb braided line	30 lb +braided line
minnow bucket	needle nose pliers
I like to bring plenty of the lures I know work great and a few special lures and leave the rest at home. If you are going to be trolling for pike you have to bring some Johnson Silver Minnows. They work excellent for trolling because their weedless and they work pretty good at keeping the weeds of and the pike on. I've caught countless northern pike in northern Canada with these baits and I personally testify their effectiveness. They catch Northern in all size ranges and they do get attention from those monster northern that are so sought after. I recommend using the 1/2 oz and 3/4 oz Johnson silver Minnow baits for northern pike. Northland's Mimic Minnow bait's work excellent for walleye and northern pike. I use 1/4 oz baits for walleye and 3/8 oz for northern. I have caught walleye on the 3/8 oz mimic minnow baits also. We started using these baits in northern Canada in 2005. I saw them at the bait shop and they had one of those promotional bait video's on top of the display. I watched the video and had to try the Mimic Minnow bait's. These things worked even better than live minnows because you didn't have to take the time to put a new minnow on your hook every time you lose a fish or catch a fish. The baits with spinners seemed to work best for walleye and pike seemed to like the golden ones with no spinner in the 3/8 oz size. A dab of walleye scent and we were just slamming the walleye with these things. I won't go on another Canada fly in fishing trip without a good assortment of Mimic Minnows. Jig heads with a twister tail are a must for walleye fishing also. Sometimes a certain color will be real hot and then they decide they like another color. Bring every color you can find. yellow, white, orange, red, black and grey are real hot colors. Red twister tails are difficult to find for some reason so you might want to purchase your twister tails online. I like to add spinners to my jig heads for walleye. Sounds funny but try it and see. I've been in the boat jigging away with a jig and spinner while others were using jig's with no spinner. They were wondering why I was catching so many more walleye. I swear it's the spinner, I just jig like I normally do and it usually works great. I don't think the color of the jig head is nearly as important as the twister tail. I also like to use walleye scent on my jigs and other baits. Other great jigging baits are Bay De Noc Lures Swedish Pimple®. I've caught some monster walleye jigging in the evening with these. Road Runners work great for trolling walleye in the evening or early morning. They also do well as a jig bait. Don't forget to bring a landing net and needle nose pliers for northern pike. Never put your fingers inside a northern pikes mouth to remove a bait. They have hundreds or razor sharp teeth and you will be sorry. Instead get a pair of extra long needle nose pliers designed for removing fishing lures. Every pike and musky fishermen should have a landing net and needle nose pliers. Swivels and steel leaders are a must for walleye. Swivels allow your bait to move freely and give proper presentation and keep your line from twisting up. Steel Leaders work great for pike fishing but they need to be strong. The leaders you buy at the bait shop are usually no match for a large northern pike. The thin weak mild steel clasps usually just bend straight and bye bye trophy pike. Now days I make my own steel leaders. This way I can use top quality swivels and clasps and make the leaders as long as I wish. To be honest a 12 inch leader attached to standard monofilament line may not be enough to land a large northern. It's not uncommon for pike to twist your up around their bodies by rolling like an alligator does.