Hello all I'm here to share my collection of fishing tackle and supplies with you. A lot of it gets use and I hold a lot of it dearly. Most of my fishing stuff is in my "Man Cave" in the basement of my house. Asides from fishing equipment the rest of the basement contain a mini gym. About 8 years ago I had a deck replaced and kept the wood from it. I made many things but a lot of the wood went to hold my fishing stuff.
The last two days I have went through all my fishing gear. Something that needs to be done every once in awhile. This gives me an idea of what I may need, what I have to get rid of (expired things) and allows for some organization. It's been really cold here as of late so this is something I did with my time inside.
Here's two corner knick-knack shelves I made from the wood from the old deck. Broken and obsolete things don't always have to be disregarded. All the reels displayed have issues that wouldn't be feasible to repair. So they become part of fishing theme for the room. I like the subject matter on the old fish finder(Fish-Lo-K-Tor, haha) which is a late model from the 1950's I believe. I have kept some of the boxes from reels I have bought, I think it's cool to show off the advertisement.
You can't fish with a rod and reel without fishing line. I think there's enough fishing line for every use. I use all the different assortments of line for lead line, ice fishing, pan fishing, lake fishing, river fishing, trolling and few others not mentioned.
Weights are something needed primarily to get your bait down and keep it there. They also come in handy if you need weight at the end of the line to be able to cast further.
I use many different kinds of weight depending on the situation. Fishing in still water the amount of weight used can be little but fishing in water with a lot of current than heavier weights are needed. Even the bottom of a water body determines on what type of weight should be used. Sandy bottoms you can use just about any type of weight. Now a rocky bottom you need certain type of weights to lower your chances of snags. Also I use a few different kind of rigs and each usually requires a different kind of weight.
If you haven't noticed I re-purpose things. I store some of my gear in things such as used coffee containers, candy tins, plastic containers and many other things. Why spend money on storage containers when there is something you can make use of in a different way.
Well we have a chest here and no I didn't catch it fishing a ship wreck. Does it contain hidden treasure? Well to a fisherman it may. Let me share what's inside it.
It's a chest full of weight molds. In all I have around 30 or so. It's fun making your own weights and it saves a lot of money. Typically I have my fishing buddies come over and assist. I have a bunch of melting pots and a small burner in the garage. I make a ton when I do it, usually fill up about 4 empty coffee containers.
I have quite the collections of hooks and most are for fishing for bigger fish like catfish. I never really fool around if I fish a river I will go with bigger hooks. It's difficult to hook up with a big fish on a tiny hook. Same can be said with large hooks on small fish. Bait size dictates hook size. I do have a lot of smaller hooks as well that I use to catch bait fish or smaller fish.
The last photo are of some swivels. Swivels are used to connect the main line to a lead line. Once again I have plenty of these and of numerous sizes. Basically swivel size is determined by how thick or heavy of line you are using. If your fishing for a heavy pig be sure to have a large swivel.
Here we have some fishing spoons. Basically a lure which has a spoon like shape. They are great because the serve as both a lure and weight. My father fished for muskies a lot when he was stationed in the USAF while in Michigan. The spoons on the lid were my father's spoons that got passed to me.
Some more spoons and a few lures. Some of these lures are ones that don't have a place elsewhere. Quite of few of them are my father's lures. I really don't fish with his older lures. My luck I would get snagged on something and loose it. They really have sentimental value and seeing them every once in a awhile brings a smile to my face.
I have a lot lures and artificial baits I have bought. These are all a popular brand named Rapala. These are my absolute favorites and I have spent a lot money collecting them. I keep all these lures in their original box for reference purposes. Sometimes fishing reports and other fisherman mention these by their color and series name so the box tells me that.
I have went overboard on some of these and I admit I have bought some colors in some series that probably won't be used. I purchased them so I have every lure in that particular series, haha. Isn't that what we do with things we collect, especially with things that come in sets? I have tons more of other types of lures, baits, and rigs I use but I could go on for way too long so let's move on to rods and reels.
Alright I have a few rods and reels. I have open faced reels, closed face reels, and bait casters. I use a majority of these for different types of fishing. In all, I have 32 rods and 36 reels. Time to even those off right? Thanks I'll get right on that 馃槉
The above reels are some of my favorite ones. I love me some Abu Garcia round bait casters. I have eight in total and all these were manufactured in Sweden. They also make them in China but those are of lower quality and are available for cheeper. These particular reels are tough and perform extraordinary even though some of them are passing 25 years old.
The first round reel is a chrome edition and is a 6500 model series. I use this reel a lot for channel catfishing on lakes and rivers. I love its appearance, smooth casting and retrieving.
The second round reel is a 7000 model series bait caster. I use this reel a lot on the river to target heavier fish. This is the first and only reel I have bought overseas. I got this one from a vendor inside the base exchange at Ramstein AB, Germany. It's also the only reel that I have a name for, Green Sweed 馃槉
The third reel is also a 7000 model series bait caster. I also use this to target heavier river fish. This one is special because it's the reel I have caught my biggest fish on,a blue catfish.
The last reel I show you is a Johnson series 100B. I have six of these and most of them I bought on eBay like 15 years ago. I have had many smaller closed faced reels I used for pan fishing that were junk and broke quickly. This one is over 60 years old and performs excellent still. It's too bad Johnson stopped making reels, they were quality reels that weren't expensive.
Today a lot of similar reels are made of plastic parts. They just don't last long and are a waste of money in my opinion. The only bad thing about my Johnson reels is trying to find parts for them. I have one that is currently inoperative and I need to search for parts.
I'll wrap this up with what I hold my gear in when I'm gone fishing 馃帲 I have certain bags, cases and back packs I use when going out. You can call this area my pack out area 馃槉 The smaller bags to the right contain all my tied up leaders, rigs, and trolling spinners.
I hope you enjoyed some of my fishing collections. I wish I could of shared more but that would have added to an already long article, haha. If you want to see more just ask I have many more photos.
Take care, stay safe and enjoy the week ahead. Until next time.
