Last year about this time, I wrote about having a kit or someway of organizing all the components neccessary to make one’s own crawler harnesses. Sometimes I come up with an idea and it sticks, a lot of times they do not. Some call it a sickness, but if I can come up with a better way of doing something, I will do it.
Last year I used a reel case to store everything from the line, hooks, beads, clevises, blades, tools and STUFF. This year, well I started buying early, and I had a few more blades to work with than last year. Along with more hooks, more beads and more STUFF. Now, the reel case idea is not going to be scrapped, instead it will hit the road with me on fishing trips. Because the case is padded and soft sided, it should be a lot easier to wrangle around instead of my new contraption.
What I came up with instead is this, an old style Plano Tackle Box. I went the plano trays and gear bags long ago and abandoned these archaic type storage systems. One reason, you become limited with what you can put in there, secondly……I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF. What would I leave behind, and you know when I would get there, whatever was still back at the house, is exactly being used to catch the fish that new area. I hate the whole “Catch 22″ scenario.
This new case/system has pretty much what I am looking for, right now anyways. Who knows, next year I just might find something better. By lifting the top section, you can see where most of the gear is going to be stored, minus the blades.
You can see the floats, and different style trays that I use for hooks, clevises, my line snips (remember the small wire cutters?), and head cement that I use for the knots. Also, have lots of room for my beads. Here is a good example of being organized, this tray has all my 5 mm beads that I use for my size 3 and 4 blades.
The bottom section holds 3 Plano size 3700 tackle trays. Sometimes they are advertized as 370’s, but they are the same tray, and they have enough dividers to make 24 separate compartments.
I have some store bought blades, and some that I have painted myself like these silver, copper and gold diamond cut blades. I also have made blades out of plastic and used WTP tape, commonly referred to as Witch or Witchcraft Tape. The strips come in dfferent styles and colors and are a great tool for any fisherman who likes to make their lures their own by tweeking them at home. Thats a topic for another blog though.
If you have all the components already, or you just want to get into building your own harnesses, this is an excellent way to store your gear. You might even have a better idea, all ears here. Have fun.
side note. all the blades are kept in their original packaging or small 3 x 5″ plastic bags to prevent them from getting chipped while moving the tackle box around.