By Capt. Cefus McRae, Nuts & Bolts of Fishing Series
You can tell spring has finally sprung when you see dogwoods in full bloom, and every car has a thick coat of yellow pollen on it.
In our household this new season means it’s time to break out the fishing gear that has been patiently waiting for the warm weather to arrive.
Now, it’s true that I do fish year ‘round, and my fishing gear gets used on a regular basis. But there is some gear that hibernates during the winter months and needs a little TLC in the spring.
Just like your boat, hopefully you ‘winterized’ your tackle before you put it away last fall.
You gave everything a good fresh water rinse, put a little paste wax on your rod blanks, a little non-corrosive spray on the moving parts of your reel, and tidied-up your lure and tackle trays. At the end of the season, I always completely empty my tackle bags and shake them out over the garbage can. There are usually a couple half-eaten, crushed up crackers and a few wads of fishing line lodged in a corner.
On the other hand, maybe you were rushed to get home on your last fishing trip in October; and you just put all your gear in a corner, or maybe even left it on the boat. It’s been sitting there in a damp compartment with a forgotten bologna sandwich, and a bottle of chocolate milk. Oops.
Revitalizing your gear is pretty simple. Take the reels off the rods and rinse both with fresh water, using a soft rag to remove leftover fish scales or goo. Dry the rod and roll a Q-TIp around the inside of each guide. If any cotton fibers get caught in a guide, then you’ve potentially got a problem. A nicked or scored eye can abrade your line to the point it breaks the next time you’re fighting a trophy fish. If all is good, put a light coat of car wax on the rod, guides and guide frames, and buff to a shine. This will not only make your rod look great, the UV inhibitors in the wax will protect the finish, and the wax will make the rod easier to clean in the future.
Next, decide if you need to replace the line on the reel. If it’s spooled with monofilament, and been sitting up since the fall, it’s probably a good idea to respool. First, give the empty spool a good cleaning, and perform the manufacturer’s recommended lubrication on the internal and external components. After that, a light coat of wax on the exterior is a good idea.
If your reel has braided line, you have a couple options. One is to simply pull off a few yards of line, cut that off and call it a day. That top couple of coils is what gets the most abuse during the season, and by removing it, you have reasonably good line to start the new season. Unless the line is really old, I don’t typically replace the entire spool until I have cut so much off that it doesn’t cast properly anymore.
The second option is to ‘flip’ the braided line over, and use the portion of the line that’s never left the spool. Most of the time, you’re only working with the top 25% of the line on a spool. All the other braid just sits there as backing, and that line is virtually brand new. The new superlines have a long shelf life compared to monofilament, and they don’t develop a ‘memory’. So you can get double mileage out of that expensive line. To do this, get another empty reel…tie the end of the existing line on it…and wind it on. You’ll be moving the used portion of the line to the bottom of the spool and all that unused line will now be on top.
Finally, take a good look at your lures, hooks, swivels, etc. in your tackle trays. You don’t need to throw away lures just because the hooks are rusty. Replace the hooks using new split rings.
Spring cleaning is somewhat of a ritual for me. It’s something I look forward to each year, because it heralds in a new fishing season. It’s also a great way to spend some quality time with your kids and teach them about tackle maintenance. Take care of your tackle and it will take care of you.
Tight lines and calm seas.
Capt. Cefus McRae