Inside Elite Boats: Casey Ashley's Triton 21TRX

In his career, Casey Ashley has scored four wins with B.A.S.S., most recently the 2015 GEICO Bassmaster Classic. He’s earned more than $1.1 million in winnings and is getting into a serious groove. Let’s take a look inside his 2015 Triton 21TRX.

Here it is, Ashley’s 21TRX. This one’s a scorcher, too. He carries a pretty light load as you’ll see, which frees up some MPH. This 21-foot rig sports a 95-inch beam, weighs roughly 1,840 pounds and can handle up to a 300-horse fire-breathing Merc, although Ashley’s has the most popular option, a 250-horse ProXS. Most every major tournament circuit restricts horsepower levels to 250 and less. At any rate, these redesigned rigs have a front deck borrowed from an oceanliner and storage like one, too. Let’s see what the 2015 GEICO Bassmaster Classic champ keeps in his.

Up front we find a pretty simple setup: a single Lowrance HDS12 unit and a 109-pound-thrust MotorGuide Tour trolling motor.

In an age where you see two and sometimes three units at the bow, Ashley uses only one. Why? “I only need one,” he says with a wink. He’s a fan of simplicity, and uses the split screen option a lot. Plus, only having one unit makes more space on the deck usable for fishing. Ashley generally keeps 8 to 10 rods out at any given time, so he needs the space more than he needs another unit.

Under the MotorGuide live the buttons for his dual Power-Poles. The trolling motor handle is a bulletproof T-H G-Force Trolling Motor Handle that sports a cable link, rather than rope.

We told you he packs light! Some pros have up to 30 combos in their rod lockers. Ashley has about 15 at any given time, give or take a few.

Let’s take a look at one.

This is a 7-6 Quantum Exo outfit with a Knight’s Custom Lures jig.

This is where the bulk of Ashley’s tackle lies, in the center storage box.

Everything he needs for a particular event lives in here, while the rest of it is in his Tundra. There are some things that stay on regardless of where he is. The things he’s using more regularly stay toward the front.

This is what Ashley calls his “nit-pick” bag. It’s got stuff he just bought for an event that he might need right now.

Even the Bassmaster Classic champ isn’t immune to the occasional trip to the local Bass Pro Shops.

This is his topwater box.

It has a good mix of old favorites and brand-new styles, as well as a smattering of custom baits.

Here are two of his favorites, a Lucky Craft Gunfish (left) and an XCalibur Zell Pop.

This is his crankbait box.

It’s got everything from original Wiggle Warts to deep-diving Rapalas to Lucky Craft square bills and medium runners.

This is one of the boxes that is always in the boat, his buzzbait box. Note the old-school style rubber skirts as opposed to the silicone ones that are so popular today.

This is something that you might want to try: Keep a bunch of different weight and blade combos in your spinnerbaits and a supply of skirts handy. Once you figure out what the fish are eating, you can accurately match the hatch. It’ll save you weight and space. KVD does this, too.

This is a big model that’s made for slow rolling along the bottom.

Here’s his skirt box, another one that never leaves the boat.

He can match just about any forage across the United States with the skirts in here.

Think he likes throwing a jig?

His favorite is made by Knight’s Custom Tackle. (http://knightscustomlures.com/) They’re all hand-tied in South Carolina.

That’s Hi-Seas leader material.

Isn’t that a handy way to store shaky heads?

His marker buoys sit tight inside the center storage box as well.

Are you not throwing a hair jig yet? You need to be. They’re severely underrated for offshore structure.

One of his terminal tackleboxes is all trebles, some feathered, some not.

You might recognize this as the bait that won the 2015 Bassmaster Classic. “This one’s not leaving the boat for the rest of the year,” Ashley said. “It’s got to be good luck!”

In the starboard rod box/storage locker, Ashley keeps all manner of things. He calls it his “junk box.”

Do you recognize this little tackle bag? You might if you’ve recently become a B.A.S.S. Member; it’s the one that came with the membership package. Ashley uses it for soft plastics.

Within the bag, the plastics are on loops that keep similar shapes together.

Ashley keeps all of his tungsten sinkers inside of a dedicated Plano box.

In another soft-sided tackle bag are Ashley’s finesse worms.

We’d be willing to bet you’ve caught a few fish on a Trick Worm.

These have been around a while!

Guess what’s in here?

This is how Ashley organizes his hooks, in smaller boxes within a big box. Jeff Kriet gave him this idea.

Kinda neat, right?

Here are the components for making spinnerbaits. Note again the old-school skirts.

If you don’t have a spare trolling motor handle and prop in your boat, you’re inviting disaster on the water with you.

Certainly you used to have an old tackle box like this, right? Ashley couldn’t stand to get rid of his, so he re-purposed it into…

…a jig box.

He also keeps paperwork in the bottom half.

Here are some rubber-skirted jigs.

At the passenger’s feet is the “pile of shame” that every angler has. It’s used baits and things that didn’t work like planned.

Ashley at the console.

In the cupholder are earplugs, which he uses when making long runs. You don’t think about it much, but howling wind takes a toll on your hearing.

Behind the driver’s seat are life jackets.

On the other side is his culling system, more paperwork and some extra shades.

He keeps different lens colors for different water bodies and light conditions. The top pair is Costa’s sunrise lens, which he uses for sight fishing in early morning light. Other than that, he likes brown mirror best.