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There’s nothing like the anticipation of a huge bass exploding on your lure after making that perfect cast.
Now bass anglers have another exciting moment to anticipate: The arrival of a monthly subscription tackle box full of new exciting lures!
In this article, we’ll take a look at the top two tackle subscription boxes on the market and match them up head to head! Monster Bass vs Mystery Tackle Box!
Table of Contents
Methodology
Since I’ve personally belonged to both the Mystery Tackle Box and Monsterbass subscription service, I’ll take my personal experience with both services and match them up head to head.
But in order to get a better perspective of these subscriptions I decided to include someone who is a novice fisherman and one who is an experienced fisherman and competes in numerous bass tournaments.
Both of these anglers have purchased both basic (the cheapest) subscriptions for at least one year.
Below are some features that we’ll take a look at and rate on a scale of 1-10
- Box Style
- Box contents
- Price
- Value
- Customizable Options
A Little About Mystery Tackle Box
Since breaking on to the scene in 2012, Mystery Tackle Box has delighted fishermen with a surprise box of lures delivered to their mailbox every month.
From the start, MTB was a success and has since evolved, making changes to their product to improve customer satisfaction.
Indeed, Mystery Tackle Box has come a long way and has been the leader in the monthly tackle box subscription world, but I believe nothing improves a product like healthy competition!
Mystery Tackle Box offers numerous subscriptions. Those are listed below:
- Regular – Contains approximately $25 worth of lures.
- Pro – Contains approximately $40 worth of lures.
- Elite – Contains approximately $60 worth of lures.
Each of these plans have the option for the customer to choose what species they would like their lures to be targeted towards. Those categories are:
- Bass – Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass.
- Inshore Saltwater – Redfish, speckled trout, snook, and striped bass.
- Panfish and Trout – Crappie, perch, bluegill, rainbow trout, brook trout, and cutthroat.
- Walleye – Walleye and sauger.
A Little About Monsterbass
In 2019 Monster Bass was introduced to bass anglers as a new tackle subscription service.
In only a few years this “new kid on the block” has made considerable strides towards overtaking Mystery Tackle Box by listening to their customers and taking a different approach to giving bass fisherman what they are looking for in a monthly tackle subscription box.
In this article I’ll lay out a few pros and cons for each service and also take a look at the differences between Mystery Tackle Box and Monsterbass.
I’ll also tell you what I personally like and dislike about each subscription, and compare all of the features, prices, and first-hand reviews from fellow anglers who have purchased both subscriptions.
Monsterbass offers numerous subscriptions. Those are listed below:
Sliver Series
- 5+ baits – $30 in value every month
- Exclusive access to 200+ instructional fishing videos
- VIP Store Membership: 30% off everyday
- $10 gift card every month
- $25 tournament entry every month
- Stickers, free samples & more…
- 6+ baits – $40+ in value every month
- Exclusive access to 200+ instructional fishing videos
- VIP Store Membership: 30% off everyday
- FREE Bait Friday
- $10 gift card every month
- Early access to sales & new product launches
- $25 tournament entry every month
- Stickers, free samples & more…
- 7+ baits – $50 in value
- Exclusive access to 200+ instructional fishing videos
- Limited Edition baits & colors
- VIP Store Membership: up to 30% off storewide
- Early access to sales & new product launches
- FREE bait FRIDAY
- $20 in gift cards every month
- Stickers, free samples & more…
The Platinum series and Multi Species allows customers to select a region in order to receive lures that fit the area that they fish. Those regions are:
- Midwest & Great Lakes
- Pacific Southwest
- Southern Region
- Northwest & Mountain Region
- About $50 in value. Lures to target bluegill, crappie, and bass.
- 8 baits.
- Stickers and samples.
Mystery Tackle Box Features vs Monsterbass Features
Now we will break down the features of each subscription and recommend what type of angler each subscription is better suited for.
Box Style
While most fishermen don’t really care about what the box looks like, I can see how it might be important to the younger crowd or someone who is ordering a subscription as a gift for the fisherman in their life.
