With the weather creating unlikeable fishing conditions, my gear is now packed away. The rods have been cleaned and stored, and my packs hung up for the time being. There won’t be many days on the water for me between now and springtime. As I gather some recorded information from the season I get a look at trends and tactics used throughout.
This past year has been one with a lot of new ideas and experimentation. While the things that worked well became part of my normal setup, with my recorded outings, I’m able to look back on what didn’t work and where some ideas started to shift and form into something that I have adopted into practice.
This post isn’t meant as a dive into all of those ideas, but it was written to share some of the gear that was most used in 2023.
Starting with the packs, my Yonah Hip Pack was my go-to for any fishing adventure. It’s no secret that I love this pack, and if you’re interested in reading more about it you can find a review here…
I did add another pack to my setup this season as well. After some experimenting and trial, I found the Zimmerbuilt Sling Pack Lite to be a good way to carry some extra gear on longer outings.
One of my personal projects over the last year was to whittle down my fishing gear. I wanted to cull some of the collected items that I didn’t use anymore, and one of the big focuses was rods. But… in doing so, I have found rods that I really do enjoy fishing and fish often. These are the rods most used in 2023:
I have two rods tied for the most used - The Tenkara Tanuki Ninja 350, and the Nissin Oni Zerosum Honryu 395. Both rods got plenty of time on the water, but I know for a fact that I caught more fish on the Nissin rod. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the Ninja, it is one of my favorites for mid-sized creeks in my area.
The second most used rod in my quiver was the Nissin Royal Stage 320 7:3, and following that, the Tenkara Tanuki 375.
The 375 was added to my collection in June, while the others were in my possession at the beginning of the season. I do really like the 375 and am looking forward to using it more next spring.
The lines I used this year varied quite a bit. I’ve found a few that I’ve settled on, but nothing that I’m looking to talk about in this article. I figured that knowing the flies that were most used, or caught the most fish would be more interesting. In the next post I will cover a few flies that performed well for me over the 2023 season!