Your Dad's tackle box

[Tucson]

What was in it?  If you are in my age category that would put it back in the 50's - 60's.  It was about the size of a dwarfs lunchbox, had one cantilever drawer with about 6 compartments, the inside was coated with a protective layer of rust overlayed by some ratty moth-eaten cork.  There would be about a dozen lures most with propellers or front scoops, always about 5/8 oz, some old snelled hooks, various sinkers of weird design etc.  It also had at least one jitterbug, a daredevil (red and white), a johnson silver minnow, a flatfish and a jar of pork rind from the pleistocene era with the rusty metal cap permanently bonded to the jar.  We have come a long way haven't we?  I've gotten a lot older but when I'm in the boat early in the morning with a rod in my hand, still just a kid.

How do you think you'd make out if you could take all your modern fishing stuff, including boat, back to the 50's?  There would be a lot fewer fisherman, a lot more adult bass and they would all be ignorant of modern techniques.  Man, we'd be fishermen from hell.  "Lemme  tell 'ya what for boy!"  

[jrhennecke]

I can remember dad had a bunch of Rapala minnows and Creme worms.  

[BASS fisherman]

My Dad wasn't a species specific fisherman. He had the same tackle box you described to a "T", and when he opened it, it smelled like a mixture of rust, mildew, and lead.

He mostly had sinkers, hooks, and bobbers.

That's the box behind him.

[Pond Hopper]

Leadheads, twister tails, Mepps, and swimming minnows.  I cannot convince him that big baits catch big fish.  Although with a neck surgery last year chucking a swimbait is not that good on his neck.

[The Rooster]

My dad has upgraded his tacklebox several times over the years, mostly due to us getting him a new one and new lures, but he still has some old old lures in it. Some that are made of wood, very small jointed crankbaits and they have metal diving lips. They don't look very real at all, but he says they used to slay the fish back in the day. He carry's them with him, but he rarely ever uses one, I think he may have used one just once in the last 10 years. He's afraid of losing one. Really though, it doesn't matter what you get for him, he will mostly end up fishing a Panther Martin in a green color. Or a crappie jig spinner. Maybe a Roostertail but only if I start slaying the fish on mine.

He says lures catch fishermen mostly.....the fish eat bugs and worms. Sometimes I wonder if he still believes that when the score is 8 - 0, my lead. We both fish lures exclusively when we go but somehow I always end up way out in front. :'( I wish he could have just one amazing day out on the water, he doesn't get to go fishing that much due to timing, but I get to go a lot more. Even if it was just one big fish he caught, that would make my whole year.

[jrhennecke]

My Dad wasn't a species specific fisherman. He had the same tackle box you described to a "T", and when he opened it, it smelled like a mixture of rust, mildew, and lead.

He mostly had sinkers, hooks, and bobbers.

That's the box behind him.

That is a great picture and I had forgotten about that rusty mildew smell.  I wonder what my son will be fishing with in the coming years while answering this question with. "Dad had a bunch of Yum Dingers and Rat L Traps."

[fishizzle]

Black jitterbug and black hula popper

and that aweful rusty midew smell

[.dsaavedra.]

my dad had a big green three-tier plano box. in the bottom he had three "golden books" pocket guides in the bottom. one was titled "fishes" the next "fishing" and the last "weather" there was also a rag in the bottom. there were a few white perch rigs (wire leader w/ two hooks coming off the sides and a few beads). in the trays on the shelves there were many hooks and there were rock hard dried up pieces of nightcrawler on a few hooks. he had sooooo many lead sinkers it was unbelievable. he had ONE crank bait and it was an original floating rapala F07 in silver. he never caught a fish on it. there were also several inline spinners. he had two weber spoons, one silver (rusty of course) and the other red/white. he caught two bass on the silver one and that was all the bass he had caught till i dragged him out bass fishing 2 years ago. he loves bass fishing now ;D

[Rob G.]

Things have changed a lot.  Heck, I do not even carry a tacklebox for say.  If fishingout of someone else's boat, I take a tacklebag.  In my own boat, I have tens, maybe even a hundred pounds of plastics in their respective packages, sorted by style in gallon ziplocks.  I also have several plano style 3700 size organizers also sorted by style of bait.  Now for a lot of differences between now and then.  Grandpa and Dad always had a couple boxes of little wooden matches, reel wrenches, and reel grease and oil.  Our new reels do require maintenance, but not daily oiling.  A lot of these old oils had odors that stunk up the entire box.  In these boxes are original floating rapalas, pre-rapala floating Heddon baits, brass frog harnesses, Johnson Silverminnows, floating mouse lures, Daredevil spoons, and lots of plugs that I have never tried to identify yet.  I also have many old reels and a couple rods.  Neat stuff Maynard.  

[CJ]

My Dad's tackle box only dates back to early 80s. It featured several worm hooks,bullet weights,a few crankbaits,spinnerbaits,...I guess a little of all the "foundation" lures, for me anyway.

But what I found myself dippin' into the most were his hooks,bullet weights, and his Culprit worms.

Nice thread. Brought back memories!

[Popeye]

Several round tin cans of hooks, sinkers, bobbers, spoons (silver and Daredevil red/white), spinnerbaits (Shysters), Jitterbug or two, several Lazy Ikes, couple of wooden Heddon topwaters, extra spool of line, metal and rope stringers, hook remover, rusted scale, tape measure, pliers, scaling/filet knife, Swiss Army knife with several attachments, matches, box of bandaids, stuff like that AND it all smelled BAD:o) It was a green metal box with three cantelever drawers. I can't recollect the name but it was heavy for me to try and carry.