Both boxes are similar in shape and size.
Mystery Tackle Box has lures drawn in sketch style all over the front of the box with their logo of a fisherman holding a fishing pole and tackle box. There is no color to the box. It is cardboard colored.
The Monsterbass box has a logo as well with the word “Monsterbass” written across the top in big bold letters.
The pattern on the entire box is the pattern you see on water contour depth charts in lakes and reservoirs. The box is light gray.
My Rating
Monsterbass: 9
Mystery Tackle Box: 7
The Monsterbass box has a more mature look to it, being that there are lake topography contours printed over the entire box. I’d recommend this for anglers who are more experienced.
Mystery Tackle Box has a more novice look to the box which caters to younger anglers who would react better to different lures drawn on the cover in a sketch style.
But that’s just my opinion. I’ve asked both Jackson (9) and Bruce (37) about what they thought about the boxes below are there responses:
Jackson’s (novice) Rating
Mystery Tackle Box: 10
Monsterbass: 8
“I like the Mystery Tackle Box better because it has all the different kinds of lures drawn on the box. I like to pick which one I think I might get on the box before I unbox it,” said Jackson
Bruce’s (pro) Rating
Mystery Tackle Box: 5
Monsterbass: 4
“The box really doesn’t matter to me. I guess Monsterbass is better just because they are colored and not plain looking,” said Bruce
Box Contents
Now let’s take a look at what is probably the most important feature of these subscriptions – what’s in the box!
My Rating
Monsterbass: 9
Mystery Tackle Box: 8
When I received my Mystery Tackle Box fishing subscription box there was an assortment of lures, hooks, and a promotional sticker.
The box contained a spinnerbait, a bag of tube jigs, a bag of swimbaits, a crankbait, and a pack of plastic worms.
All-in-all, the price came out to be a little over $25 which was above the $19.99 cost of the monthly subscription. All of the brands were ones that I have heard of and considered quality companies.
To be honest, I was worried about MTB sending sample packs of lures because being in the lure industry, I know that these packs are free for larger companies and I could see how MTB could make money giving these out in place of retail packs of baits.
So I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the packs of baits were regular-sized like you would buy at the sporting goods store.
When I received my Monsterbass fishing subscription box there was a crankbait, a spinnerbait, a bag of soft plastics, a bag of plastic worms, and a bag of Senkos.
One thing that I liked is that there was also a bag of Jig Heads included which is important to me because jig heads are much needed and often overlooked when I shop for tackle.
All the fishing tackle added up to $40. There was also a nice little card that broke down the cost of each item which was nice.
All of the brands were brands that I have heard of and considered quality companies. Monster bass also included retail-sized baits instead of sample packs which I liked.
Jackson’s Rating
Mystery Tackle Box: 9
Monsterbass: 8
“I like crankbaits. Those are my favorite! Mystery Tackle Box seems like they have more crankbaits in their boxes than Monsterbass. I like the stickers too. They always give me more stickers,” Jackson said.
Bruce’s Rating
Monsterbass: 8
Mystery Tackle Box: 5
“Monsterbass is by far better because I can customize what types of lures I get through their website. I’ve thrown a lot of stuff away when I was subscribed to MTB. I just didn’t need some of the stuff they gave me,” said Bruce.
Price
The basic subscriptions for both MTB and Monsterbass are very affordable at $20 a month. Both offer free shipping.
My Rating
Monsterbass: 9
Mystery Tackle Box: 7
Both fishing subscription boxes contained about the same lures but one thing that set Monsterbass apart was their subscription to online videos that showed how to fish each lure.
This was an added bonus for me because the videos are high quality and worth a subscription by themselves.
Jackson’s Rating
Monsterbass: —
Mystery Tackle Box: —
Jackson didn’t know how much it cost because it was a gift from his grandmother she purchased on Amazon
Bruce’s Rating
Monsterbass: 9
Mystery Tackle Box: 9
“There about the same. 20 bucks a month is well worth both the subscriptions.
