Building a Tackle Box

When it comes to fishing, I appreciate simplicity and preparedness.  I like to have all of my flies in one place and ready to go when I get a chance to hit the water for an hour or for a weekend.  I like to grab my Rubbermaid container (which houses all of my fly boxes), throw it in the back of my truck, and head towards the water.  In my Rubbermaid, I have my larger boxes for bigger flies, a raincoat, a pack for boxes, strike indicators, tippet, and a small red tackle box that houses my boxes of smaller flies.  I have carp, gar, trout, bass, bluegill, and even some saltwater flies.  I don't know why I would need the saltwater flies, but I own some and they stay in the same place as all the others so I don't ever lose them and so they are there when I need them.  I would rather have a fly and not need it, than need a fly and not have it.

I am also a little sentimental when it comes to fishing as well.  For instance, the red tacklebox that I mentioned before belonged to a grandpa who meant a great deal to me.  With that in mind, I have set out to apply some sentimentality to a little project while hopefully improving my preparedness as well.  

My father-in-law recently gave me a couple of tackle boxes that belonged to him.  I immediately knew hat I did not want to have them collect dust in a corner of my garage, but didn't know what to do with them at first either.  I like tackle boxes because they remind me of my youth and there is just something about the feel of simplicity when it is in your hands.  Most tackle boxes have limited space available so you had better put lures/flies in them that can work in a variety of situations and ones you have a lot of faith in.

Then one day, it dawned on me; I could take one of the boxes (a simple, plastic Plano box) and turn it into the ultimate grab and go fly box when I have a chance to fish for bass and bluegill at some local lakes/ponds.  I decided to put all of my go-to and favorite flies in the box so I can simply grab it on my way out the door and be in good shape.  I also decided that most tackle boxes are not used to organize flies so it would be a unique project in that sense.  This was only reinforced when I googled "Bass Fly Fishing Tackle Box" and essentially got no results.  This only increased my drive and resolve.

So then I had to decide, what does my box NEED.  Like I mentioned before, it should only have the essentials and be void of "fluff".  This was a more difficult task to undertake than I thought and I actually took about 3 days to mull over the necessities and comprised the following list.  Here was what I cam up with and pictured below is how things actually turned out.

Must Haves:
Strike Indicators
Tippet (I don't use tapered leader)
John Deere mini jigs
Braves
Mice
Wooly Buggers
Conehead Madonnas
Goblins
Poppers
Gurglers
Stringer
Nailclippers
Hemostats

So there it is, there is my Bass/Bluegill tacklevbox for my local ponds and lakes.  I would love to hear your suggestions in terms of things that I have possibly overlooked or omitted.  I am also kicking around a few ideas for a giveaway to celebrate the one year anniversary of this blog and would like to know if something like this would be a good idea to give away.  Feel free to comment below and I hope to hear from you.