Which carp fishing tackle box is best?

Which carp fishing tackle box is best?

 Anyone who goes carp fishing will have loads of items of terminal tackle which they need to store and transport to and from the lake.

Depending on how tidy and well organised you are, that can literally be anything from a carrier bag to a box where every item in it is labelled, and most anglers fit somewhere inbetween these two extremes.

No one solution will suit all anglers, or even all the situations they find themselves in when fishing, and that means that there are plenty of different options available when it comes to keeping all your rig bits together, so that you can find and use them when you want to.

Pouches for fishing terminal tackle

One option which some anglers will find sufficient for their needs – including some of the Korda Mindset anglers – is the use of some sort of zipped pouch, such as the Korda Compac EVA ones, which all your packets of tackle can be stored in.

These pouches are available in a variety of different sizes to accommodate everything from small items such as packs of hooks, right up to larger things such as Spombs and marker floats.

The fact that EVA is waterproof, including the welded seams, and pouches such as the Compac ones are zipped, means that all your tackle bits can be kept together and will stay dry when out on the bank, and provide comfortable carrying and storage for it all.

This solution will be especially appealing for those who just like to chuck everything they need in one place, and aren’t too bothered about how well organised it is or whether they need to rummage through other stuff to find what they’re looking for.

Storing your fishing tackle in these pouches is also useful if you do lots of different types of fishing, where you will need different terminal tackle, and can just grab the EVA pouch which has the correct bits for where you are going.

The use of the zipped Korda Compac Pockets helps to make it easier to organise things within one of the EVA pouches, if that is the route you go down, as they come in three different sizes and so you could put all your hooks in one, or all your spools of hook link material.

Most anglers though prefer something that can be organised better and makes it easier for them to quickly find what they need.

Hybrid tackle box and pouch

If you’re a fan of having all your tackle in some sort of zipped pouch but also want to be able to organise it more than just throwing everything in one compartment, then the Compac Organiser is well worth a look.

This large EVA pouch is built in the same way as all the other EVA pouches in the Korda Compac range, and is waterproof, but with the addition of a carry handle as well, to make it easier to move around and also to get it out of your fishing carryall or rucksack.

As well as the large main compartment that can hold all sorts of items, including marker floats, Funnelweb PVA, and similar sized items. The Korda Compac Organiser also has a special lift out tray that sits neatly on top and which has been designed specifically so it is just the right size for storing things such as Kamakura hook boxes and hook link material spools within the compartments, plus our Accessory Boxes and other smaller tackle items.

It is useful either as your main tackle box, or somewhere to keep spares or gear that is used for very specific situations – such as heavier stuff for fishing abroad – and which you don’t need to carry with you on the bank all of the time.

Tackle boxes for storing smaller items and rigs

These days there are smaller tackle boxes specifically designed for storing all sorts of carp terminal tackle, whether that be rigs, leaders, or even sharpened hooks.

Korda produce the very popular ‘Safe’ range, which has grown from the original RigSafe which was designed to securely store your spare rigs to prevent them from getting damaged – including making sure that hook points stayed sharp – and now includes purpose designed boxes for other bits of tackle, such has been their popularity and demand for other products in this family, including a Tackle Safe specifically for storing terminal tackle in a very compact box.

The original clam shell design hard plastic boxes, which are fastened magnetically, which were designed purely for storing your rigs, has now grown to include a Rig Safe Combi that can be used for storing made up rigs on one side, and smaller rig components, such as hair stops and kickers, in flip top compartments on the other side of the ‘clam shell’.

It also includes boxes for more specialist rigs such as chods, which can all be stored in a Chod Safe, which ensures that they stay curved at the right angle – this box even includes an integrated tool to help you to steam them perfectly curved every time. 

Or if zigs are more your style of fishing then the hard plastic Zig Box can be used to store plenty of different length ones, already tied up and with different coloured hook baits on them, and stored on EVA foam spools to prevent them ending up in a tangled mess, so whenever you need them or want to switch between different zigs, it is very quick and easy to do so.

It was logical to add other tackle storage solutions to the range for items closely associated with rigs and which also needed storing and transporting securely, and with so many anglers now spending time sharpening their own hooks by hand, it made sense to add a Hook Safe to store them all in so the points can’t get damaged prior to being used. Plus of course Boom Tubes, in two different lengths and with caps at either end, which can store all the spare rig booms that you are ever going to need during a session.

