How To Select A Tackle Box
Skinny Moose 06.16.11
Every fisherman has his own preferences. Most of us either develop an attachment to an old tacklebox that was handed down from our father’s father’s father like male pattern baldness or we love to run out and buy the latest and greatest fishing gear. This is one man’s perspective.
A long, long time ago in galaxy far, far away, my ex-father-in-law was walking through Cabela’s with me. He was a rather frugal man and a good fisherman. He looked over at a pyramid of tackle boxes displayed, and said snidely, “Geez, you should get you one of those monsters for all your tackle.” It was one of Plano’s very large tackle boxes with the top that holds multiple small plastic boxes, along with three trays of tackle below. My response was simply, “I just bought that exact one.” We had a good laugh.
For years, like my father, he had used a very small, simple tackle box that resembled a lunch box. It held a few jigs, some bottom bouncers, and a crappie rig or two. I had been building my walleye and pike tackle to include about 30 different kinds of jigs and weights, spinner rigs, bottom bouncers, Lindy weights, spoons, slip bobbers, assorted terminal tackle, etc. so it didn’t take me long to fill the big box up, and it remains my primary box to this day. It holds a place of honor in my boat, strapped to front of the port console on nearly every trip out.
When I got into fly fishing, of course, I needed the fly boxes, reel cases, etc. to do business with that method. Bass fishing–same thing. Musky–well, that, too. My few crankbaits turned into a hundred or so, and got a tackle bag of their own with several plastic boxes to sort and store the various types. Another large tackle box turned into my shore-fishing/catfishing box. And the story continues.
Currently, my bass tackle is the most neglected in terms of logical storage. Luckily, I have found that almost all of it is stored in Plano 3600 size boxes, so I just made the modest purchase of one of Plano’s new Fishoflauge tackle bags. Where before it was in a variety of smaller bags, none of which were very effective, it is now consolidated.
My best advice for new anglers is to purchase tackle bags or totes that hold a common size of plastic box and then configure and sort according to the plastic boxes. You can always re-configure as your needs change. The days of dragging the old “lunchbox” with a top tray and its bottomless-pit bottom are over.
