Tech Tricks
DIY: How to build your own tackle centre BRISBANE
Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com
Storing your tackle at home can often be difficult, especially if you do not have a shed or other designated area. When storing tackle inside in an office, rumpus
room or other common area, partners often dictate that it needs to be presentable and tidy. There are few functional options available commercially and while you might be able to find a decent rod holder, storing other tackle items can be more difficult.
You may have to store your items in several different areas of the house, which is annoying. While I have plenty of shed space to store my tackle, I know others are less fortunate, especially those who live in units, townhouses or rented properties where space is limited or there’s
restrictions on what you can do. In recent months I have noticed the huge amount of filing cabinets for sale or even offered for free collection when you browse selling sites like Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. With there being less hard copies of documents
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I scored this particular filing cabinet from Facebook marketplace for $20. I chose a timber filing cabinet as timber is easier to work with than metal, but both types can be made very functional with some additions. Even a decent set of shelves will suffice and will allow your tackle to be on display yet organised. Most add-ons can be attached with screws if you start with a timber cabinet but you will need nuts and bolts or pop rivets when pimping a metal cabinet.
The first thing I decided to do was add some 40mm caster wheels to the bottom so it can easily be moved around if necessary. Make sure you get some wheels with a decent load rating to avoid future problems of them breaking once you load the cabinet with tackle. You will need 4 casters, a drill, 16 timber screws and a drill bit a little thinner than the screws so you can pre-drill the holes (highly recommended in soft timber like pine to prevent splitting). The four casters cost $7.20 at Bunnings.
4 As the tackle centre was to be mobile, I needed to add a shelf close to the base on both sides so that the butts of the rods and other items were not sitting on the ground. Otherwise, the rods would have to all be taken off to shift the cabinet. Additionally, the rubber butts of some rods get soft with age and may mark the flooring over time. This mini shelf was made by cutting a piece of 69x15mm merbau (which was a close colour match for the cabinet that was already stained when I bought it). This 2.7m piece (I used less than half of it) cost $12.75 at Bunnings but you may even be able to find some suitable timber for free. 46
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and general paperwork these days thanks to the electronic era, fewer people have need for these storage cabinets and they want to get rid of them. Both metal and timber filing cabinets and similar office shelving systems are now numerous and cheap. Luckily for us anglers, we can re-purpose these
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For this filing cabinet I needed to add some timber chocks in two of the corners to screw the wheels onto. These were cut from a pine stud I had lying around. So long as you can get at least three corners of the caster base affixed then this should be sturdy enough.
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Using two 50x50mm right angle brackets ($3.50 at Bunnings) affix the shelf to the side (close to the base) with some timber screws. The screws should no be so long that they go too far through the cabinet or you may not be able to open the draws. Additionally you don’t want them to protrude out the top of the shelf. I used 12mm screws in this instance. I affixed a shelf on both sides of the cabinet near the base.
to store our tackle. How you set up these storage systems can vary depending on your tackle requirements, which is dictated by the type of fishing you do. To show some of the options, I have created this tackle centre to demonstrate some storage ideas.
There are several options when it comes to racking to hold the rods near the top of the cabinet. Rubber rod racking comes in several styles for as little as $6 per strip. Berkley make some great twist lock, horizontal and vertical rod racks that come in several sizes. Which you use will depend on your requirements and the cabinet you are pimping. If you are storing heavier outfits with the reels attached to the rod, then you will need a better quality rack. I only wanted to store spare rods, mostly without reels so opted for the cheaper rubber racks with placements close together which maximised the number of rods.
