From the United States, is this the future of tackle boxes?

Need proof that any tackle item can be improved? Look no further than Gruv’s update on the humble tackle box. Are you in Europe? Look for it coming your way soon.

A US company that has challenged the design of a staple item of fishing tackle is looking to extend its presence in Europe. Gruv Fishing started out three years ago with the intention of shaking up the fishing tackle box market with innovative products which the company describes as up to the job of protecting the items inside them. Co-founder Shaun Curtis told Angling International: “Run-of-the-mill tackle boxes are no more than storage units that wouldn’t be out of place in a garage containing nails and screws. There is no thought in the organisation, storage or protection of tackle. We have designed and created products to hold specific items of tackle safely. It is a super simple idea, but no one was doing it.”

Gruv took its inspiration from Tacky Fly Fishing, a company Curtis helped start and build up for eight years before selling to Fishpond in October 2019. The company has utilised the patented silicone anchoring technology licenced from Tacky to build what Curtis describes the ‘future of tackle storage’.

The company started with micro-jig boxes and has added other sizes of bait boxes to the range. “Anglers spend a lot of money on fishing tackle and then throw it into a tackle box where it gets ruined. Compartment-style boxes have been the norm for as long as anyone can remember. At Gruv Fishing we’re here to change that norm. Our boxes eliminate the common problems of tangled hooks, damaged lures and chaotic tackle storage.”
Curtis says that the company has enjoyed steady but solid growth and now has markets across the US, Canada and Germany. He added that it is in talks with other distributors across the world, but its priorities are building up its base in those three regions.

“Camo Tackle, our distributor in Germany, is doing an awesome job with our hard bait boxes, and we want to replicate that performance across the whole of Europe. The region did well for us when we were at Tacky and we have high hopes for Gruv there too. We need to be working with an organisation that has enough accounts to make it worth us sending product over, but one that doesn’t have thousands of items in their portfolio. They need to be committed to telling the Gruv Fishing story and educating retailers of the advantages of our fishing storage solutions over those of the competition.”

Curtis added that Tacky is a premier product in the fly fishing sector where anglers are used to paying more for a better product. “In the wider market other fishermen have been used to paying $5 for a sub-standard product with a short shelf-life. One of the major challenges we face is
extolling the virtues of spending more for tackle boxes that last and are fit for purpose.” Gruv is always looking to extend the range of tackle boxes it offers and was on course to introduce a version of the universal 3700 size with all its exclusive incorporations at ICAST this year – a launch it has put on hold until the show in 2021. “A full-size box is one of the many projects we have in the pipeline just now,” added Curtis.