Make your own rig bins for pike fishing

Shop-bought rig bins leave a bit to be desired when in comes to storing traces. Apart from those fiddly pegs to trap the swivels, they're a little on the small side - especially if you use larger hooks, like size twos on your traces. 

You can make your own for a fraction of the cost, if you keep your eye out for those plastic cannisters that peanuts and cocktail snacks sometimes come in.

Buy a length of 6cms pipe insulating foam next time you're in one of those DIY superstores, cut it to fit and you can store your traces by pushing the swivels into the slit and wrapping them around it.

The foam was 99p a metre last time I bought some, which is enough to make several bins. Much cheaper - and better than shop-bought rig bins.

The main advantage is they're bigger, meaning it's easier to get traces on and off them without tangles or getting a hook in your finger. You can also store traces with links or poppers attached, meaning less faffing about on the bank.

I find one of these will easily store 10 or 12 traces, which is more than enough to see me through most days' fishing. I've also gone from carrying traces of different lengths, with different-sized hooks, spacings etc to just a basic 24ins trace with two size fours for most of my fishing, with a couple made up with size twos for bigger baits.

This makes things simpler too. And simple's usually best when it comes to pike fishing in the Fens..