Tackle Box organization

[Dog]

Ok so it officially feels like winter outside (cold, snowing, fireplace is glowing) and now is when I start to  develop my strategy for the upcoming year....

this got me thinking about my tackle box... and how really unorganized it is so I'm looking for advice.

How do you all have your tackle box organized?
By species?
By weather conditions?
By lure type?

for as long as I remember my tacklebox has been organized by lure type and I'm questioning if that's the best way...

anyway, just curious to hear everyone's input/feedback on what works for them...

[puckster_guy]

http://www.basspro.com/Plano-Guide-Series-4By-Rack-System-1374/product/74082/

thats basically my tackle box.It came with a bunch of plastic compartmental see thru boxes. I got hooked on those things. Now my boat is littered with'em. All my terminal tackle is in one. Jigs in another. spinners in another. weights, split shot, in line weights in one. Cranks are sorted by size (somewhat lol). etc
Typically one box(tray) per function. This way just grab a couple of boxes throw'em in a gym bag and your good to go. Often the type/size of lures dictate what your fishing for so no need to sort by fish unless you choose to. I hope that helps Nate                                                                  

[Jerry "SKO FSHN"]

I swear each year that I will take less gear and tackle next year but guess what? It doesn't happen. Fishing Kipawa I have 4 tackle boxes/bags.  2 for walleyes1 for pike and 1 for lake trout trolling. I purchase the Extreme tackle bag from Bass Pro that has 4 larger Plano boxes included. To organize these Plano boxes you will need a hot glue gun to either inser used pieces of plastic from old boxes or you may need to melt out side walls thus allowing for my jigging setups. My fishing Kipawa is 70% nighttime 25 jigging and 5 % walleye or laker trolling. My lures fit my style of fishing. Night fishing is throwing crank baits. I have learned that walleyes will be in the top 3 feet of water if trolling in low light to dark and at night I am throwing everthing right to the shore or in 3 feet of water. I know that all my lures are shallow runners with tight wobble. I purchased these stck bait lure holders that will store 15-20 lures. This box is thin and takes up 1inch x 12inch of space.

My jigging is always with a trailer hook. I purchase the jig heads various sizes and I crimp florocarbon 12pound with black barrel sleeves and treble hooks. I will cut a cardboard box to fit a section of the Plano box 2 1/2 x 5?  I place 5-6 jigs/trailers on this card and finalize the card by rapping scotch tape. Around the jigs and cardboard. The tape simply helps firm up the stacking. Some of the deeper Plano boxes you can stack up to 4-6 cards in each sleeve. You will be amazed how many you can stack in the deeper/larger size boes. A hot glue gun can be an excellent tool to melt side walls or reconstruct new compartment walls. A soler gun works well also.  Now when you go out for an evening you need only take 2-3 sleeves verses a large box.

Trolling I use a home made slow death hook setup and worm harnesses/spinner blades. The slow death rigs are also made long florocarbon leaders & various sinner blades/propellers etc. and once finished they are stored on a leader storage rig that is about the size of a corn cob. 2-3 of these will go into a large heavy duty zip lock freezer bag and again neatly stored and the plastic doesn't allow hooks to fly everywhere.

My homemade worm harness rigs are made with various spinner blades and single/double/treble hook setups. I will cut a 1 foot square piece of card board to store harnesses on. I notch the outside edge of  opposite sides. Each harness has a tying loop and one end, simply slide the live into the fillet knifed notch and draw down until the looped notch stops positioning the harness. Now take the last hook and
Embed it into the cardboard and stretching the leader. Again you can position 15-20 rigs on the foot square cardboard. Simply place 2 blank pieces of cardboard on top and bottom when storing in you tackle bag. The cardboard will help keep the hooks from tangling. I would also use scotch tape or even stronger tape to reuse each time you remove a harness from the cardboard.

OK, Dog, I hope I haven't bored you and this wasn't too much and you stayed awake. As you can see, I love walleye fishing and have been fishing Kipawa 50+ years. I travel from the Outer Banks NC, leaving tuna, wahoo, stripers behind simply to be satisfied in catching the typical 16 incher. Love it!

Jerry Schmeider "Sko Fshn"

[Dog]

Joe,

Thanks for sharing. That sounds like how I currently organize my spiderwire tackle bag with 4-5 different plastic containers.

Jerry, It sounds like you're one organized fisherman! I never thought about doing it that way, thanks for sharing how you do it.
I'm curious when you fish the OBX do you use a charter? That's something I'd love to try but don't know where to start looking for a reputable charter.

