Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Pro-Lure-Fishing-Tips » Tackle Storage - Tips & Tricks
Tackle Storage - Tips & Tricks
By Justin Willmer
When it comes to being organised with my jigheads, plastics, lures, leader, scent, and other accessories, I’ll be the first to admit that I had gear everywhere, my shed was a mess and half the time I didn’t even know what gear I had in there for the upcoming weekend adventure. In the last couple of years I have become much more organised and I believe that having my gear sorted has made my sessions more productive, I have been able to make better use of short windows of time for fishing, and I believe it has also saved me money because gear is not being neglected and I also know what I need to buy and what I already have in my kit. Here’s a breakdown of some of the tips, tricks, and storage solutions that I have utilised in sorting my fishing kit.
Rigged Plastics & Jigheads
One of the first things that I noted was that I had rigged plastics all over my shed, boat, kayaks and still rigged on rods. When I started sorting these, I found that I had to throw a lot of them away because over time the salt had damaged the jigheads and in turn ruined the plastics. If I am heading out in the next couple of days and fishing the same plastics, I will give them a quick rinse with fresh water, when I wash down the rods, and then leave them rigged on the rods. If not, I will snip them off the rod and separate the plastic and jighead.
Jigheads – The jigheads will then be rinsed in fresh water and you can even give them a spray with Tackle Guard or similar if you like. I then have a piece of cord tied up in the shed and I simply hang the jigheads on this cord to dry. Once they are dry, I DO NOT pack them back in with my unused jigheads. Instead, I have a used jighead tray that I store these in for future adventures. I often use the same jighead styles / sizes when fishing, so this is my first port of call when rigging for a session, then I go for the other tray of unused jigheads if I can’t find what I’m after. Once a jighead has reached the end of its life, I then dispose of it appropriately and tie on another.
Soft Plastics – I run ZMan plastics as they are constructed from 10X Tough ElaZtech material, so you can catch more fish on a single plastic, and they are also super-soft and flexible and naturally buoyant, so they feel real and come to life in the water. These plastics last well and will catch you plenty of fish, so you may as well get the most out of them. After unrigging the plastics from the session, I will rinse them and lay them out to dry. I keep a few empty ZMan packets, of the key models that I use, and will then repack these plastics back into the appropriate tray and packet. ZMan plastics are best stored in their original trays and packaging to ensure they maintain their shape and don’t react with other plastics, which they will.
When placing used plastics into these used plastics packs, NOT in with fresh plastics, it’s okay to mix colours in the pack, if they are similar in colour, otherwise colours may bleed from one plastic to another. There’s a tip for making your own cool colours or mixing Motor Oil with other colours, like Pumpkin and Bloodworm to make them UV reactive. When it comes time to rig for a session these used plastics can be a starting point and you may even throw a couple of mixed packs in your kit for the session. If I have a few mixed packs that have been well used, colours have mixed, or I have plenty of used ones, I will often pass these onto the local tackle rat kids, who still catch plenty of fish with them.
Bulk Plastics & Jigheads
Like most anglers I have my favourite plastics and jigheads, of which I always ensure I have a few backup packs. Previously these were stored in tubs, draws, my office, garage and wherever I had put them down. This meant that I kept buying more and more packets because I couldn’t find them, or I would think I had run out and then stumble onto a pack. The key is that I didn’t want to carry all my plastics with me at once and I didn’t want to open all my packets of jigheads and load them into a tray where they would be exposed to the weather and water, while also overloading the tray and increasing the weight.
Jigheads – A simple solution for the jigheads is to store excess packets of jigheads in a plastic container, still in their packets and sorted into categories, such as Hidden Weight System, Ned Rig, Weedless, Inshore and Offshore, making it easy to flick through and see what’s in stock. I use this bulk stock to top up the different trays that I have in my different fishing kits, which we will look at later in this article.
Soft Plastics – I know I am not the only one to have accumulated a lot of soft plastics. I love my ZMan plastics, including a bunch of different models and a bunch of different colours, so I am never going to be able to take everything fishing with me at once and don’t need to. I will simply select the models and colours that I need for a session or use this bulk stock in the plastic containers to top up my premade fishing kits. I have four plastic containers and I store these excess packets of plastics in these, sorted into paddle tails, curl tails, jerkbaits and a mixed container of crustaceans, creatures, and frogs. This makes it quick and easy to find what I’m looking for and to do a quick stocktake of anything that I need to top up.
Other Accessories
I then had the other bits and pieces, including line, leader, scent, snips, and other tools to sort, so I simply grabbed another plastic container and loaded all this gear in there. Obviously, you still need to be disciplined about returning everything to the tub, however I have found it much easier once I created this home location. Now, whether I am heading out in the boat, kayak, SUP, or even on an adventure with someone else, I know that this gear is not scattered all around the shed and in different watercraft… just go to the crate and grab appropriate leader, scent and tools for the session or trip.
