Fishing luggage is one of those categories where it’s easy to accumulate far more than you need. Here’s my honest take on what’s actually worth carrying versus what just adds weight to a long walk to the swim.
A decent rucksack-style tackle bag, rather than a single oversized holdall, has made the biggest practical difference for me – distributing weight properly matters over a long walk, and a rucksack design does this far better than a shoulder-slung bag.
A separate, smaller bag for bait and quick-access items (forceps, scissors, a spare hooklength wallet) saves genuinely useful time mid-session compared to digging through a main bag for everything.
For longer or overnight sessions, a proper rucksack-and-barrow combination beats trying to carry everything by hand, and I’d genuinely recommend investing here before spending on more tackle – carrying gear comfortably affects how much you actually enjoy longer sessions.
What I’d skip: overly specialised luggage for a technique you don’t fish regularly. It’s tempting to buy purpose-built luggage for every method, but a well-organised general kit covers far more situations than most anglers give it credit for.
Dan Whitfield started fishing aged seven on the canal at the end of his road and never really stopped. He spent his twenties and thirties on the match circuit – club level rather than national – before deciding he’d rather catch one decent fish than a net of small ones.
These days he mostly fishes the River Trent for barbel (personal best 14lb 2oz), the Oxford Canal for roach and skimmers in winter, and the occasional gravel pit when tench are spawning and the surface fishing is too good to miss. He’s a former club secretary and still helps with junior coaching at his local angling club in Nottingham.
At The River Bend, Dan writes the coarse species guides, river fishing technique articles, and the match and pole content.
Covers: Barbel, bream, roach, tench, carp (coarse context), river fishing, canal fishing, feeder, float, match/pole