Hi AMFisHers! Well the end of the fishing season has found many of us these past couple of months and now it’s time to store all that fishing gear away until spring.
Well the question here is where do you start? If you have several fishing rods and bait trays like I do you need to do things correctly to prevent serious rust issues. I usually bring all my trays inside when the season ends, keeping them in a nice warm house is much better than a cold moist garage.
I set aside time throughout the winter months to go through a tray here and there sorting out the baits, making sure they are all fully dry and clean of any dirt/weed. Trust me this takes a lot of time especially if you have about 10 baits trays BUT it’s critical to ensure those expensive fishing baits to not rust away all winter long, that’s just money down the drain.
One good thing out of this procedure is you can re-organize all your bait trays, as an AMFisHer things get misplaced in trays all the time so take the time to go through each tray examining those baits in detail, making sure hooks are in working order and sharp, O-rings are fully closed, paint is not flaking off any baits, baits are not cracked of damaged in any way, very thorough look is what is needed after a long fishing season.
With you rods and reels it’s the same thing get them into a warm place to be looked at and stored, moisture is just not a good thing and even worse when mixed with cold temperatures. I take off all my reels and examine about 20 feet of line of more to see if the line needs to be changed. If a change in line is needed I strip all that old line off and re-spool new line on that reel come the down time over winter or in the early spring. I give each reel a very good rinse under running water, this is to clean the reel up from any dirt that has gotten into all the little places. When the reel has dried over night I once again start the examination process of screws, buttons, knobs, handles, grips, line guide, you name it I give it a good long look over and I loosen up the drag all the way, no point in having all that tension engaged throughout the winter, back it off and leave the reel in a relaxed state. If all is good the reel goes into a storage box wrapped up in some cloth to prevent it gathering dust.
When the reels are all stored away I look at each fishing rod, give them a good wipe down with a damp cloth to remove dust/dirt them examine them closely to see if there are any cracks or missing pieces off any guides, if all is good I store those away in a closet wrapped together.
Our fishing gear takes a serious pounding throughout the year and spending the time cleaning, sorting and storing it away will allow you to get the most lifespan out of all your gear and prevent premature aging of items. Like I said this take a lot of time but it needs to be done, tossing it in the garage hoping for the best come spring is not an option.
Take care of your fishing gear everyone we get hours of pleasure from it on the water the least we can do it take care of it!
The AMFisH guy…
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