Have you had a good fishing life?
There are three common ways to carry egi: a sponge holder, a hook-holder, and a box. They all work. But after a few seasons of run-and-gun fishing on rocky shores, I have ended up using one of them almost exclusively, and I have one I genuinely regret buying.
This is what each type is actually like to live with.
First, how many egi are you carrying?
Before the case, answer this. It decides everything.
For a short session — an hour or two, one stretch of shore — I take about 10 egi.
For a long day on the rocks, four or five hours, moving the whole time — about 20.
I fish run-and-gun in autumn and again in spring, so I am walking with everything I own on my body. That single fact rules out one of the three types before we start.
The hook-holder case (what I actually use)
This type has no slots. You simply hook the barbs of the egi into a fabric panel, so the egi hangs there by its own hooks.
Because there are no fixed positions, the number of egi you can carry is not fixed either. This is the whole reason I use it.
Here it is loaded with #4 egi:
And the same case with #3.5:
Smaller egi, more of them. The case adapts. That is the difference.
Best for: anyone who carries a mix of sizes, and anyone whose load changes between a quick session and a full day.
The sponge holder
This type holds each egi by its sinker, pushed into a slit in a block of sponge. The egi sit still and do not rattle around, which is genuinely nice.
But the slits are cut at a fixed spacing, so the capacity is fixed no matter what you put in it. Load it with small egi and you do not fit any more of them — you just get a case full of gaps. The count is decided by the sponge, not by your egi.
There is a second issue that only shows up after a year or two: the sponge slits stretch out. Push egi in and pull them out a few hundred times and the slits widen, the grip goes, and the egi start dropping loose inside the case. It is a consumable part of the case that you cannot replace.
Best for: anglers who fish one size almost exclusively — #3.5 to #4 suits these cases well — and who like their egi held firmly.
The box (the one I regret)
A box holds a lot, and it protects everything properly. On paper it is the sensible choice.
Here is why I stopped using mine. A box means a bag. You cannot clip it to a belt loop and you cannot carry it in your hand while you are climbing over rocks, so it goes into a tackle bag — and now you are carrying a bag as well as a rod, a landing net and a gaff. For run-and-gun fishing, that is the end of it.
The box is not badly made. It just quietly forces you into carrying twice the luggage, and I did not see that coming when I bought it.
Best for: fishing from a boat, or from a spot you drive to and stay at. Not for walking.
If you do buy one, measure before you buy. Egi sizes vary more than you expect, and a box sized for #3.5 will not close on #4.
Which should you buy?
If you are choosing your first case and you fish from the shore, get the hook-holder type. It handles any mix of sizes, it scales from a quick evening session to a full day, and there is no sponge to wear out.
Take the sponge type if you have settled on one egi size and want them held rock-steady — just accept that it is a case with a service life.
Skip the box unless you are fishing somewhere you can park next to.
The general rule is simple: check the size of your egi against the case before you pay, and be honest about how far you walk. A case that suits how you actually fish makes the whole session easier.
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