For the past 10 years or so, I have stowed my tackle in a large compartment in the middle of the boat. To keep it organized, all baits were broken down into categories and I placed the individual baits in the proper stow box and labeled them. But lately I have noticed that this may not be the best possible way to store certain baits.

I seem to run into two issues consistently with this type of storage system. The crankbaits and the lipless lures are always getting some rust on either the hooks, split rings or even on the bait itself. After pulling all of these stow boxes out of the boat about three weeks ago, I noticed almost every crankbait that I have has rust all over it. I don’t want to catch bass on baits that have rusty hooks. It’s not good for the bass, plus rusty hooks and split rings are weak and prone to breaking.