The Tangled Tackle Mess I Lived With for Years, and the Plano Box That Ended It

For the better part of ten years, my tackle storage plan was a soft-sided bag that opened wrong every time and a pile of loose boxes on the floor of my garage. Every time I unhooked a spinner off a snag, it went into a pocket that was already full of stray hooks. My 16-foot aluminum boat had a bench seat that never had room for a tackle tray, because the trays were scattered, three under the bow, one behind the live well, and two more that had fallen between the seat and the gunwale. I spent more fishing time digging for a jig head than I spent fishing.

Then this spring, on a Tuesday that started with a lost walleye and ended with my thumb in a treble hook, I ordered the Plano Guide Series StowAway 4-By Rack System. It is not a fancy piece of gear. It is a rack that holds four 3700 utility boxes and has a clear DuraView lid over the top storage. That top lid is what got my attention. I could finally see what was in the top tray without opening six other boxes. The name StowAway means the whole thing tucks into the bottom of the boat or the back of my 2013 F-150.

The rack rides on the floor of my boat. It is not mounted, not bolted down, not raised up to eye level. I carry it by the handle from the truck to the boat. The handle is simple but strong. In one full season of hauling it down to the dock, bouncing over a couple of wakes, and setting it on the gravel beside the trailer, it held up fine. The four boxes stay seated in the rack, and the latches never popped open on their own. Plano's engineers got the simple things right.

One thing I learned quickly: this rack is not waterproof. It is fine on the floor of a dry boat, but you don't want it sitting in standing water. I keep it up on the seat or in the truck when I am washing out the boat. That is not a fault in a tackle box, just a rule that comes with the design. The DuraView lid is on the top only. The bottom boxes are ordinary 3700 utility boxes with their own lids, and the rack keeps them from sliding around.

I use four 3700 boxes in the rack: one for walleye jigs, one for bass spinners, one for ice lures, one for terminal tackle. The top storage under the DuraView lid holds a digital scale, a hook file, a lip gripper, and a small spool of line. On a typical morning on Mille Lacs, I throw the StowAway into the boat, push it up against the casting deck, and I am ready to fish. No more sorting through a soft bag that has swallowed a jig box whole.

The first time I took it out, my line was wet four minutes after I backed the trailer in. That never happened with a soft bag.

I did not buy this rack to be organized in the garage. I bought it because I kept losing the first hour of real fishing time. A typical day last August went like this: I launched at 6:15, opened the soft bag, and could not find the bag of 1/4-ounce jig heads. I dumped everything onto the bench, found the jig bag at the bottom, then spent another ten minutes untangling a spinner that had hooked itself to a treble. By the time I got the second rod set up, the walleyes had quit biting. That is not fishing. That is housekeeping.

With the StowAway, I open the top lid, and the jig bags are right there under the DuraView. The 3700 boxes snap open and close with latches that still feel tight after a season. I have not lost a single jig box overboard, and I have not had to pick up a spilled tray of ice jigs off the floor of the boat. The rack sits low, so it never blocks my view of the water or my line. It is not at eye level, but I do not need it at eye level. I need it where it is not in the way and I can reach it.

It stays in the boat, which is where it earns its keep. It rides solid on the floor of the F-150, and the handle makes one-handed carry easy. That might not sound like much, but after years of juggling two soft bags and a rod tube, carrying one rack is the difference between a smooth walk down to the water and a circus act.

The only honest complaint is the same one you will see in any review: the rack itself doesn't hold your rods, your net, or your lunch. It solves tackle storage, not all boat storage. I still have a rod holder on the gunwale and a small cooler in the bow. But for the stuff that used to be a mess, the StowAway gave me a place for all of it. I stopped carrying a spare 3700 box loose. Everything that goes fishing with me fits in the rack.

A cold morning in late September sealed it for me. The air was 44 degrees, the lake was flat, and I was in the boat by 6:30. I set the StowAway on the floor, pulled out a 3700 box, and tied on a jig in the dim light because the clear top lid let me find the right bag fast. By the time the sun cleared the trees, I had boated a 19-inch walleye. That is the kind of morning that makes you wonder why you waited years to buy a simple plastic rack.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you that the boxes on the shelf beside your basement stairs are not the problem. The problem is that they are not with you when you need them. Buy the rack, put four good boxes in it, and keep it where you can grab it on the way out the door. The Plano StowAway is not a guarantee that you catch more fish. It is a way to stop wasting the first hour of every trip, and that gives you more time with your line in the water.