Leaders, whether they be leadcore, fused, or lengths of fluorocarbon such as IQ, can easily end up a tangled mess if stored loose inside your fishing rucksack/carryall, or within an EVA pouch or similar, which led to the introduction of two different sizes of Leader Safe, which will house leaders complete with components such as Hybrid Lead Clips or a Heli-Safe System attached to them. These neat boxes mean that leaders can easily be wound onto the inner reel when not needed, or simply tied to the end of your main line and unwound from it when required.

What also became apparent was that some anglers don’t take loads of items of terminal tackle with them, especially if they use a couple of different types of rigs for most of their fishing, and tend to only carry the terminal components that they actually need for the session.

These type of anglers don’t want a large box with loads of space in it, but do want something that allows them to organise things so they can quickly find and access what they need, especially when they first arrive at the lake and want to get their rods out and fishing straight away.

So that was how the Tackle Safe came about, as it can store all sorts of things, including hook link material, packets of hooks, and rig tools, and with the addition of various smaller flip top compartments for smaller tackle items such as swivels, hook beads, tail rubbers, Heli-Safe beads, and similar. There is even a Compac EVA pouch that is made for it and is just the right size for keeping it, plus some other larger items of tackle, all together in one place.

For smaller items, the Compac Accessory Boxes, with a clear lid so it is easy to identify the contents, plus a removable internal divider, are also a popular choice when it comes to helping to organise all your gear.

Traditional tackle boxes

There are plenty of carp anglers though who still favour a more traditional style of tackle box – being an actual box, with a lid, and lots of compartments within it.

So that is exactly what Korda produced with the original Tackle Box, making sure that not only did it have plenty of space for all the different rig components you might need, but could also be laid out how the angler wanted it to be, and made it easy to quickly find what you were looking for, as well as there being no chance of all your tackle spilling out during transit or on the bank.

Every angler likes to organise their tackle differently, so the Tackle Box features removeable dividers and a spacious main compartment, allowing you to personalise it and store the tackle items that are important to you, such as rig tools, hook link materials, and rig components in packets.

You can also store these rig components loose as well thanks to the numerous flip top and different sized compartments within the lid of the box, which are translucent to make it easy for you to locate and open the one that you want.

There is even space to store a few rigs within it, via an integrated rig board that features a special machined, grooved bar to hold the hook in place and a special magnet for the other end of the hook links.

With the amount of gear some anglers take with them these days though, or for longer trips, such as abroad where you don’t know exactly how you will be fishing and take extra tackle with you ‘just in case’, there was demand for an even bigger tackle box, and the Tackle Box Large was added to the range to cover that.

In terms of the design it is very similar to the original, just with more space in the main compartment and a different layout in the lid, with 25 compartments, and which incorporates a proper rig board, like that found within a RigSafe and which can store up to 56 rigs.

One end of this rig board has the conventional aluminium bar that is found in the Tackle Safes, and which holds hooks securely in place as long as the other end of the rig is pinned to the board. But the other end of the rig board has something new and clever, and which was actually designed by Damian Clarke for use in his own RigSafe prior to being incorporated into this Tackle Box – that being a bar which is designed for use with spinner swivels and allows you to easily store all your Ronnie/spinner rigs neatly and without the hook attached. It even has a high vis ruler alongside it to help you tie them to just the right length every time.

This is basically a tackle box with a proper built in rig storage section, and which should be plenty big enough to take all of the tackle you could ever want on a carp fishing session.  

With both of these tackle boxes you can further organise them via four different sizes of Mini Boxes – 6, 8, 9, or 16 compartments – and which will fit within the main section of either size of tackle box.

These handy little magnetically fastened box also have lots of other uses, and for those who favour some sort of tackle pouch with everything thrown in, they allow you to organise that better.

Or even just something to put in your pocket, containing a few extra hooks, swivels and similar, in situations where you want the minimal amount of gear with you, such as stalking.

If you're on a bit more of a budget then the Basic Tackle Box is well worth a look, as although it isn't quite as versatile with removable dividers and has traditional latches rather than magnetic fasteners, it is still a great tackle box.

It has plenty of space for all your rig bits, including smaller items in latched compartments inside the lid, plus it has a built in rig board as well. It offers brilliant value for money.

Which fishing tackle box should I choose?

Given all of the options available these days when it comes to storing terminal tackle, it really does all come down to personal choice, or for some anglers they will have their tackle stored in several different ways and what they take with them will depend on the length of the session.

For an overnight trip, where you know what rigs you are going to be using and already have some tied up and ready to go, what you take with you is probably going to be very different to if you were going to France for a week.

Whichever you choose and which best suits you, the most important thing is that you have everything with you which is actually essential – you won’t get far without a baiting needle for instance – and can find it when you need it.