Reviewed by CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD
The best way I’ve found to keep some semblance of order with all my lures and other tackle is to use Plano Stowaway boxes. I have dozens of them and several different “systems,” as Plano calls them, to organize the organizers.
When I’m heading for early season cohos, I have a box labeled coho-cranks – mostly shallow diving, orange colored Shad Raps, ThinFish and others. Another box has stickbaits; another small flies. I also have a carrying case these three boxes fit into quite securely. By mid-summer those Stowaways are stowed in my garage, replaced Skamania lures, magnum spoons or whatever the “lures of the day” I expect to use. I’m sure many Great Lakes anglers use Stowaway boxes similarly.
If there’s one drawback to the Stowaways when they are stowed, is if they were put away with any water or moisture in them – a wet fly, a dripping crankbait or a bit of rain or spray that got in when the box was opened, the moisture is trapped and it won’t be long until the moisture plus any steel hooks or other steel objects inside will start to rust.
The plastic “engineers” (or maybe they are chemists) at Plano found a way to formulate a rust inhibiting chemical into the plastic. They call it Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor. It’s not the total answer to this problem. It’s still advisable to make sure the boxes are bone dry when stowed with lures, hooks or other tackle, but with the VCI rust and corrosion takes five times longer to work its evil.
When you are in need of some new Stowaways, switch to the Rust Restrictor boxes. They cost a bit more than the regular ones, but if you save one lure from ruin, the slight extra expense is repaid. In fact, if you save two lures from ruin, it’s worth just switching all your Stowaways to the Rust Restrictor models.
RR-Stows come in the normal sizes – 3500 are the small ones, 3600 are the mediums and 3700 are the large and they come in thin, regular and deep sizes, as well. These boxes are available online at http://www.planomolding.com as well as at many other online and retail outlets.
FISHING TOYS 