What UK Anglers Should Take in Their Fishing Tackle Boxes—A List of Important Tools
When you’re gearing up for the start of fishing season, part of the fun is fitting out your fishing tackle box with all the essentials you might need. Even though you probably won’t forget to take line, bobbers, sinkers, hooks, and leaders, you might forget an essential item, the lack of which can ruin your outing. Here’s a list of some of the items that are necessities for any angler’s tackle box.
Fishing Tackle Boxes – Pliers with a Needle Nose
The first main item you should carry are needle nose pliers. This tool makes it easy to remove hooks from fish. Make sure to select one with an integrated cutter—you’ll be glad you did should you need to take off the end of a hook prior to taking the hook out of the fish. They are also terrific for crimping leaders as well as split shot on your line.
Knife
Pick a strong knife that can be used for many things. I’d recommend a pretty large blade made of stainless steel. A partly serrated blade provides you with maximum usefulness. It should also be rugged enough to fillet or clean a fish. Two fine accessories to look for when choosing a knife include a scaler and hook remover.
File
If you work at it, you can learn to sharpen your hooks and knife with a file. You’ll want a little file shaped like a triangle with an varying coarse exteriors on each side. A whetstone is another option, but these are best left to more advanced fisherman.
Toilet Roll
Let’s be frank – if you need to use the bathroom, nothing works nearly as well. You really don’t need to carry the whole roll. Roll off a decent amount of paper and place it inside a plastic bag. But be sure to take plenty and you’ll probably want to include paper towels or Kleenexes in addition. If nothing else, they make great tinder should you have to build a fire.
Fishing Tackle Boxes – Fingernail Clipper
Many nail clippers already come with their own file which can be used for sharpening hooks. Use the clipper itself for clipping line.
Lighter
It’s hard to know in advance if you’ll need to create a fire for some reason. Lighters are also handy for melting the ends of a rope to avoid fraying and to fix messed up plastic worms.
Fishing Tackle Boxes – First Aid Equipment
The best option is to buy a small, pocket sized kit. At the least, the kit must have antibiotic spray or ointment, and something to dress and clean the wound. Gauze pads and an Ace® bandage are good items to add to the kit. Be sure to carry aspirin or another analgesic as well. Finally, don’t forget the sunscreen.
Insect Spray
Getting eaten up by bugs and insects is a sure-fire way to have a miserable outing, so make sure your tackle box includes some bug spray to keep those pests far, far away.
Easily Portable Snacks
Take something like granola bars or something for quick energy. They are part of a good, healthy lunch—and so are raisins and nuts.
Now you can relax and think about getting your picture taken with that huge fish you’re going to catch!



