Cook's Tackle Systems | Product Reviews

Cooks Go-To Tackle Storage System is a gem of product even for the most organized individuals - By Brian Day

Organization is Critical - By Ellis Kirby, Honey Hole Magazine, Inc

It seems as though after every fishing expedition we all systematically wind up with piles and piles of discarded products, tangled together with unwanted colors bleeding all over our expensive baits, which eventually wind up in the trash. Soft plastics eating away at our crankbaits and spinnerbait hooks and skirts destroyed from drying improperly in the midst of the pile.

The next time that you're at a boat ramp, just casually walk by and look in the bottom of other anglers boats and they all seem to look the same. A MESS! With the cost of lures and other products on board our boats now days this can get very costly in a hurry.

In the heat of the moment we change baits and presentations as quickly as we change our minds and at the end of the day we have a very big, tangled and discarded mess in the bottom of our boats. If one were to actually add up the cost in that pile then we could all buy one of the neatest products out on the market today, The "Go To" Tackle Storage System by Cooks Tackle. This is the neatest tackle organizing system I've ever seen and can be installed in any boat in a matter of minutes.

One system is specifically designed for spinnerbaits and buzzbaits which is usually the first thing that I reach for when beginning the day. Once installed, all of your favorite spinnerbaits and buzzbaits will be right at your finger tips, visable, and ready at a moments notice. No more digging through the old spinnerbait box that has twice as many baits as it designed to hold and dragging out three tangled baits instead of one.

Come on, we all do it and the discarded baits get shoved right back into the cramped box of baits of which some just "caught our eye" in the store and have never even been tried.

The tackle system keeps them organized, visible and your baits are just as easy to put back in their place as they were to tie on. They also hang in such a way to allow the skirts and hooks to dry properly which gives you ten times the normal life of a spinnerbait that has been put up wet in the traditional boxes to only rust and stick the skirts together.

Today a quality spinnerbait or buzzbait will set you back on average say $7 to $10, and if one concludes that saving only two $10 baits will pay for the entire system plus simultaneously saving us another trip back to the tackle store then what a deal!

The super tough system will also hold your baits in place through nasty boat rides and are so simple to install that it's just nuts to not take advantage of some pretty smart cookies' forward thinking. One would have to think that the inventor was as tired as we are of the neverending digging and searching for items that we know darn well are on board.

The second tackle system is designed to hang and organize your soft plastics. This one will save you some serious dough. The packages all hang on hook rings in the order that you choose. You can also open your packages without removing the entire bag from the rack. Guess what? No more packages left on the floor to fly out of the boat on your next boat run! Immediate savings, $4.49 or more. Getting the picture?

I personally arrange mine from lighter to darker colors for ease of choice and with just a simple glance I can locate the exact bait that I have chosen as my next selection. Since thankfully they're still in my boat when I get to my next spot, I'm immediately ready to fish upon arrival. Multiple systems will also allow you to categorize your plastics into specific types such as tubes, worms, lizards etc.

Soft plastic baits account for well over 70 percent of the average angler's total purchases for the year. We're talking hundreds of dollars - per angler -per year and that is some quite substantial numbers when taking into consideration just how many millions of anglers there are in the US. If we could each save even one-fifth of that number per year then we would probably save enough money to pay for perhaps another entry into that one extra tournament that we wish to fish. Think about it. It's basically a free entry from our well calculated purchasing and we might even get some extra bucks back in our pocket if we do well in the event. Now that's a real deal.

When cleaning out my boat periodically I always find at least 10 packs of soft plastics which are half full and somehow found their way to a mystical hiding place in the storage locker which resulted in my opening another full pack to continue fishing. Now you can imagine, as a guide, that I carry enough baits and tackle on board for not one but three people every single day. Take the average mess and multiply by three and we're talking about an entire afternoon of digging, regrouping, and taking inventory in my storage lockers. Instead of doing that, I could have been out fishing or better preparing for a tournament.

Now the huge savings comes by way of using an entire pack of baits before we get into another and not thinking that we are out of baits which sends us back to the store again for what we already had under all that other mess.

Speaking of tournaments, just think how helpful this could be during practice day as we systematically go about our elimination of techniques and bait selections to finally wind up with what we now absolutely know that we're going to use in the competition. Everything that we intend to use is now already in its place, ready to go, and at our fingertips! No more digging with a flashlight at the boat ramp in the dark before the starting bell rings looking for what we have now already placed in order during our practice day. We're ready to go and can now concentrate on what we have chosen as our strategy for the day instead of wondering where and how many of those baits are on board. Rather than minutes to change baits or find another we can do so in seconds and the ever ticking clock during a tournament is our number one enemy when it comes to winning or losing tournaments.

I personally have never felt like that I lost a tournament because of it, but I sure ran out of time on plenty. In looking back, an extra 30 minutes of fishing on those days could very well have landed us the fish that would win the tournament and I guarantee you that I've never caught a fish while I was digging in my storage locker.

The next time you see a fellow angler flying down the lake with a spinnerbait hanging from his hat brim just follow him and show him your Cook's Original "Go To" Tackle System on board your boat. Then offer him your assistance and needle nose pliers to get the bait out of his hat!

One bait in the tackle system is worth two in the hat!

