As I sit down to write this column, it actually looks like we may be in for a taste of spring weather. How sweet it is!

Now I have the urge to start shopping for some new tackle to replace all the &uot;used&uot; lures that are hanging around the bottom of the old tackle box. Some of the lures I have probably haven’t seen water (unless I left the box open during a rain) in 10 years.

Weeding out the lesser lures has always been a problem for me. I have a very hard time parting with any old lures. I sometimes think I act like there will come a time when I am stranded in the wilderness with only one lure that will catch fish and that may be the very one.

I have found it easier to buy tackle boxes and prioritize them rather than get rid of a lure. The only exception to my parting with a lure is if one of the grandkids takes a liking to one of them and asks if he can have it. The only thing that makes me feel better than giving the boys one of my lures is when they catch a fish on one of them.

I also have a hard time deciding what to fish for on certain lakes. If it is a muskie lake it’s a no-brainer, but if it is a lake with multi-species and no muskie then I have a harder time.

This takes us back to the multi-tackle box method of fishing. If, when starting out for a day on the lake, I am not sure what to try first, I will usually take most of the boxes. This means that no matter what fish lurks below the surface, I am ready.

This can also present a space problem when fishing with more people in the boat. Usually everyone has their own tackle box, and then there are also the necessary rods. Most people I know have at least three rods to use (most kids excluded).

It may be cheaper to tie a different lure on the same line each time you want to try a new strategy, but I can guarantee it’s usually not going to happen.

A guy needs a medium to heavy rod for bass and northern, a light to medium for walleye and an ultra light for pan fish. Now throw in the heavy rod for muskie and figure in the tackle boxes it takes to outfit all these rods and you can probably see why I spend a lot of time fishing alone. It’s not my choice, but maybe my family is trying to tell me something.

Years ago I had an old 14-foot Sea Nymph &uot;Car-topper&uot; fishing boat. Throw in the old 10 hp Evinrude Sport-Twin and I had a fishing machine. Never mind that it didn’t sit very high in the water and you didn’t really want to take it on any large bodies of water.

It worked great for our family when the kids were small. The only thing is they don’t stay small. They have a tendency to grow if you feed them. We soon outgrew the boat just like we outgrew the pickup camper.

Each year there was less and less room in the camper and I would tell my wife and the boys that we had to quit bringing so much stuff along. I don’t know at what point they finally decided to let me in on the secret, but they informed me that it wasn’t the &uot;stuff,&uot; it was the size of the boys that was making the camper smaller and the boat sit lower in the water.

When we went across the water it kind of reminded me of one of the barges on the Mississippi. The old Evinrude would be whining and the water would be pushing out, forming a large wake that was rolling towards shore. The only thing wrong with that picture was that if you looked at the shoreline you could count each rock individually.

I have upgraded my boat to a comfortable fishing boat. My son, Brian, now has the second boat and motor that I bought and, as for the &uot;Old Evinrude,&uot; I have that too; I guess you could say it’s in the tackle box I have for old outboards that I may just need one day.