The starting kit
This is the bag that gets on the plane to Baja on 1 November. It is not a recommendation, and it is deliberately not called a best-of. It's a starting position — the baseline every later revision gets measured against, published in full so the changes mean something.
The rule for everything in here is the same: it has to justify its weight after six miles of soft sand. Anything that can't is a candidate for getting cut, and several things on this list probably will be.
The whole bag
What is in it today, from the register: every item that has been on the kitchen scale and is being carried on the Kohala Coast. The list grows as candidates go into testing, and the table updates itself from the register on every build.
| Item | Line | Weight | Why it’s carried |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casting-finger cot | A latex sleeve rolled over the casting finger: a second skin, so braid on the cast does not slice the finger that holds it. Worn, so it is line zero; a box of 24 is the spares | ||
| Fingerless sun gloves | 1.20 oz, the pair, on the register row | UPF, fingertips free for knots. Backs of hands and wrists, and a layer under the palm | |
| Hooded UPF sun shirt | 13.26 oz | The hood does the neck and ears. Champion 13.26 oz on the scale; the Realtree at 10.48 oz is the alternate | |
| Hybrid shorts | 8.08 oz | O'Neill Hybrid: wade in them, dry on the walk | |
| Reef shoes | to weigh | Stiff sole, drains, laces or a strap that stays done up. Rock, reef and urchin ground. Owned; weight to come | |
| Wide-brim hat | 4.48 oz | Sunday Afternoons wide brim with a chin cord; weight pending a clean re-weigh | |
| Belt first aid | to weigh | Tape, gauze, hook cutter, two blister patches, two antiseptic wipes. Owned: a mini first aid kit and super glue, which closes a small cut as well as it fixes a guide | |
| Fishing pliers | per pair, on the register row | Seven inch, cutters that do braid, split-ring nose, on a lanyard to the belt | |
| Lip grip | 3.81 oz, on the register row | Goes on before anything else does; the hooks go where the fish goes, not where your hand is | |
| Nippers, on a retractor | 0.95 oz, the retractor, on the register row | Braid-rated. Same-line duplicate protects against breakage only | |
| Phone in a waterproof case | to weigh | Sealed case, on a lanyard. Emergency comms, tide tables and the map; not the logbook. Owned: a waterproof phone pouch, and a phone tripod for filming. Brands and weight to come | |
| Polarized glasses, on a retainer | per item, on the register row | Wraparound frames, retainer strap. The only gear that makes fish appear | |
| Reading glasses, on a retainer | to weigh | Your prescription strength, or clip-on flip magnifiers on the polarized frames. Time wasted tying knots you cannot see the eye of is a giant mistake. Owned; retainer still to add | |
| Rigged & Ready X Max C-P combo | 46.00 oz | Rod, reel, loaded spare spool and case, zipped: 46.0 oz. The wildcard that fills the rod and reel slots until something better does | |
| Sabiki rig, one sealed spare | 0.25 oz, on the register row | Flat and sealed. Turns an empty beach into a bait supply | |
| Spinning reel, sealed | 21.13 oz, the Crosscast, on the register row | 4000 to 6000 size, sealed drag, 300 yards of 30 lb braid | |
| Whistle | to weigh | Pea-less, on the lanyard. Carries further than a voice and costs no breath. Owned | |
| Action camera | per item, on the register row | Chest mount, two batteries, in a case. Lithium flies carry-on | |
| Circle hooks | to weigh | Inline, 1/0 to 5/0, six of each, in the slim tray. Owned: hundreds of hooks in hand, so the tray is packed from home stock | |
| Electrolytes, two sachets | 0.57 oz | The day's two sticks, one Gatorade Zero (0.12 oz) and one Liquid I.V. Sugar-Free (0.45 oz), printed net weights | |
| Fluorocarbon leader, working | per spool, on the register row | 30 lb and 50 lb, 25-yard spools, in the tray | |
| Hydration bladder | in the day pack | The 2.5 L HydraPak reservoir, weighed in with the Osprey Siskin 8 above | |
| Inline single hooks | to weigh | Sizes 1 to 3/0 for swapping trebles off lures; easier on fish and on hands. Owned, from the home stock of hooks | |
| Rag | 2.47 oz each, on the register row | For gear. The one you wipe the knife on is not the one you dry your hands with | |
| Scale and tape | 2.86 oz | KastKing ToughTide digital hanging scale, 2.86 oz on the scale; the soft tape still to add | |
| The day pack | 21.83 oz | Osprey Siskin 8, and the water source: its 2.5 L HydraPak reservoir rides in it, hose to the shoulder strap | |
| Working lure selection | per lure, on the register row | Six to twelve: popper, stickbait, two casting jigs 1 to 2 oz, one spoon, one vibrating blade for stained water, two minnow plugs, soft plastics with jig heads 1/4 to 3/4 oz, one bucktail | |
| Daiwa J-Braid x4 40 lb, the respool | to weigh | The 300-yard spool that refills the surf reels; on the scale next | |
| Electrolytes, the box | 3.42 oz | Twelve sticks for Cabo, the rest of seven days at two a day, half and half: about 3.4 oz by the printed weights | |
| Power bank and spare batteries | to weigh | Under 100 Wh. Lithium is carry-on only; never in the checked bag. Owned; goes to Cabo. Weight to come | |
| Rain shell | to weigh | Packs to a fist. Wind as much as rain. Owned for now: a windbreaker, which covers the wind on a cold dawn; brand and weight to come | |
| Rod and reel repair kit | per item, on the register row | Spare tip-top and hot glue, reel grease and oil, a bail spring, small drivers, super glue, zip ties, electrical tape | |
| The ruck | 47.16 oz | OGIO Prospect, the carry-on. Everything below the second line lives in it | |
| Water | 88 oz | 2.5 L in the day pack’s reservoir, full. The heaviest thing in the bag and the only one that gets lighter as the day goes | |
| Total so far | 235.8 oz (14.7 lb) | Everything in testing with a weight of its own, plus full water, 10 items still to weigh. The slots the register still calls candidates are not in this number yet |
What I expect to get wrong
Writing this down before the trip is the useful part, because it's checkable afterwards. The honest guesses: the lure selection is too broad, 2.5 L of water is too little for a full day on open sand, the wildcard rod does not survive Baja, and at least one item in here gets carried all week without being used once.
What happens to this list
It gets revised after every leg, with the reasoning published each time. Baja first, then Molokai, then Thailand and the Maldives, then Costa Rica. The version that survives all five is the one worth having, and it won't look much like this one. The loadout comes together in about a year, and after that it keeps getting pressed on new coastlines.
The full candidate list, broken down to the finer details and sorted by line, is the register. This page is the subset that gets on the plane, with weights.