Organizing Gear

[Striperjim]

How do you organize your Gear?

[jimi4290]

just about all of the above....the most used stuff i got fits into a ziplock baggie...20# floro leaders with a 4/0 octopus hook.....i friggin love throwing eels....i pack my plug bag before every trip with various creations of stuff hanging on the wall...in buckets..scattered all over the friggin workshop...i try to bring a variety of stuff to try some new things if the mood suits it. i will swap out stuff from trip to trip...i can only imagine the crap you guys that have been at it for many years got kickin around..i know im too young to have all the stuff that i do...it its time to clean..the basement is starting to get messy.

[JakeF]

Leaders, hook rigs, hooks, swivles, sinkers, soft plastics, jigs, etc. all go in a Cabela's Tackle Utility Binder which is is awesome and usually all I bring with me besides my eel bucket.

Plugs, metals, heavier jigs, etc. go in plastic utility boxes w/dividers in the garage and I'll pick out a few for each trip.

[StormCaster]

Several of the above, but my fishing stuff is basically left in one room in a disarray.

[Sudsy]

My garage and home office look like a tackle shop exploded

[MasterBaiter]

Originally Posted by Sudsy

My garage and home office look like a tackle shop exploded

HAHA

[FLOATSUM]

Well, let's see:
Upstairs
Cellar
Back room
Kitchen
Livingroom
Shed
Truck
Son-inlaws place
house in Ct.
In a white bucket (in one of the above lacations)
in fly boxes (some been missing for awhile)
some in the canoe right now, that's in the truck, that's in the yard, that's in Green Hill.

I'd say I'm fairly welll organized along the New England Seaboard.

[MASSfisher0311]

I keep most of my tackle on the boat in my big tackle box.Here I keep what I wouldn't need from shore such as big plugs for trolling, tubes, etc. I try to keep as much "boat stuff" on the boat as I can. No point in keeping a tube off the boat only to forget to bring it the next day. I keep all my other tackle in a plug bag that I bought for 10 bucks at walmart. It works great so far and comes with 4 plastic dividers. In the bag pouches I keep all my necessary leaders in plastic ziplocks. I keep pliers and other bulky thinks in the other side pockets. In my first plastic divider I keep terminal gear: Snaps, swivels, fishfinder rigs, and even hooks of all sizes. In the next one I have an assortment of sluggos and Fin-S soft baits (white, pink, mackeral colored, and black with a white bottom). In the next divider I keep all of my weights: 1 oz. 2 oz. and 3 oz. I also keep pyramid sinkers in here with my jigheads and bucktails. In my final container I keep a basic selection of plugs: My topwater skitter pop, my "midwater" rebel windcheater, and soem other plug (I forget which one). In keep my storm shads (pearl colored, bunker colored, and mackeral colored) in the original pouches in the side pocket. Whenever I go out on the boat I just bring that bag along and I'm good to go.

[Roccus]

I'll start in the garage,
above the rafters,resting on them are 50+ assorted rods and reels, Ranging from fresh water ultra lights to stand up 80lb class rods and reels to bent butt 130 class (4 of them)and a bunch of stuff in between, there are fly rods, mooching rods, down rigger rods/reels fresh and salt water lead core trolling rods(and reels) as well as fresh water bass casting gear.
Against one wall, is a stack of coolers,two bait coolers, one fish cooler and one to be used for food.....
Next to the coolers is a yellow bucket , the lip of the bucket has about two dozen slits in it, this holds my SPARE cod jigs and weights,next to that bucket is a white bucket, it contains bucktail jigs of several styles and sizes that have been poured and painted but have not yet been tied. In the corner is my icefishing sled (full of gear)my portable shanty and assorted bait buckets.Undernieth the buckets and sled are 3 fish boxes, one contains a 100' gill net for pogies, one has a 100' herring gill net, the other has a 8' and a 10' cast net in them.
to the basement:Hanging over head in a corner are 24 "working " rods, these are the ones I use daily(or might use) what is hanging there rotates with the season, early in the season, they might have fresh water rods, fly rods, surf rods and cod gear, as the season progersses, Striper gear replaces cod gear ( that not goes up on the rafters in the garage) light trout rods are replaced by tuna gear....
Next to the rod racks are a pair of wires that run half the length of the basement, these wires contain more plugs than I could use in a lifetime, my last rough count was approx 500.In a corner, at the end of the wires is the repair rack ( an old clothes drying rack) when I have a wounded unit or a proto type plug,or they just need new hooks, they go on the rack. Above them hangs two pairs of waders
Directly accross from the plugs, is a series of shelves, there are a half dozen hard side tackle boxes( all labeled as to contents), some hold tuna gear, some hold bottom gear, some hold trout and salmon gear, some are for bass fishing gear, and one is for taking the little guys fishing, it contains a little of evrything.
On several of the shelves are soft sided tackle boxes, one of these is a bottom fish bag, it contains Jigs,weights hooks, assorted swivels and snaps ,leader material, pliars, hook out, fillet knife and palstic bags and a filet glove and rag.

