How do I cram all this stuff into a tackle box?

Maybe I'm overdoing it, but I don't see how. I have a pretty good size tackle box with three trays and a large space below. With all the new lures I'm buying and making, it's chock full already. If I get a larger box, it's going to need wheels! What do you guys do?

Thanks!

I have had similar problems, and still do to some extent. I have 4 tackle boxes right now and need at least one more. The problem is that I keep buying more stuff and that requires more space. The problem now is I need a bigger boat to haul all my tackle boxes laugh hyst

Monte you are asking a lot of great questions. Remember, more tackle does not always mean more fish but it does mean more time thinking about what might work. Try a few basic set-ups to start, talk to the locals, and go from there. I split my tackle into two boxes. One for the stuff that consistently works, and one for the bare essentials and testers. After a mishap a few years ago I try to limit how much $$ can fall into the water in one box.

Yes...if I knew what they were biting on, I'd need only one lure and one scent.
That would make my tackle box the size of a peanut butter sandwich. After reading Dave Biser's book, it appears I have only about 1% of the lures one could use, and no room for any of it...

I use the plastic boxes that go in bags, the shelves in the garage are full of them and i just grab the boxes i need and load the bag

Plastic boxes also. Works great for me.

Plastic box's work great. Have leaders on all your lures already made up and have in loops secured with wire ties. I keep spoons and jigs in seperate box's with no leaders, can store more in each compartment that way. Kokanee change their minds alot, so it helps to have a good selection to see what they prefer from day to day. Your not overdoing it until you carry 2 tackle box's, 21 plastic box's full of kok lures, and around 95 dodgers kept in 2 bags... (one for each side of the boat to keep the boat level.) Stop reading that book Monte, save yourself!

OK...the plastic box idea sounds good. I like the idea of spreading the weight around in the boat, and was thinking I might need to borrow that guy's wife who's the size of a Buick dealership to balance out the tackle box. Maybe having too much tackle is the secret to trolling slowly. With all this stuff in the boat, I'll likely have only a few inches of freeboard, and the boat won't go too fast for trolling any more.

What size plastic box do you use and do you carry several of them inside a tackle box? Do you use a soft-sided box instead of a hard-sided one? Do you use the two-sided plastic boxes or ones that open on one side?

Thanks for all your help!

I use the plastic boxes that I can change the size of the compartment inside. That way I can put dodgers in by their size. 4" all in one and 5 inch all in another. I use a soft side carry bag. I then can change out my plastic containers really easy.

I keep all my scuids together and then string them up as I need them. Then I wrap them around a holder and keeep in one of my boxes. that way they are ready to go for the next trip.

You can also buy plastic boxes that are deeper than others. I keep all my snelled leaders on a peice of styrofoam lying inside the box. They can work for the squids, Spinners, apex's

I can then just take out just the one plastic container that I need with all of my squids, lures, spinners etc and put the rest of my box up in the front of the boat out of the way

I use the plastic boxes, as well, along with the soft-sided tackle bags. I prefer the larger ones because of the amount of lures that I have. I also group the different kinds of lures together like Kokaholic. It makes it much easier to have all of the same kind of lures in the same box. Some lures I use with specific dodgers and keep those dodgers and the lures the same box together.

I rig each lure with leader and have them tied with wire ties and ready to go in the boxes. I find that I am constantly changing lures until I find the color or type of lure the kokes want that day or time of day. It took me a couple of days of fishing to get everything organized the way I wanted in my boxes. It is well worth the time to get everything ready during the off-season so that the first trip or two of the season are not spent finding things and sorting out messes.

this is the bag i use it has a bunch of pockets and it holds all the extra gear including 2 dipsy divers that i always carry just in case the downriggers go down.

Here is the inside of the water proof bag notice the labels on the boxes

Notice the labels on the top of the lid everything has its place


I have about 10 of these full of kokanee tackle and about 40-50 total of all tackle

Wow! That's a big help! It looks like I've got a lot of organizing to do, but it's a good time of year to do it. Are all those boxes the worm-proof type?
Thanks for all the coaching, guys. I have only one fishing buddy and he only knows trout fishing. My wife fishes too, but she just does what I show her to do. I appreciate your willingness to help!worthy12

Full_Monte said:

Wow! That's a big help! It looks like I've got a lot of organizing to do, but it's a good time of year to do it. Are all those boxes the worm-proof type?

Click to expand...

Yes they are but i still don't put my squids in with my spoonsthumbsup

we use the same method as petty,but the day before we head out to the lake we use these tackle binders whiich have poly bag inserts. We pre-tie up our lucky lures or typical used lure/blade combo for the specific body of water so if you have guests, break a fish off, or the fish are hitting one specific lure than you have a few lures tied up with there dodger already to go in the pouch. that way you don't have any down time tying a lure up while everybody else is reeling in fish. these would eliminate the use of a wire ties. On the smaller model you can put about 10 different lure/dodger combos in each pouch. These are useful is you use pop gear or gang trolls as well.