by Rick Lawrence, June 07, 2018

If you’re a serious Bass, Pike or Musky fisherman the one thing you don’t want to do it is have to hunt through your whole tackle box looking for a lure or bait you want. I’m going to show you guys how I keep my tackle organized that makes a huge difference in the amount of time it takes to find the right baits.

First off the best way to store Bass tackle is in the clear plastic boxes that are stored in a soft side box. I also have a separate box that I keep all my Pike and Musky gear in. I use a system for storing my tackle. First off I put a rubber band or a piece of surgical tubing on all my baits to control the hooks and keep them from tangling.

I don’t put more than 2 or 3 baits per slot max and fit the slot to the bait as best you can. The smaller the slot is, the less the bait moves around and gets scratched or marred. Keep the bait in the box it came in if they aren’t too much of a pain as that keeps them in better shape and with fewer scratches.

Also put a rust inhibitor in every box to keep your hooks from rusting and staining the baits. I first let my baits air dry on the rim of a cut off 5 gal. bucket before I put them away, plus it makes a handy place to keep the baits you are using for the day if you switch up a lot like I do. Just cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket big enough to get the pedestal through.


Last and most important is how I label my boxes. I write on the end of each box what type of lures it contains. I put all my hard topwater baits in one box and work my way deeper in the water column with the different diving depth of the baits. So the next box is all floater-diver Rapala minnow baits. Then shallow running crankbaits and so on till you get to the deep diving cranks and last baits that work on the bottom like jigs and such.

I group like baits together and write on the lid of the box as much info as I can. If I know the name of the bait and company that makes it I put that in but I also put how deep the bait might run. If it is a floater diver, suspending bait or a sinking bait and last if it has a built in rattle or not.

The more info you have about the bait the better and the easier it will be for you to pick out baits and find the particular bait you are looking for. I do the same basic thing with all my soft baits as well in a different soft sided tackle box.

Hope this will increase the time you spend actually fishing and cut down on the time you are searching for a lure.