Reprinted with exclusive permission of Honey Hole Magazine, Inc.

What's Your Hangup? - By Jeff Morton [www.gofishmidwest.com]

With a title like this I'm sure you're thinking this has something to do with Sigmund Freud, Frasier Crane or some other "psycho babble." I am referring a system to efficiently store frequently used baits on your boat. Since converting to a "less is more" mentality with what I carry on my Ranger 518, I have streamlined my tackle selection. However, I was still looking for a way to have go-to baits right at hand, without rooting through boxes or bags.

There are a number of bait hangers on the market, but I have found a really functional, American made, system with longevity - the "Go-To" Tackle Storage System from Cook's Tackle Systems. It features a plastic u-channel with slots cut into it to hang your baits from (no more foam rubber tearing out when you remove your baits). It is firmly attached with screws (no glue or two-sided tape) to the underside of your deck hatch. Like you, I thought the screw heads would show through the carpet, but if you follow the instructions, they really don't show.

The cool thing about this system is that is comes with hanger hooks which allow to you hang bags of soft plastics in addition to your hard baits, so you can have all of your go-to baits readily available! For more information, check out http://www.cookstackle.com/.

Now, take a look at this ink blot and tell me the first thing that comes to mind...

-- Jeff Morton

Jeff Morton is a tournament angler who fishes the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League Great Lakes Division. He is a 2 Time B.A.S.S. Illinois State Championship Qualifier and has won the Northern Illinois Make A Wish Charity Bass Tournament.

Jeff proudly represents Ranger Boats, Bedford Sales, CastAway Graphite Rods, Bill Stasek Chevrolet, Maui Jim Sunglasses, Gambler-B.A.N.G. Products, Go FISH Midwest.com and Just Hank's Custom Embroidery and Digitizing. He can be reached at jeffmorton@gofishmidwest.com.

Product Review - BassDigest [www.bassdigest.com]

Tackle storage for a bass fisherman is always a nightmare. We have more lures than Fort Knox has gold and our boat much smaller than a vault. We need solutions for our space crunch and BassDigest is always searching for ways to improve on the ease of hooking up and fishing quick. Countless minutes in tournament careers are spent on the deck looking through tons of plastics bags or baits that are twisted on to one another.

Darrel Cook, inventor or the Goto System has made our search just a bit easier! The Goto system is a nice addition to any boat and puts your baits right where they need to be. They are at you fingertips and ready to be opened and used. The prostaff put this unit in four bass boats and fished with them a total of 28 days on the water. Everything from soft plastics to single hook baits were used on the system.

The Goto system withstood punishing speeds of 70 mph and crashing waves and wakes of up to 4 ft. Excellent durability and strength make this product stand out in the boat. The tube bag system in one boat was excellent, fishing docks was a breeze and inter-changing the colors while fishing was easy. Reach in, Goto the bait and grab!

The system adheres to your rod locker door (underneath). A screw system is included with it but the staff used double sided 3M adhesive and that worked like a charm. The adhesive will not put holes in the boat and makes moving the system to a different spot on the boat easy. This product is a must have in the boat, for the ease of getting to the key baits on tournament day.

Check Darrel and his system out on his site. www.cookstackle.com

-- BassDigest Field Staff

Product Review - BassFan.com [www.BassFan.com]

Go-To Tackle Storage System

Let's face it: even if someone built a bass boat that was 30 feet long, there still wouldn't be enough space for all of our tackle. Most bass anglers are floating tackle stores. Heck, it's fun!

But even the craziest tackle buyers we know admit that all that tackle can turn a boat into a cramped mess. Overstuffed compartments mean lost fishing time, and their contents frequently spill out onto decks, which at worst can be a safety hazard. Ever see a guy slip on a box or a bag of plastics and do a header into the console? It's not pretty.

The Go-To System

Once again, someone is here to save the day. Cook's Tackle of Jonesboro, Ark. has a simple, ingenious, no-hassle, works-great solution. It's called the Go-To Tackle Storage System.

It's ingenious because it makes use of storage space in your boat that you're not now using (no fooling). It installs literally in 5 minutes, and you could probably run an hour in 8-foot waves and neither it nor the baits would shake loose.

And from a tournament perspective, your "go-to" baits -- the system allows you to store spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and packs of soft-plastics -- are always close at hand and tangle free. No tangled-up baits, no ruined skirts, no lost time trying to find a favorite lure, and no dancing around stuff on the deck.

Here's the "why didn't I think of that?" idea: the Go-To system converts the dead space under the deck compartment lids of your boat into usable, convenient storage space. When your deck lids are open, baits stored in the organizers can be easily taken out and put back. And when the lids are closed, all baits are securely locked in place. Not only are the units rock solid, your baits don't tangle even when your rig is taking a pounding in rough water. We even gave it our own version of rough water -- slamming the lids, jumping on them -- and not one spinnerbait nor bag moved.

Notable

The unit attaches with screws which, when installed right, don't show through the carpet and don't leak. Apparently you can also use double-sided tape to install the Go-To system, but that couldn't be as solid as the screws.
The baits are held in by solid plastic -- no foam rubber.
The units are American-made.
Last but not least, the system is designed by company owner Darrel Cook, who is a bass fisherman.

Try It!