Is that a bait shop in your pocket?

While wandering around Meijer recently (OK, maybe returning bottles and buying more beer...) it occurred to me that they might have some compact tackle solutions for all the hardware of steelhead and salmon fishing. My vest and bag had become a collecting point for 87 little stupid zip-seal bags, each containing some piece of needed hardware. And it seemed like many times the right items were never in my vest - necessitating a jury rig, or a hike back to the truck.

Sure enough, $3.99 buys me a perfect little Plano pocket tacklebox. Slightly larger than a fly box, so it fits in my vest. Two-sided with lots of compartments small and large.

As this was the designated weekend for getting my act together for time on the river, I was eager to see how it worked. In a word: PERFECT! On one side snap swivels in #10-#14, micro swivels, glass beads for sliding slinky rigs, and indicators.

On the other side, weight of all flavors - slinkys in several sizes, an assortment of split shot, and pencil weights. And to top it off, even had a wrist lanyard floating around in the bag from some pliers. Somehow it's easy to imagine dropping the whole thing in the river on a cold snowy day. This will at least add some extra insurance against that occurrence.

This will be the perfect "grab it and go" solution. One box, all the stuff. The other advantage is that it's easier to see what I have in-stock in case I need to pick up more of an item.

Not bad for 4 bucks!

-Sean-