True story: I was adding a few things to and checking old links etc. on my website yesterday afternoon, and I found that dead link to those really useful long-sided washable lure boxes (the slots run across the lure box) from Snowbee which I can’t do without (Snowbee stopped making their washable lure boxes a while ago). I have had so many messages and emails and so on from anglers asking me where they can get these rather clever lure boxes over the years - plus the regular short-sided washable versions - and to be honest I have been failing them on where to find these things……………

In the interest of fairness I did come across the long-sided Meiho Reversible Lure Tray 180V a while back (there is also the short-sided Meiho Reversible Lure Tray 140, check out the excellent Mr.Fish website for them), but these boxes are not cheap. I bought one of each though to try them out, but I guess because I am so used to how the Snowbee ones open and close (which they got made by a company in China I would assume, same as many fishing tackle companies), I couldn’t get on with how the Meiho ones I bought open from the ends rather than the sides, plus I don’t find the latches very intuitive. I can’t fit as many lures into them either and they are now sitting here gathering dust. Not exactly earth shattering stuff I grant you, but my two washable lure boxes sit at my side and I don’t really want to have to think about it that much when I go to change lures - I want to think about the fishing and my approach instead. It goes without saying that you might really like these specific Meiho lure boxes and it could just be me.

Anyway, it wasn’t that long into working with Savage Gear when I asked if we could do our own washable lure boxes. I wouldn’t have asked for them if Snowbee had still been making their long-sided version especially, but they had stopped with anything saltwater and I simply can’t imagine going out bass lure fishing without one of each box with me - long-sided and short-sided (I blame those nice people at Snowbee for coming out with the long-sided version), and I’ve got a feeling it was Ben at The Art of Fishing tackle shop who first put me onto the long-sided version of these lure boxes many moons ago now.

**The Savage Gear 2 Sided Lure Box - Long**

So I asked Savage Gear if we could do them - and yes, I don’t for one second try to pretend that we were going to reinvent the wheel with our versions, but for some reason it’s not at all easy finding long-sided versions of these lure boxes and I can’t really do without them. In due course I received some samples which weren’t quite right, so a bit of work later and I received and have been using the final versions ever since. These lure boxes are connected to something else we have been working on for a while but of course I was pushing to get the lure boxes themselves onto the market at some point in the future. Stuff doesn’t just get dropped onto the market willy-nilly though, and there are various schedules to work around and so on. I was guessing sometime in 2023 for these washable lure boxes unless I heard anymore, but a lot of it is way above my paygrade.

And then there I was yesterday afternoon doing some work on my website and I thought I’d do a search for long-side washable lure boxes to see if any other tackle company was doing them, and lo and sodding behold up came “our” Savage Gear version on the Veals Mail Order website at the top of the first Google search page! Here’s me then, doing all this work with Savage Gear, and I didn’t even realise that the washable lure boxes I had asked for were actually on the market. Oops. I sent a message to ask about this and I was directed to the 2022 trade catalogue where lo and sodding behold there the lure boxes were! Slightly embarrassing that I didn’t know this, and in between these lure boxes coming onto the market and me finding out yesterday, I know that I have replied to a few anglers to say sorry but I don’t know where you can find the long-sided washable lure boxes anymore! My bad (I have found the long-sided washable lure box on Veals Mail Order here, they are also doing the Large version which might work for some of you, short-sided lure box here.

This is the now discontinued Snowbee version of the washable short-sided lure box

Anyway, none of this is going to remotely change the world, but the exact style of washable lure boxes that I can’t do without are available again. If it’s any help and apologies for getting all nerdy on a Friday morning, but I carry one long-sided and one short-sided lure boxes for a specific reason - all my soft plastics and any hard lures over 140mm long go in the long-sided lure box (the soft plastics sit horizontally in my lure bag at my side, I prefer this), and any hard lures or metals of 140mm and under go in the short-sided lure box (where they sit vertically at my side).

If you do end up with these Savage Gear versions then you might want to do what I do to them before taking them out fishing - take some sandpaper to the lids. I often have wet hands in the surf especially, so sometimes I find the slightly slippery, see-through design of the lure box lids not quite grippy enough when I am lifting one of them out of the lure bag which sits at my side when I am fishing. What I do is rub some sandpaper over the lids to get a bit of a rougher feel to them which I find easier to grip (I might be a DIY guru!). Before you ask, there are various reasons why we didn’t go with rougher-feeling lids. For fear of causing too much excitement then, that’s where I’m at on a Friday morning, indeed I woke up at 4.30am thinking about lure boxes and what I was going to write for this blog post. You all have a good weekend and may your thoughts be as exciting as mine!

Disclosure - If you buy anything using links found around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you anymore to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

Lure boxes very much aside, the new album by the truly mighty Polish death metal band Decapitated dropped this morning and I have written this entire blog post with it blasting out and trying not to cry too much at just how awesome this thing is. Let your eyes and ears feast upon this glorious magic!

I have finally found those rather useful long-sided washable lure boxes again (slightly embarrassing story)

© Henry Gilbey 2023