Urchins are the most awkward soft plastic ever made to store. They are round, they are spiky, they do not lie flat, and stacking them in a bag squashes the tentacles that make them work. After a full season of fishing the category, Tyler landed on what he believes is the best storage solution out there — a DIY build using an off-the-shelf tackle tray and a $10 pack of cocktail skewers. Here is exactly how to make one for your big urchins and one for your small ones, plus what happened when he took them to a Minnesota river to find out whether smallmouth eat these things at all.
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Urchin Storage Quick Reference
| Bait Size | Box | How They Mount | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big — 19, 20 & 25 mm | Evolution ballistics hanger tray (deep) | Cocktail skewers drilled into the lid | Two full rows, sorted by size |
| Small — 15 mm and under | Evolution plastics case (soft, clear top) | 3D-printed holder with up to five wires | Two or more baits per wire |
| Skirted / fuzzy styles | Same small case, bottom compartment | Loose or in a plastic bag | No wire needed |
Why Urchins Are So Hard to Store
Every other soft plastic in your box is designed to lie flat. Worms, craws, flukes, swimbaits — they stack in bags and slot into trays without complaint. An urchin does none of that. It is a sphere covered in soft tentacles, and those tentacles are the entire point of the bait: they flare on the twitch and slow the fall. Crush them under a stack of packs and you have compromised the one thing the lure does well.
The manufacturers will almost certainly solve this eventually — Evolution likely has something purpose-built coming. But if you are fishing these baits right now, you need a solution today. So Tyler built two.
The Skewer Box: 19 mm to 25 mm
This is the build most anglers are going to want. It starts with the Evolution ballistics hanger tray — the deep one with the removable gray slots meant for crankbaits. You are not going to use it the way it was designed, and that is fine, because it makes a dang good urchin box once modified.
Step 1 — Strip the Tray
Pull every one of the gray crankbait slots out. Then remove two of the three dividers, leaving just the middle one. That gives you a big open bottom section for loose baits and hardware, and a clean lid to work with.
Step 2 — Drill the Lid
Take a drill bit that is noticeably smaller than the diameter of your skewer and drill evenly spaced holes across the inside of the lid. Undersizing the bit is what makes this work — the skewer wedges in tight instead of wobbling loose. Space one or two extra holes on the row meant for 19 and 20 mm baits, since they take up less room than the 25s.
Step 3 — Cut the Skewers to Depth
The hardware is a stainless steel cocktail skewer, about 4 inches long with a genuinely sharp point, ordered off Amazon. Straight out of the pack they are too long for the box. Push one into a hole, see how far it stands proud, and trim roughly three quarters of an inch off with a pair of side cutters. Then push it home and thread your urchins onto it.
Mounting the skewers in the bottom of the tray seems obvious, but it fails in storage: the decorative ball ends sit against the box and the whole tray rocks and rolls around. Mounting to the lid avoids that completely, and urchins are light enough that a loaded lid is no hassle to open. When you close it, the baits tuck neatly down between the two sides.
The obvious worry is baits falling off in a rattling truck bed or kayak hatch. They do not. You can shake this box as hard as you like and the urchins stay put on the skewers — the soft body grips the steel. Sort one row for your 25 mm baits and one for your 19 and 20 mm, keep the odds and ends loose in the bottom, and you have instant access to every bait you own.
Code TRF2026 takes 20% off your entire Evolution Fishing order — trays, cases, and everything else.
The Wire Case: 15 mm and Under
Small urchins need a different answer. Here Tyler uses an Evolution Fishing plastics case — a relatively soft case with a hard edge and a clear soft top — paired with a 3D-printed holder made by an independent seller (findable on Etsy or Amazon). The insert holds up to five wires, each wire takes two or more baits, and the wires press into the holder to lock everything in place.
That covers the tiny 14 and 15 mm baits and imports from Korea. The exception is the skirted, fuzzy-style plastics — things like the Yamamoto Uni and the Strike King Tumbleweed. Those are skirt material rather than molded tentacles, so they take a crush just fine. Toss them loose in the bottom of the case or leave them in a plastic bag.
| Step | What You Do | Detail That Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Remove all gray crankbait slots | Leave only the middle divider of the three |
| 2 | Drill evenly spaced holes in the lid | Bit must be smaller than the skewer diameter for a tight fit |
| 3 | Test-fit a skewer, mark the excess | Roughly three quarters of an inch is typical |
| 4 | Trim with side cutters, press home | Point end faces out so baits thread on easily |
| 5 | Load by size — 25s on one row, 19s and 20s on the other | Add an extra hole or two on the smaller row |
Do Smallmouth Actually Eat Urchins?
Boxes built, Tyler took them to a Minnesota river to answer a question nobody had settled yet: the urchin had proven itself on largemouth in ponds and on Guntersville, but would smallmouth eat it? He ran two miles up current on an electric motor, then floated back down through what he called some seriously fishy water.
Day one was humbling. The bite was slow, the rain moved in, and the fish that did commit came on a topwater rather than the urchin — including a beautiful 3.11-pound river smallmouth that ate on a perfect cast into a cut where the current had forged a sandbar. The urchin got nothing. He drifted miles and caught one bass.
When a big fish is angry and sitting in current, take it slow and let it wear itself out. And check your hooks afterward: fighting against current on braided line makes it very easy to pull too hard and bend a hook open without realizing it.
Round Two — The Black Urchin
He went back on a different day, and the answer arrived in a hurry. Fishing a black urchin in low-light conditions, he put several smallmouth in the boat in the 3-pound class, including one that ate mid-livestream. The color choice was deliberate: darker conditions called for the darkest silhouette he could throw. Black may not always be the best smallmouth color, but it is a sneaky good one.
Two details stood out on those fish. The bites were emphatic — one bait was buried so far down the fish's face he nearly needed pliers — and the keeper never moved on the hook, exactly as covered in the masterclass. Verdict: smallmouth absolutely eat the urchin. The trick is finding the spots where they want it.
Final Thoughts
Until the tackle industry catches up with the category, a modified hanger tray and a pack of cocktail skewers is the cleanest urchin storage going — everything visible, everything accessible, nothing crushed. Build the big box for your 19s through 25s, run a wire case for the small stuff, and keep the skirted styles loose. Then go find out for yourself whether the smallmouth in your river want a black one.
New to the category? Start with the complete urchin fishing masterclass — every hook, weight, keeper, and retrieve broken down from A to Z. The Uncut Bass Fishing channel also has full-length urchin episodes if you want to watch the category fished in real time.
Source: Based on video content from TylersReelFishing — “I SOLVED The Problem With Urchin Storage!” · youtube.com/@tylersreelfishing
Q&A Flashcards: Urchin Storage
Tap any card to reveal the answer. Great for reviewing before you build your own.