Late night notes on tackle and tools I wish existed or that I wish was more available

Tools

  • 6ft+ flat zipper rod cases that can hold 3+ rods. Most large rod cases either don’t hold enough rods, are bulky, are heavy, or telescope (which can cause TSA to break expensive rods because they don’t always know how to close them properly). Obviously the rod case still needs to be stiff so as to protect your rods from damage. EDIT: Turns out there are some of these, but they’re all JDM. You can find them by looking up “semi hard” rod cases.
  • More 4pc rods. Major Craft is dominating other companies at the pack rod game.
  • Automated hook sharpener. I spend too much time sharpening hooks, and I’m not even that slow. I just need a lot of hooks sharpened.
  • Cheaper replacement spools so that I can buy 1 reel and swap out the spool instead of what I do today, which is buy 3-4 reels that I spool with different line weights.
  • Elaztech / TPE-safe Plano Edge boxes.

Tungsten

  • Tungsten tube jigs. Tubes are underrated and I hate lead.
  • Tungsten banana/goofy jigs. This would help when you get to 3/4 or 1oz weight, as you don’t need all the bulk of lead to get the profile/action, but you want the weight to get way out there.
  • Tungsten weights (bullet, teardrop, or skinny dropshot) that can be added/removed from mainline ad-hoc, without removing the end. Would be sick to have a little screw, and anglers would carry a tiny allen wrench to add/remove. Today, switching carolina rig weights is a chore and using sinker slides also hard-commits you to a carolina rig on a day when you might want to quickly switch over to throwing a plug.
  • 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 tungsten jigheads that have eyes and that come in hook sizes #2, #4, #6, and #8. Packs larger than 3, that come in nice jig boxes. Eurotackle is the only one that makes them today and don’t have all sizes. Why is Eurotackle the only company with 1/8 #2 tungsten jigheads?
  • Cheap tungsten hybrid drop shot weights for surf.
  • Tungsten “smiling bill” jigheads.

Hook shapes

  • Owner Mutu or Gamakatsu Nautilus hooks where the hookpoint is bent out from the shank a bit. So basically a wide gap circle hook. Good for fishing with little cutbait.

Lure improvements

  • Kastmasters that come with Lefty’s Deceiver flies, tied with bucktail, as the trailer hook. I currently make my own. They are crazy effective.
  • TPE keitech easy shiner and fat swing impact. The main downsides of using keitech soft plastics are bait durability and eco unfriendliness.

Web Tech

  • Better lifelisting tools. Folks are using sites designed in the 90s to host their lifelists. I use a freaking github markdown file.
  • A web-based encyclopedia of lures/baits to de-hype different products coming out and offer their closest comparisons.