-Nate

[Jay Thomas]

Hi Nate:

Like many fishermen, I take too much stuff. My primary prey is walleye.

For walleye trips other than the occasional fly in trip, I usually have 5 containers in the boat:

A satchel style tackle box â€" see http://www.planomolding.com/product.php?PID=627 that contains my jigs, hooks, weights, snap swivels, worm harnesses, pre-tied leaders and selected crank baits and spoons.

A small sized soft sided bag for marker buoys, swim baits, swim bait jigs, stinger hooks, fish gloves, bug gloves, spare batteries, bottom bouncers.

A large boat bag that contains my rain gear, slip bobbering tray, boga grip, fish gong, bug protection, sun screen, hook cutter, first aid kit, walkie talkie radio, new spools of fishing line, fillet knife, sonar transducer and holder.

A stainless steel sonar box for my Lowrance HDS7 sonar unit and a 51 amp hour battery for power.

A dry bag for dry clothes if required and a camera.

If I’m on a walleye trip where I’m using my own outboard, there’s always my outboard box with me that contains selected wrenches, pliers, screw drivers, new plugs, new fuel filters, new oil filter, liter of new oil, etc. As well, on such trips I put a spare prop in my large boat bag.

I use separate tackle boxes for trout or musky fishing trips.

Jay

[Jerry "SKO FSHN"]

Nate,

The cost to chattering an offshore fishing trip has become insane. $2200 for 5 hours fishing and a 4 hour boat ride to the fishing grounds. I own a 28 foot Grady White which I take off shore and a 21 foot Carolina Skiff that I trailer 19 hours to Kipawa. My skiff drafts 8 inches of water making it great for shallow water. I have a bow mounted trolling motor helping me to set up my casting and fishing. I am always open to putting people on fish so if you are ever down this way drop me a line. We are awaiting the ocean stripers to come down the coast from Delaware headed to their spawning grounds up the Chesapeake bay. ( Jan -  Feb )  it can get cold down here but seldom any snow. Have a great holidays.

Jerry (Sko Fshn). I was raised in PA, Sko is really saying Let's Go

[Nancy]

@Jerry "SKO FSHN" , Wow that's unreal as far as price for a charter. I have always had a tarpon charter in my bucket list so after you posted that I checked on a few charters and they are all to bashful to post the prices. I believe the cold reality is that I probably wouldn't be able to withstand that fight with a tarpon anymore. I always used to think I was the toughest female out there and there was nothing I couldn't do, well age and wear and tear has caught up with me. So I am going to guess a fight with a tarpon would end up, Tarpon 1 Nancy 0.

What part of Pa were you from?

[Jerry "SKO FSHN"]

Nancy,
Butler PA.  $ is high offshore fishing but split with 4-5 persons it's do able to catch a fish of your life time. Remember you would have 3 x's the chance of catching for their spread of lines is 12-15  where my private boat is 5-7 lines. That doesn't day charters won't get skunked. Usually if a banana is aboard the boat and a huge 0 fish is aboard the captain will spend the last hour fishing for catchable fish off towers or floating grass lines.  Our runs to the tuna grounds are 50-60 miles. Once there we troll 50 miles so all together we burn around 100 gallons of fuel at on the water prices $4.25

A tarpon charter isn't that bad. My son & I were looking into chartering in Boca Grande FL, Go Fish Charters, call 1-888-880-0006 and talk rates. May, June, July are the months to book. Do your research and coordinate around the spawning full moon and Wahoo, Fish On!!!  $ per day are less than $800.to $1000 dividing that x's 4 might just put you into that fight of a life time dream.

Enjoyed your review and response
Jerry " Sko Fshn "

[Dog]

Nate,

The cost to chattering an offshore fishing trip has become insane. $2200 for 5 hours fishing and a 4 hour boat ride to the fishing grounds. I own a 28 foot Grady White which I take off shore and a 21 foot Carolina Skiff that I trailer 19 hours to Kipawa. My skiff drafts 8 inches of water making it great for shallow water. I have a bow mounted trolling motor helping me to set up my casting and fishing. I am always open to putting people on fish so if you are ever down this way drop me a line. We are awaiting the ocean stripers to come down the coast from Delaware headed to their spawning grounds up the Chesapeake bay. ( Jan -  Feb )  it can get cold down here but seldom any snow. Have a great holidays.

