It is still dark when I load the ute, and for years that meant three separate bags going in: one for food, one for tackle, one for whatever I had forgotten to plan for and remembered at the last second. These days I grab one bag off the hook in the garage and I am out the door, which is about as close as I will ever come to travelling light. The Tidal Trekker Insulated Cooler Backpack from Fishing Superstore has quietly become the only thing I actually pack.
It starts the night before. Lunch, snacks and enough drinks to actually last the session go straight into the cooler section, along with a bit of ice. In the morning I add a stripped-back tackle wallet rather than the whole box, suncream, zinc, and a spare layer in case the weather turns. It all goes into the one bag, and there is still room to spare, which is more than I can say for most days I used to try cramming everything into a tackle box lid and a servo bag.
The first fish did not take long. Twenty minutes in, still setting up the second rod, and a solid flathead decided the bait looked better than brekkie, cheeky bugger. That is the moment the extra bags always used to cost me, digging around for the priest or the pliers while the fish sat half in the net looking unimpressed. This time the tackle wallet was already out of the front pocket, the fish went in the keeper, and I was back to casting inside a minute.
That is really where the bag earns its keep for the rest of the day. The cooler section carries a decent stash of cans and ice, and keeps it all properly cold well past the point I would normally be checking whether the esky has given up. Lunch is still lunch and the drinks are still cold, not the lukewarm afterthought they used to be by mid-arvo, which also means no risk of the classic warm beer disaster that has ruined more than one session. I have stopped bothering to bring a separate esky, because there is genuinely no need to. On a long day on the water that is the difference between a good session and one where you are just waiting to get back to the car.
What I like just as much is that it does not sit in the shed the rest of the week doing nothing, unlike most of my other gear. Once the season winds down, or if I am heading away for a weekend rather than just a few hours on the water, the same bag comes with me as a dry bag or a straightforward backpack. It has done a beach day, it has done a camping trip, and it will do a few hours chasing fish just as easily, which means it earns its spot in the garage every week instead of gathering dust like the exercise bike.
It also carries the way it should. It is roomy enough for a proper day's worth of gear but light enough that it sits properly over both shoulders instead of dragging on one side the way a lot of coolers do once they are loaded up. I am not lugging it, I am wearing it, which matters when you are picking your way down a rocky bank with a rod in one hand and a fish still on the other. Mine is in one of the darker colourways, though there are brighter options if you are the sort of bloke who does not mind being spotted from space.
I packed one bag this morning and came home with a feed and a full arvo of fishing instead of half a morning sorting gear. Three bags down to one, and I reckon I end up carrying less and remembering more every time I load the ute, which is more than I can say for my memory most mornings.
