Nobody that fishes iron seriously can get away without a dozen, or two dozen available. Colors, shapes, sizes, the guys that are good tend to try a few things to see what’s going to work best on a given day. Nothing “funner” than to catch a fish on your work rather than a baits labor. It’s not so easy finding a compact tackle bag that allows for enough iron as well as other necessities. Most bags aren’t made for so many relatively long chunks of iron in a tackle tray. We’ve had some firms make these over the years, part of their storage line, OpenWater, Albakore… This year two new products have been introduced which fill this tackle storage void. Calcutta and Daiwa have both introduced new jig bags. Both are very, very, very similar products but for the cosmetics. Both have 21 storage caveties, each 1 1/2″ square. The bags are compact, about 9″ across, 4 1/2″ deep and 7 1/2 high. Both have side pockets and a heavy duty triple strip sewn in handstrap. With respect to the handstrap, it’s a concern. Nice to see both firms have some redundancy in the way the straps are sewn onto the bags. In this respect, both are very good, but the Daiwa bag handle is sewn onto the bag from beginning to end six inches compared to one very good triple stitched inch of bag attachment on the Calcutta. Both bags are very good, Daiwa slightly better for heavier weights, both bags essentially the same in all other respects but for the cosmetics.