Thanks for this thread! A real stroll down memory lane.

[Hawghead]

Lots and Lots of plastics, lazy ikes, variety fo crankbaits that he never used.  Hula popper, jitterbug, jar of uncle josh's, variety of hooks , bobbers, weights.  Bagley Bluegill, a Thinfin, humpback minnow.

Filet knife, pliers, and a snakebite kit.  Reading some of these posts is like a trip down memory lane.

[Catt]

I first started paying attention to bass fishing in 1963 and remember my first tackle box as well as my dads; I still have many of those lures both his and mine.

Creek Chub: Jointed Pike & Striper Strike

Fred Arbogast: Jitterbug, Hula Popper, & Hawaiian Wiggler

Fliptail Worms & lizards

Heddon: Dowagiac Minnow & Lucky 13

Hildebrandt: Snagless Sally

South Bend (Luhr Jensen): Best-O-Luck Baby Wounded Minnow, Babe-Oreno, & Bass Oreno

Worden's Helin Flatfish

Yum Yum Worms

[LooksLikeSinbad]

My father-in-law found his old tackle box and gave me these:

[Jeff C.]

very cool pics of the old lures..

the 1st & most of the other posts on this thread are rite on for my dads box !!!

what a trip !!!

;D

Jeff

[VekolBass]

I still have and use my dad's tacklebox which dates from the '60s. Today it is reconciled to being my catfish box with a lot of heavy sinkers, wire leaders and big hooks.

My dad did not fish for bass very much--mainly a catfish, and later a saltwater guy. I do have some of the hula poppers and other topwater baits, which are currently in one of my Plano boxes, and I do use them occasionally. The other big component was Kastmasters, which we used for saltwater--still have those too.

[Other.]

My dad has a very old tackle box from when he was like probably 20 that is sort of forgotten and hidden in the back room. When I open it up there were mostly old rapela's, rebels, and other crank baits that I am not quit sure what company made them.

[YaHoo]

well actually my dads box is ridiculous

i am 16 and he is like 38?

it is loaded with LCs and BPS Xps Lures and just  about everything you can ever desire.

its pretty nice when you can go into his box and tie on a LC sammy or w.e.

until you get it snagged at the bottom and you owe him 24$!

good thing he is my dad and i dont have to pay.

[Raul]

Sad but true, daddy didn 't have no tacklebox ...... dady didn 't feesh at all.  

[slomoe]

I still have and use my dad's tacklebox which dates from the '60s. Today it is reconciled to being my catfish box with a lot of heavy sinkers, wire leaders and big hooks.

My dad did not fish for bass very much--mainly a catfish, and later a saltwater guy. I do have some of the hula poppers and other topwater baits, which are currently in one of my Plano boxes, and I do use them occasionally. The other big component was Kastmasters, which we used for saltwater--still have those too.

sounds just like my dad minus the saltwater. His tacklebox had a few traps, and jerkbaits but the majority of the tackle was on the bottom, heavy weights and big hooks, scale and stringer.

[Olebiker]

Dad's boxes had a bunch of RatLTraps, River Runts, Bayou Boogies, Lazy Ikes, and Heddon Sonics.

[Perfect Hook Set]

The first and still the number one "go-to" lure Original Floater Rapala

The rooster tail

Though is blades were kinda like steps worked very well (if anyone could link me to a site that has these)

Color - 2 colors I remember would be white with black dots white feather and a yellow body with red dots and red feather.

Zoom black and purple rubber worm

These days he just asks for a Rapala or two

One day I was out fishing him with a senko, this day the bite was very slow we caught about 5 or 6 fish in 2 hours.

I offered him a senko and he denied after asking him on 4 different times I gave up and let him stick to the rapala

[TruflShufl]

I cleaned my dad's tackle box out to start forming my own  ;D

He never fished species specific so he pretty much just had hooks and sinkers. I do remember he had one popr that was all banged up.

Still to this day my dad says "You believe all that crap about different lures? If a fish is hungry, he's gonna eat whatever you dangle in front of him!"

[moby bass]

What was in it?  If you are in my age category that would put it back in the 50's - 60's.  It was about the size of a dwarfs lunchbox, had one cantilever drawer with about 6 compartments, the inside was coated with a protective layer of rust overlayed by some ratty moth-eaten cork.  There would be about a dozen lures most with propellers or front scoops, always about 5/8 oz, some old snelled hooks, various sinkers of weird design etc.  It also had at least one jitterbug, a daredevil (red and white), a johnson silver minnow, a flatfish and a jar of pork rind from the pleistocene era with the rusty metal cap permanently bonded to the jar.  We have come a long way haven't we?  I've gotten a lot older but when I'm in the boat early in the morning with a rod in my hand, still just a kid.

How do you think you'd make out if you could take all your modern fishing stuff, including boat, back to the 50's?  There would be a lot fewer fisherman, a lot more adult bass and they would all be ignorant of modern techniques.  Man, we'd be fishermen from hell.  "Lemme  tell 'ya what for boy!"  

When did you peek into my old tacklebox??? ;D

You described it to a tee except it had 2 drawers.  Still had it when

I got reintroduced to fishing.  I have since upgraded, just a bit.  :

[Alpster]

Well, here it is 2008 and many of the baits described in this thread are still in my box.

Jitterbug

Hoola Popper

Original Floating Rapala

Johnson's Silver Minnow

Uncle Josh Pork

Culprit worms

Despite Lucky Craft and GCBY, all these baits still catch fish in a big way. If you get a chance to raid the "old man's" tackle box, you just might find a real bass catcher or two in there. JMHO

Ronnie