I have been fishing lake Erie for 30 years. I have had and sold many boats over the years. I have accumulated hundreds of lures over that time.

Here is the issue...

I have two of the Large Amish Caddies full of Rapalas, Smithwicks, Bandits, Bombers, Reef Runners, Storms, Lindys, Berkeys...I also have two other tackle boxes of miscellaneous crankbaits. It is quite an impressive assortment of weapons to throw at unsuspecting fish.

When you are targeting depths, and can't identify the brand (let alone the exact lure), where do you start? I don't see any definitive markings on the lures to remember where or when I got it. Looking at Precision Trolling pictures, you might be able to say...'well, it looks kind of like that one'...but you generally know it probably isn't that exact lure.

With similar looking lures diving at completely different depths, where do you start?

It isn't so much an issue this time of year since I have about 100 different harnesses getting pulled a dozen different ways behind the boat. When fall and spring hit again, I want to be better prepared to target depths better. Other than trashing everything I have accumulated, and buying all new lures, how do other trollers handle identifying lures for depths? I am sure I am not the only one that buys a lure (or 12) and throws them into the tackle box without packaging - only to never use them successfully because of a lack of OCD of identifying each lure properly.