Reviewed by Capt. Mike Schoonveld
I can’t remember the last time I was on a boat that didn’t have a plastic, five-gallon bucket on board. There are two buckets on my boat every trip, each one serving as a multi-tasker used as a trash container, fish bucket, minnow bucket, wash bucket, clothing container, seat, sea anchor and no doubt they’ve served other uses in the past.
Neither of my buckets are particularly old since mine, like the ones on your boat, were originally designed to be disposable containers, delivering paint, pickles, driveway sealer or a thousand other consumer products, five gallons at a time. They did their job admirably for the initial user and serve me on my boat for a time until they split down the side, the bottom cracks, the wire bale breaks off or something else happens to render them one more disposable plastic item heading to the recycler or a landfill.
Though they do the job for which they are made very well, they are less than perfect for all the jobs Great Lakes fishermen put them to on their boats. The wire handles never break loose at a good time. Side or bottom cracks are usually found in on-the-job situations. How many fingernails have you broken trying to lift a bucket by the ridges on the outside of the container or when tipping the bucket to pour out the contents and attempting a finger-hold on the tiny flange around the bucket’s bottom?
The guys at Huck Performance Buckets recognized both the handy aspect of a good five-gallon bucket and its shortcomings. They’ve created the ultimate five gallon bucket. It’s thicker, stronger, with Vibrum rubber finger grips on the side, rubber feet on the bottom and bale-type handles that won’t break when you put five gallons of anything on the inside. They come in a variety of colors and can be customized with the name of your boat or any other logo (such as Great Lakes Angler, shown here). Check them out at www. thehuckbucket.com.
FISHING TOYS 