Kayak / SUP & Landbased
When it comes to hitting the water in the kayak or SUP or loading tackle in the backpack for a landbased session, I am a massive fan of the small ZMan Bait Binders. This zip up binder has metal rings designed to slot through the pre-punched and reinforced holes on the bottom of ZMan packs, making it super-simple to lock and load 10-12 packs of ZMan plastics. There are no plastic sleeves taking up space and you simply open the packet to access the plastics. Spray a bit of Tackle Guard or similar on the zips and these things will serve you well. Even with 10-12 packets of plastics in there you still have room for leader, scent, and snips, with a separate pocket for a small tray of jigheads.
In my SUP and smaller kayaks, I will generally run a 15L dry bag with one or two of these Binders and other random gear, while the larger kayak has a Tackle Pod, so I simply stow the Binders in here. When I roll up the dry bag, I ensure that there is enough air to float the contents, should it end up in the water. I have a couple of small Binders already set up to grab and go, including a Ned Rig System pack and a river and estuary favourites pack, along with a spare Binder in case I wish to make up a pack for a specific session, such as fresh water, or to compliment one of these other pre-made packs.
Larger Session / Trip Pack
In my kit I also have a few large ZMan Binders set up as larger grab and go packs. These hold a bit more gear, without going overboard, and are ideal when it comes to larger packets of plastics, larger jigheads, heavier leader and other items associated with certain types of fishing. One trick with this larger Binder is that it is set up with four metal rings to store two lots of standard size ZMan packs. By removing the second and fourth ring, you can use ring one and three to lock in the larger ZMan packs, such as ZMan 7” Scented Jerk ShadZ and 7” DieZel MinnowZ, leaving space for leader, scent, snips and jigheads. For this reason, I use these large Binders for setting up specific fishing packs.
Firstly, I have an offshore grab and go pack because I will be fishing in someone else’s boat, so I grab this and know that I have a good selection of gear in here. This contains a selection of plastics, leader, snips, and scent, with the additional internal pocket providing room for a couple of jighead trays with larger jigheads for offshore fishing, along with metal lures, jigs, etc. The second pack is an impoundment barra pack, that I grab when heading up with mates, which again holds relevant plastics, leader, scent, snips and jigheads. The final large Binder is a beach fishing pack, that I throw in when heading up the beach and it has a good selection of plastics and jigheads for beach fishing, along with the relevant accessories. Finally, as with my small Binders, I have a spare large Binder there in case I need to set up a kit for a specific session or application.
To some this may all sound like overkill, however I spend a lot of time fishing and commonly it’s a spur of the moment session or adventure. Rather than spending hours scratching around trying to find and sort everything, ripping packs apart to make new packs and leaving things behind, I can now grab my fishing gear in minutes and be on my way, knowing that the gear I need is in the pack.
Boat & Travelling
I have two ZMan Deluxe Tackle Blocks, a rectangular, zip up soft case that has a couple of dividers and can hold loads of plastics, scent, leader, accessories, and a couple of trays of jigheads. One of these is set up for the boat, with everything I need for fishing the river and estuary. If I plan on doing anything more specific, I can then grab one of the packs mentioned already and throw it in to flesh out what I have, such as the Ned Rig System pack. This boat pack contains enough of all the favourites, along with some out of the box stuff, just in case the bite is tough.
The second Deluxe Tackle Block is empty and on standby for full on adventures, such as travelling to fish with mates, an extended adventure up the beach or longer trip chasing impoundment barra or fishing the fresh. This pack can be made up from the tubs of bulk gear, with a bit of shopping to top up with specific gear for the trip.
Geared to Go!
Basically, the sorting and storage of my tackle has come down to three steps that I have followed to get organised and establish this geared to go system.
- Sort and maintain current gear – separate, wash and stow plastics and jigheads.
- Effectively sort and store bulk gear – designated plastic storage containers.
- Create grab and go packs – Binders and Tackle Blocks for specific applications.
Your kit may be a lot simpler than this… or even more complex, however the key thing is to sort and store your gear so that it’s simple to locate items, quick and easy to grab gear and get out fishing, and so that you don’t have to dismantle the whole storage system to reassemble it again for a different adventure.
If the phone rings, the message arrives or the weather window opens and it’s time to embark on a fishing adventure I am confident that I have the gear and I can put it together quickly, making the most of available fishing time. I also believe that I have saved some money, that I can put toward more fishing gear 😊 and saved my sanity in terms of trying to find gear and freaking out with short timeframes to get organised for fishing adventures.
I hope there’s a couple of tips in here that help you get geared up for more fishing and that you’re hooked up to a few soon.
See you on the water…
Justin Willmer