Tackle Organization

By: Capt. Billy Norris

Unlike freshwater, saltwater fishing can be overwhelming to new anglers when it comes to your tackle and how to keep it organized.  When fishing freshwater, you are typically targeting only a few different species of fish.  For example, if I were going to fish Lake Trafford, I would set out prepared to target largemouth bass, panfish, and potentially some of our invasive game fishes like bowfin or peacock bass.  Although there is some variation in the artificials I would bring, the overall tackle list wouldn’t be very overwhelming because you are only targeting a few species of fish.  Saltwater on the other hand has a seemingly endless roster of gamefish to target.  In addition, you never know what you are going to run into while you’re out there.  Sure, you set out with a target species in mind, but I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve went out looking for one thing and stumbled across another.  For example, I might head out after cobia and instead run into a massive school of permit.  Or, I might be looking for tarpon and instead find shark filled waters.  This common occurrence means that you have to be prepared for every situation, and the tackle and rigging is completely different for each species of fish.  Here is how I keep my tackle organized, and you can follow these tackle organization tips to spend less time scrambling for gear and more time hooking up!

I carry three main tackle boxes; one with leader, one with weights, and one with terminal tackle.  The following is how I set up to give you an idea of how to stay organized.

For leader, I carry it all in one tackle bag.  The main portion of this bag is filled with spools of fluorocarbon.  It is important to ensure that you have a variety of sizes in order to match your intended target.  Typically, I have 15/20# test (for yellowtail, mangroves, and permit), 30# test (a go-to for backwater and snapper when the water isn’t crystal clear), 40-50# test (for bigger fish like cobia, offshore snook, grouper), 60-80# test (tarpon, bigger grouper, etc.) and finally a variety of different strength steel leader (cudas, sharks, kings, etc.).  By having all of your leader material in one easily accessible bag, you can readily find the spool you’re looking for quickly.

Weights can become a giant pain if you try to store them in their own little compartments.  I see this often with other people’s gear, a tackle box full of weights separated by individual little compartments and organized by size.  Weights are bulky, break the tackle box compartments, and are obviously heavy.  I don’t like lugging around a tackle box that weighs 50 pounds, so I put all the weights in one heavy duty container.  I use a waterproof ammo can.  These can be picked up at any West Marine and are built very rugged and durable.  This makes it easier to not only store your weights hassle-free, but also to have quick access to everything you need.  It is important to make sure that if you do store your weights like this, that you ONLY put weights in the container.  Due to the fact that they are all mixed together, you will be digging through the box to find your desired size, and if you have loose hooks or jigs mixed in, you will definitely hook yourself.

Finally, I have the main tackle box.  This is where I keep pretty much everything else we use on trips.  Inside the box there are 6 different tackle box inserts, or compartmentalized containers for separating your tackle.  Mine are broken down as follows:

Box 1: Hooks.  In this box I keep all of the hooks we use on our trips.  I have them all separated by size and type.  I prefer to use either Mustad or Owner hooks due to the fact that they don’t rust as quickly, but the technique is the same for all types.  To slow the rusting process, we do two things.  Firstly, each compartment has a piece of towel cut out and fastened to the bottom of the compartment.

This serves two purposes; it absorbs any unintentional water that may make its way into the box, and, it allows us to spray the hooks down with an anti-corrosive material.  The cloth then absorbs the leftover anti-corrosive, which extends the life of your hooks.

Box 2: Jigs.  We use a ton of jigs fishing, and having a box solely dedicated to them makes life a lot easier.

Box 3: Artificials.  We don’t use a ton of artificials as we mostly use live bait, however, we do use spoons and a few different types of plugs.  Keeping them organized makes for quick access when the opportunity to deploy an artificial arises.

Box 4: Soft Plastics. Keeping your soft plastics away from everything else will help to preserve them.  Keep them away from things that rust or chemicals that can melt the material.

Box 5: Big Rigging Gear.  This box includes things like crimps, wire fasteners, swivels, jewfish hooks, shark rigs, etc.  The big stuff can take a beating so keeping it all together just makes sense.

Box 6: Corks.  We keep one box slammed full of different styles of corks.  Most of the time we use balloons to keep baits suspended, but there are many occasions where a cork comes in handy.

These three boxes are how I keep everything organized.  In addition, I have a few more tricks to make life easier while out fishing.  Firstly, we keep a small empty bait bucket out on the deck while we’re fishing.  When we change tackle, or have loose tackle rolling around, we throw it in this bucket.  This stops us from putting it back in the tackle box prior to being cleaned off. At the end of the day, we just hose off and spray down with anti-corrosive, all of the gear in the bucket before putting it away.  Trust me, nothing will rust out your tackle box faster than putting salt covered tackle back in with fresh gear.  We also use pool noodles.  They are incredibly effective, and also inexpensive.  Pick up a pool noodle and cut it lengthwise creating an opening.  Then cut it off in sections to fit any rail that you prefer on your boat.  Slide the noodle over the rail, and then secure it with zip ties.  Now you have created an entire surface that you can simply push hooks that you are not using into.  This keeps them off the deck and avoids you having to put them back in the tackle box.  We also know to use these hooks first before digging new ones out of the tackle box.

These tackle organization tips are fairly simple to follow, and have been greatly successful for me.  I highly recommend trying them out and see if they help you while you’re out on the water. We are heading into fall soon which means water temperatures should start to cool, and our seasonal migrations of pelagic like cobia, kingfish, tripletail and more are on the way!  Get out your gear and get ready for a great fall season of fishing!