The other bags all hold plugs, all sorted by type in plastic cases, for instance, one bag has rebels, bombers yozuri style plugs, another has only surface poppers, another has surface swimmers etc., one bag holds soft plastics and jigs, there is a small surf bag that can go on a belt, this one stays empty and is stocked each trip, when the trip is over the plugs are rinsed and dried and "restocked" in their respective bags.
I have one big bag that remains empty and is used as my travel bag, it can quickly be stocked for a trip by simply taking cases from each of the plug or bottom bags or tackle boxes to make up a bag to cover each scenario I might come accross....

The boat: under the console I keep a large plano "guides box" it has cases of all the style hooks I use, I keep ballons, elastic bands, dental floss, electrical tape, sinkers, leader material, knives, spring scale,pliars, sabiki rigs, mackerel jigs, pogie snatchers, tied sliding hook rigs and and assortment of snaps and swivels, as well as a small lighter, an assortment of rod tip tops and tip top cement.

On the console, I have an index card holder, I store up to 3 dozen pre tied leaders, individualy stored in zip lock bags, a small package of eel hooks ( I buy in bulk 1000 at a time and repackage) as well as a pair of head lamps and a small flash light, to the left of that sits the bug spray, to the right a spare eel rag.
In front of the console is a action packer, in it is a half dozen cases containing, plugs, soft plastics and jigs, the compartment is sectioned off, on the starvoard side, I have several spols of various sizes of leader material and another "master" bag of hooks, I also keep a spare fuel filter, more bug spray, spare rags, lime scented hand soap and paper towels , charts and log,, batteries for my lights and life vests and a mustang survival suit in here as well.

There are things I know I have left out, things like the "line" shelf in the basement where I keep the bulk spools of line I buy, also the buckets of misc. crap "to be reparied latter" that contain everthing from ice fishing traps to old plugs to fishing reels....those things are NOT orginized!

The 'coise( Mrs Roc) says I'm anal... I have no Idea where she gets that Idea!

[jimi4290]

....a bit too organized?.....nah.....you just have a lot of stuff to keep track of...

[smulax]

I have fishing stuff all over the place. rafters, shed,workshop,boat, truck. I even built two large cabinets to keep it organized. It still ends up everywhere.

[MASSfisher0311]

how do you guys organize hooks and leaders....other than plastic bags? I say a hok and leader holder today at sports authority

[Roccus]

bulk hooks are kept in large plastic compartmented cases, keeping pre made leaders, sigularly in plastic bags are far superior to anything you can buy..... try sticking one of those leader holding contraptions in your waders pocket or on the console of your boat.... especialy at night.

[jimi4290]

roc's right about the bags...they fit just right in my wader pouch...less gear strapped to your body the better..i dont like things in my way...

[MASSfisher0311]

thats what ive been doing lately...putting them in individual badgs...the problem was that i had so many different hooks....live bait....cirlcle......bait holder....along with different hook sizes.

now i only bring a select few type of hooks with me and keep the others tucked away somewhere