A couple of suggestions to get your tackle box in order

by Gary Brown on 9 Jul 2013 A neat and tidy freak I am not, but when I come across another anglers tackle box that is in such a mess all I want to do is tip it all out get rid of the rusted hooks, swivels that won’t swivel and sinkers with blocked holes and rearrange the lot.

When I go fishing off the beach or rocks or just chucking a few lures or soft plastics around in the estuaries at home I am such a great believer of not having to carry to much gear. This then enable me to be able to move around a fair bit from spot to spot. For instance how many times have you been either beach or rock fishing and you see either a gutter or wash about fifty metres away that looks like it would hold a fish or two and you couldn’t be bothered moving because of the gear you would have to pack up and relocate.

If this happens to me all I need to do is pick up the bait bucket in one hand and the rod and reel in the other and off I go. The rest of my gear, bait and fish will be in a shoulder bag that I wear even when I am fishing.

In this small, but very effective tackle box I have ball sinkers that range from 000 to number threes, 1/0 to 4/0 Owner hooks, small to large swivel, a selection of spoon, star and snapper sinkers. You will notice that the hooks, swivels and small ball sinkers are in clear film containers. They don’t have to be clear, just try using what you can get as film containers are nearly a thing of the past.

In this small, but very effective tackle box I have ball sinkers that range from 000 to number threes, 1/0 to 5/0 hooks, small to large swivel, a selection of bean, ball and snapper sinkers. The stop the hooks and swivels from rusting up I will squirt a small amount of INOX into the container. This does and has not put the fish off the bite. At one stage I use to use WD 40 and it never stopped the fish from biting. Try going to Google and find out what the base ingredient of WD 40 is.

I find that when chasing salmon, tailor and bonito with whole pilchards I will need to have a range of sizes and numbers in my ganged hooks. This makes it so much easier to have a set of gangs to match the length of the bait being used. In the box shown in this article I have the following sets or gangs; 3 x 5/0’s, 4 x 4/0’s, 3 x 4/0’s, 2 x 3/0’s, 2 x 2/0’s and 2 x 1/0’s.

At many of the beach and rock fishing spots that I venture to a decent cast is need to get out to clear the shallow areas of water so this is why I have metal slicers that range from 40 to 120 grams.

This box is only used when chasing luderick, mullet and garfish in the estuaries and has the following items: a variety of spit shots, small ball sinkers, swivels, number 10, 12 and 14 hooks, stopper breads and very small bobby corks.

Due to the fact that I have just a few different sizes of jigs heads in my bream box I decided to type up a chart that would fit in the lid of the tackle box. Depending on what size and weight I am after this sheet makes it so easy to find what I am after and if I do ever drop the box (only ever once, what a nightmare to sort out) I can put each size back where it belongs.

This is mainly a selection of top water lures that I use, with a couple of deep and shallow divers thrown in. The hooks have also been sprayed with INOX to stop them from rusting.

Well there you have it, just a couple of ways that I and you can keep your tackle boxes in order to make your fishing much easier.