Basically, I have nothing. I am getting my rods and reels together for a future 10-day trip. Now I'm looking at tackle storage. I'm seeing hard boxes, soft boxes, jig bags and boxes...
What is essential that I should have?
Good question. Easy to overdo it. On your trip you will see hard boxes (SKB is kind of the standard), soft roller bags (my preference, I have a Fishlab. Turner's Outdoors also has a really nice one), and then homegrown boxes (there is an entire thread here on the forum of a member that makes absolutely stellar wooden boxes out of rare/beautiful woods - his stuff is so pretty it falls into the "I would be afraid to use it" category). For your first trip I would think a single box should be able to carry ALL of your terminal tackle - a handful of irons, one maybe two trolling lures, so getting a separate iron bag or troller bag would be overkill/waste. Also, while a Long Range boat is pretty roomy, space is NOT unlimited. Truthfully any sort of bag that can hold a bunch of 3600/3700 boxes will work. - john