It’s worth $20 bucks just anticipating the box in the mailbox when I get home.
I do like the fact that all members of Monsterbass get a 30% discount on anything purchased on their website so maybe Monsterbass has the edge there.
It’s definitely worth it,” Bruce said.
Value
So how does each subscription break down as far as value goes? Each subscription claims to offer more value than the price.
Mystery Tackle Box – $25 value
Monsterbass – $40 value
My Rating
Monsterbass: 9
Mystery Tackle Box: 6
This is where Monsterbass separates themselves from Mystery Tackle Box. They clearly make an effort to give the customer WAY more value by assembling each box with contents that equal $40.
Jackson’s Rating
Monsterbass: 10
Mystery Tackle Box: 9
“Monsterbass gives more stuff away. I once got a Stutter Step (Bill Lewis Crankbait) from them and caught my PB (Personal Best) Bass on it.
I’m glad they sent that bait. If I never got that bait I would have never caught that fish because I don’t usually fish with big baits.
That bait was a big bait and it caught a big bass!” said Jackson.
Bruce’s Rating
Monsterbass: 9
Mystery Tackle Box: 6
“To me, the people at Monsterbass know fishing better than the people at Mystery Tackle Box.
Put it this way – from hard baits to finesse lures I use more baits I get from Monsterbass than I do from my MTB.
Sometimes I get so focused on using a few lures that I don’t get to try other lures. Monsterbass forces me to try other lures because they just look so good to me.
Also they back up their claim by adding a card that has each lure and how much it sells for at retailers like Walmart and Amazon,” Brice said.
Customizable Options
Now we’ll take a look at customizable options. Mystery Tackle Box offers anglers the selection of what species of fish they want to target that matches the type of fishing the customer is doing.
Monster Bass allows anglers to select an option of what part of the state they are fishing in so that the lures can better reflect what they are catching.
However, at the basic plan, Monsterbass doesn’t include this option.
My Rating
Mystery Tackle Box: 9
Monsterbass: 7
Before subscribing to Monsterbass, I heard that the option to select a geographical location was part of their plan.
However I soon learned that this is an option that they include in their more expensive plans.
I was happy to see that Mystery Tackle box included the option of choosing what fish I was targeting so I wouldn’t be wasting money on different lures walleye or rainbow trout.
Jackson’s Rating
Mystery Tackle Box: 10
Monsterbass: 8
“I like to change my box every once in a while – like when we go fishing for specks (speckled trout).
I like to get saltwater soft plastics that I can bring on the boat with me to help me catch more specks. Monsterbass doesn’t do that. All they have is bass lures,” he said.
Bruce’s Rating
Mystery Tackle Box: 9
Monsterbass: 6
“I was disappointed with Monsterbass as far as the options go.
I have the basic package and the lack of options was really disappointing. MTB does a good job with letting me be able to change what fish I’m targeting.
I’m a bass fisherman and use bass fishing gear 90% of the time but when summer hits, and those big bull-reds are slamming top water baits, it’s great to be able to switch over to the “Inshore Saltwater” that has saltwater fishing gear in the box,” Bruce said.
Standout Features
- Monsterbass: Online subscription to how-to videos on each lure
- Monsterbass: Offers more discounts and promotions and coupons
- Monsterbass: Different species-specific packages
- Monsterbass: Free shipping
- Monsterbass: $25 to fish a local tournament
- Mystery Tackle Box: Pause or cancel subscription at any time
- Mystery Tackle Box: 40% off MSRP on new baits
- Mystery Tackle Box: Free shipping
- Mystery Tackle Box: Include lures for targeting saltwater fish
Conclusion
There’s no “one size fits all” summary for each subscription and this Mystery Tackle Box vs Monster Bass review proves it.
I think the opinions given by our two fishermen suggest that Monsterbass is clearly suited for older anglers and those more experienced in the bass fishing world, while Mystery Tackle Box is preferred by the younger, beginner crowd.
The one thing that is clear however is that tackle subscription services are here to stay!