Jerry (Sko Fshn). I was raised in PA, Sko is really saying Let's Go

Jerry,
Careful what you ask for! haha... Unc of our family fishing clan lives in Durham and my wife has ties to Raleigh (we were married in Duck, NC last year) so I'm in that area a few times a year visiting on vacation... I may just look you up. we'll bring gas money and beer, deal?... haha

[Jerry "SKO FSHN"]

Nate,

No gaurantees of catching when fishing however if we should ever hook up I can gaurantee you that we will be the only walleye fishing junkies out on the ocean pursuing tuna. I am certain we would have a lot to talk about being that we fish the Kipawa region and it's not like Kipawa is in our own back yard.  I am retired so if you are able to swing over this way for a few days, give me notice and I am sure we can make things happen.  There is a lot of water here and the quote " 90 % of the fish are in 10% of the water " really makes it hard finding the fish. There is an ocean out there, now find that 10% of water holding the fish.  How did you find out about Kipawa? I have met people from all over ohio, PA, W.VA, NY and Canada and I find it amazing how people keep going back to Kipawa.  We have the Great Lakes which are full of fish but we still enjoy the wilderness.

Keep in touch. I believe you live in PA, is that correct?
Jerry " Sko Fshn "

[puckster_guy]

Hi Jerry I originally fished kipawa in the early 70's. When the kids started coming (3 of'em) I became a "dedicated" parent coaching hockey and baseball etc. After the kids moved out about 4 years ago ai sold my house and bought a lot at the extreme east end of Kip. I literally coudn't wait to go back. In the mean time I fished all over Ontario and the Great Lakes, but ended back in Kipawa. The place has a way of grabbing you by the short and curlies and not letting go. After 4 yrs I don't regret a minute of it. I have fished the Atlantic off Florida and the Mediterranean sea. I'll take Kip any day. In fact since getting my place there. I haven't renewed my Ontario fishing/hunting license since. I don't think you can find a better body of water. Tho fishing in Italy came close for different reasons. I got to fish with my grandfather before he died. He showed me a thing or two. he taught me to fish for Octopus, an interesting experience.

[Dog]

Nate,
No gaurantees of catching when fishing however if we should ever hook up I can gaurantee you that we will be the only walleye fishing junkies out on the ocean pursuing tuna. I am certain we would have a lot to talk about being that we fish the Kipawa region and it's not like Kipawa is in our own back yard.  I am retired so if you are able to swing over this way for a few days, give me notice and I am sure we can make things happen.  There is a lot of water here and the quote " 90 % of the fish are in 10% of the water " really makes it hard finding the fish. There is an ocean out there, now find that 10% of water holding the fish.  How did you find out about Kipawa? I have met people from all over ohio, PA, W.VA, NY and Canada and I find it amazing how people keep going back to Kipawa.  We have the Great Lakes which are full of fish but we still enjoy the wilderness.
Keep in touch. I believe you live in PA, is that correct?
Jerry " Sko Fshn "

Jerry,
no doubt on it being called fishing and not catching! I'm a living breathing example of that.... haha
I grew up in the south hills of Pittsburgh, but now live in State College, PA as my wife is finishing up her PhD at Penn State in Nutrition (specializing in preventing Childhood Obesity research). We know NC well so next time we're headed south I'll shoot you a PM, if nothing else would be nice to meet in person for a coffee or cigar or drink if fishing isn't possible for some reason. My uncle that lives in Durham fishes Lake Michie a lot for bass and crappie. it's a small lilttle lake but he has a lot of fun on it...

[Jerry "SKO FSHN"]

Joe,
Never been further east than Butney Passage however 20 years ago I was  throwing darts at Turtle camp lodge. ( no longer operating ) and this father and 2 sons were among the 10  fishermen telling fish stories, drinking a few beers, simply having a great time. The father ended  the laughter with a very serious announcement and toast. The father announced he had been sick and asked his son's to promise him that when he died that the sons would spread his ashes in the Red Pine Chutes. I guess that's the closest I have been to the east side of Kipawa in memory only. I will never ever forget that night and I know I could speak for all the others present for Everyone was in tears and all the men were hugging the father and sons.  Today, I travel with my memories of my brother and father and great times we had on Kipawa. I now travel solo but my brothers ashes were placed in the Turtle chutes.

Nate,
Trust me, if you go out of your way to travel off the I 95 interstate it would not be simply to having a beer or smoking a cigar. Fishing will be our goal but here in the OBX the wind always controls your fishing.  Do keep me posted and the weather will dictate when you should travel east. I have 2 boats, 1 for the sound and 1for the ocean. Keep in touch. Where do you usually stay on Kipawa? I generally   fish the central lake, Hunters lake.