Picture Post: Old Tackle Boxes, Part 4: A Few More Odds And Ends

This one's been badly delayed for a few reasons, but it's time to get going on this.

I've had these pictures ready to go since early September 2023, but between my usual poor way of organizing things and having quite a lot come up since then, I'm only just now getting around to doing anything with them. Since it has been so long, I'm sure I'm missing more than a few things here, so I'll do the best I can.

There were a couple boxes I was working with this time around, one big, one small:

It's been awhile since I took the pictures, so I'm going to venture a guess and say that about half these things came from each of the boxes. However, the only one I got a picture of while open was the green one, so here's that:

The things I'm most sure came from that one include these two scales:

They're Zebco De-Liars, which are, if memory serves, good tools for the intended job. When I buy new rods and reels, Zebco is the brand I tend to go with most often because I know they're good for the price. At the same time, the bigger one says it can handle up to 28 pounds, but given the relative size of the thing, I'm not sure how eager I'd be to test that. I'm sure I've at least come close to catching fish almost that big over the years, but given how large fish that weigh that much tend to be, I'm not sure I'd be able to hold the thing high enough to get an accurate reading from it.

I'm also pretty sure this collection of hooks with leads on them came from that same box:

That's two sides of the same thing, just with different sizes of hooks. The way I grew up fishing, the bigger ones were most often used with nightcrawlers in the summer, and maybe smelt in the winter, with the smaller ones more often used year-round with minnows and smaller bait.

Here's another bag of spinners that I may have shown off before:

Might go through these at some point, just to see what's there and what I want to keep. One I'm a little more sure is going is this long boy:

I'm not sure what I'd catch with that or if I'd be able to clean it even if I managed it. I never really got the hang of cleaning anything other than bullheads. More on that another time, though.

The last two things I'm pretty sure are from that first box are this bottle opener and set of bells that go on tips of fishing poles:

The bottle opener should be self explanatory. The bells were, I believe, mostly for night fishing, since they'd jingle when the pole moved as a result of getting a bite. That was the idea, anyway, but I'm not sure how well that actually worked.

The rest of these came from the one I didn't photograph opened. This first one I'm assuming was meant as a minnow scoop:

From here on, these will be something of a demonstration of how I got to be such a good one for repurposing various containers for things. For example, this tin of Sucrets lozenges:

If you've followed me on social media for long, you're probably familiar with my making Not What It Looks Like Theater jokes, and this could qualify as just such an instance. Why? Well...:

I'm sure these lures would do something for throat irritations, but I doubt there would be much soothing or relief from the experience. Seriously, though, it's a good, sturdy metal container that's held up very well for a long time, which is why whichever grandfather, I'm guessing, repurposed it as a tackle container probably did so.

The good news is that this Band-Aid can says what's really in it:

My dad used it for lead sinkers, which was what was still in it when I took the picture. Before that, though, it looks like my Grandpa Fat had daredevils in it, since it looks like his handwriting in brown there.

I'm going to wrap up with this little canister that used to have something called Doan's Pills in it:

Based on the label, I do believe these were originally what they might have called “water pills” in some sense. I know my dad had kidney issues, and am pretty sure at least one of his parents did, too. From what I've learned from my own doctoring in recent years, I'm certainly at risk, too. As for what's actually in the thing now, it's splitshots, which are little weights that can be crimped around fishing line to add small amounts of additional weight as needed.

From here, I'm planning on having more of these coming soon, but it'll likely be after the first of the year before it comes along. I still have some sorting and photography to do, so it's going to be awhile.

Until then, thanks for reading and coming along on this little adventure with me.