AN ANGLERS BEST FRIEND
Like a briefcase, it means business. Everything depends on the tackle box. With it, there is nothing that lives in the water that cannot be captured, no conditions that will surprise or endanger, no circumstance that will result in a return to shore. That serious, yet also that much fun.
When simple things remained simple, your tackle box was pure metal (in the traditional sense) with a metal hasp. Your stringer was made of metal. Your scale was a metal hook and spring. Hell, even your rod and line were sometimes metal. The most popular lures were spoons and spinners. Fishing involved testing your metal.
Modern plastics last forever but break after a year or so of abuse/use. Sure, it saves you weight on your float plane trip, yet tackle boxes do not seem to be getting smaller. From OG to new-school, the sizing difference is like the equivalent of a shot glass to a Super Big Gulp. And back in the day, your tackle box would also hold all the necessities for a weekend in the wilderness: an extra pair of gitch and a pound of butter.
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
There was a time when there were only so many lures to buy. They mostly came in red and white, some with real bucktail, and names like the River Runt or Canadian Wiggler or Five-of-Diamonds. Tackle boxes held these basic lures and nothing else, no WiFi hub, or built-in selfie stick, no circuit board, no proprietary algorithm that decides the best lure for you. All elegant utility and function in a small package.
The tackle box is your support system with something old, something new, something borrowed, something to hold booze. That hot lure that is boating fish after fish will attract envious glares and sticky fingers, and so unauthorized travel between tackle boxes is not uncommon. But if the only thing you catch is a body part with a treble hook, well sir, that is when the numbing liquids come in handy. The tackle box provides.
Herein, a system of organization shows it worth. A tackle box can be arranged by colour, by target species, by lure type, or by whatever floats your boat. And you might change this approach on a regular basis, because we are suckers for the details and a bit obsessive. The system combats that familiar cross between a rat’s nest and dog’ breakfast that will put you in knots.
Speaking of which, there still is a heap of tackle boxes in the boathouse that serves as a time capsule to when my children learned that hooks are sharp and knives are sharper. In handwriting that shows their age, the kids and cousins’ names are printed all over to claim their take. Jammed with lures, often pure eye candy, they traded and organized as much as they fished. And they graduated to something more serious, yet the tackle box remains.
When I got a new Plano Over/Under, my father was more than happy to upgrade to my old Plano 757. Not that one needs to keep track, but there was a period where he marked trophies caught on the top of his tackle box. In his pencil scrawl still remain the lake names like Gunisao, Bolton, Moak, and Knife. Measurements for northern pike at 44 ½”, 42 ½”, 43”, 48”, and 42”. Measurements for walleye at 28 ½”, 28”, 29”, and my favourite: “John Jr. – 32 ¾” 5/00”.
How many Beaks Walleye Buster stickers are still out there? My tackle box documents the retail evolution from Payless Fishing Tackle through Sydney I. Robinson. The Sport OV stickers given to teenage boys was sorta like shooting fish in a barrel (or keg). To think that one day, I could grow up to have a beer belly, makes me thirsty, and when that happens, I just say OV, OV, oh yeah, I just say OV.
The tackle box is the grown-up tickle trunk. It says something about who you become when you are fishing. We all have jobs to do, but on or around the water you can take a break from being that person and explore where your imagination leads. Open to those possibilities and at the ready. Put your feet up on your tackle box and take a load off.
Chloe Brown is a Winnipeg-based artist and graphic designer whose work has appeared in print, films and video games.