The small details in Trip Preparation
Greg Myers

There are some things that you should do in preparation for the trip to make sure it is an enjoyable trip. Below is a small list on the things that I check before that I head out on a fishing trip.

1. Fuel up the vehicle and boat the night before so that you won’t have any gasoline smell on your hands to transfer to the bait.
2. Make sure the batteries are fully charged and the battery terminals are not corroded.
3. Ice – If you fish a lot and use a lot of ice, an idea is to pick up an old refrigerator with an ice maker in it and let it dump into the freezer without the ice tray and save money.
4. Re-spool any reels that need it and check all your fishing rod guides with a cotton swab.
5. Make sure you have the right size hooks and weights along with the bait and bait colors you will need.
6. Check the tire pressure on the boat trailer and vehicle tires.
7. Make sure that you grease the bearings on the boat trailer at regular intervals.
8. Check the brake fluid level in the trailer master cylinder if your boat trailer has one.
9. Make sure that you have a jack and a spare tire that will work with your boat trailer.
10. Have a lug wrench that will fit the trailer lug nuts.
11. Have all the boat safety equipment: oar, fire extinguisher, life jackets, horn, navigational lights, flashlight, jumper cables, spotlight, net.
12. Have a flashlight and a spot light for lighting.
13. Make sure that the trailer lights are working.
14. Carry a spare propeller with you in case you need it for the trolling motor or the big motor.
15. Carry spare shear pins if your propeller uses them.