Fishing Tackle Spring Cleaning

[kempy]

While the fishing is a tad slow, it?s a good time to get your rods, reels and gear back in shape. Mundane it may be, but ultimately, later in the year, good maintenance will put you extra fish on the shore.

I start with a bowl of warm water with a couple of good squirts of washing up liquid added. Using an old tooth brush I give the rod rings on all my rods a really good clean to get all the old salt and grime out, then wash the whole rod down in the same water. I finish with a wash off with the hosepipe and leave them to dry in the open air. When dry I check the rings for damage, and if all?s okay, I give the whole rod a couple of coats of Johnson?s Rally Wax and they?re ready for the new campaign.

Reels are fully stripped to the last screw. Everything gets washed properly in clean petrol and dried. As I do this I keep each part in order of reassembly on clean newspaper. The bearings are double flushed with clean petrol until totally clean, then immersed in oil warmed in an old soup spoon over a candle or lighter. Wait until the air bubbles stop rising from the bearing and this indicates it is fully lubricated. I reassemble the reel using minimal grease on the gears and drive train, and in the drive shaft housing. When back together I wipe the reel over with a cloth soaked in WD40 and it?s ready for action.

[kempy]

Rod rests being made from alloy are also showing signs of powder corrosion and inevitably are covered in old bait. Out comes the bowl and warm water again, but this time I use a Brillo pad to fully clean and polish all the alloy legs and head on the rest and make sure everything is free and working properly.

Seat boxes are emptied and flushed free of sand using the outside hosepipe, then washed in warm soapy water again. Any lingering odours can be cleared by adding a few teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda and leaving the lid closed for a couple of days. I also check the strap and its anchorage are in top shape.

Headlights get a thorough going over too, checking the leads and connections, plus I remove the lens, wash this in clean soapy water, and when dry treat it with a water repellent like Rain-X to stop rain spots sitting on the lens and to keep it cleaner longer. I also put the batteries on drain with the light left on and check the battery life available. If a battery is losing its power time it gets replaced.

This is also the time to check the small accessory boxes I keep my swivels, links, hooks and other bits in, replenishing items as needed. I prefer to do this as a separate thing every month, not just once or twice a year. This means I never run fully out of anything, and if I need to reorder items or visit my tackle shop, then I can do so at leisure without forgetting anything.

Rig wallets are emptied of old rigs, salvaging what is still in good nick and ditching the rest. I also make a note of how many rigs of each type I have left. A few nights are then spent in front of the TV tying up rigs until I have at least six of each type, though often used rigs I carry as many as ten of each.

It can take me as much as two weeks at nights getting everything back fully ship shape, but I look at this as time gained for later on when the fishing is better. General maintenance is ongoing throughout the year for me, but this main binge keeps me well on top of the job. 

[kempy]

Still on the tackle chores, if you?ve a rod with cork handles that have discoloured with grime and sticky old bait you can rejuvenate the cork to its former glory by using a wad of cotton wool, soaking this in Brasso metal cleaning polish and rubbing this over the surface of the cork.

Do this slowly and gently using short strokes in line with the cork handle. The Brasso seems to soak in to the cork slightly and lift the dirt free from the surface. When fully cleaned, wash the cork in water to remove the cleaning fluid

[Fishmagician]

While cleaning all the rods and reels, it's a great time to take a look at the rigging on your trolling outfits (lures)! If that mono is off color, it's going south on you. Re-rig those trolling outfits with new mono and new connections with sharpend hooks is the insurance that tomorrow's trophy catch stays attached until you get a photo of you and it together as opposed to be coming an "The One That Got Away" story. There a good tips here