So what’s a guy to do? I could sit here and brood over the weather, but it would do little to change it. I could fish in wet and cold, but I know my rain suit will soak all the way through after about two hours of exposure. If it were summer, I might go. But the cold weather is making me do something else.
Today is a good day to get my tackle boxes straightened out. After multiple trips at the end of which I did not go through all my tackle, it’s time to get it right. So, today I sit in front of a fire, plastic sheeting on the carpet and wooden floor (my wife refuses to allow my tackle in the house without it!) with reels and tackle boxes waiting to be cleaned.
Every trip I take ends with a soap and water scrub of my rods and reels. Caked on salt does not come off with a simple hosing. We call it “breaking the salt”, and the same is true of your boat. If all you do is hose your boat and trailer off with a garden hose, you will be replacing corroded trailer and boat parts in short order.
But the tackle boxes themselves often end up being closed up until the next trip. I have opened a box and felt the crystallized salt on the inside of the box. I have seen the rusted and corroded hooks and lures. I tell myself every time that I won’t do it again. But, alas, I seem to let the boxes go – something about being tired and having a sore back at the end of a long day.
So today, I will spend the morning going through every lure and hook in every box. I have some reel cleaning solution from a company named Reel Saver that really works well. It cuts through any salt build up and cleans the reels nicely. It also removes any oil residue, so I will make sure I re-oil any parts I clean. Oiling in most cases means a wipe with an oily rag ( I use MILTEC-1). The gears get the heavier reel grease from the Reel Saver company.
This is a good time to check and or replace line on your reels. Many anglers go months, if not all year without checking or replacing spooled line. With spring on the horizon, I believe I will replace the line on all my reels.
Lures and plugs all need a special cleaning. Sitting in a plastic box, the salt has gotten to most of the treble hooks, and the rusty color has bled over onto the lures. The same Reel Saver cleaner works well at cleaning plug bodies. The hooks, on the other hand will need replacing.
I always keep a supply of new trebles in a variety of sizes. Sometimes a hard fighting fish will tear a treble up and a replacement is needed. There have been several occasions where the treble had to be cut off a lure because it was buried in someone’s skin – usually mine!
A pair of split-ring pliers, some new hooks, and my lures will be as a good as new. I need the split-ring pliers because I always modify my lures and add a split ring to the treble hook. Some lures come that way out of the box and have excellent hooks. Some come without the rings and invariably have cheaper hooks. The split-rings allow me to quickly and easily change hooks.
So, here I am with all my tackle spread in front of me this morning. The television is on an outdoor network of some type, and I’m sitting here watching the professionals catch fish. Seems it’s always in some exotic place than the majority of us can’t afford to fish. I wonder as I go through this rainy day ritual just who cleans all their tackle! I also wonder at myself, why I let my tackle boxes go the way I do.
I didn’t go fishing this morning. So, when I finish this cleaning, my wife just told me, I will have to take her shopping somewhere. I’m thinking my rain suit may keep me dry longer than I first thought! I’m also thinking that the rain has slowed to a steady drizzle, and the temperature may not really be all that cold. I’ll go after an afternoon bite!
Now, where did I lay that new split-ring…
