Spring Cleaning for Fishermen, on the Cheap

Spring has come early to Virginia. I didn't take the daffodils or the forsythia very seriously. Forsythia will bloom for a wet fart and can't be trusted. But when I woke up one morning to hear the mating calls of Carolina wrens I knew that this spring business was really underway.

Its time to do something about that unsightly snarl of line, leader and chunks of dried pond gunk that your fishing tackle has become.

Today I roused out all of my fishing rigs from the garage and the trunk of my car. Almost all of my reels were cleaned and given a spool of nice fresh line. The tackle boxes have turned out to be a two day project that I'll finish up tomorrow. Meanwhile, I got to thinking about this little spring ritual and I want to point out some spring maintenance things for fishing tackle that a lot of new or stagnant fishermen might not know about.

1. Fishing line needs to be periodically replaced. Oh man, how I wish someone had explained this to me when I was a kid. Regular monofilament fishing line eventually conforms to the shape of the reel and your line will suffer from 'line memory.' Line memory is evident when you cast out and the line sits on the water in those inconvenient corkscrews. An old line tends to become weaker as well and is more likely to break when stress is put on it. You know when stress will be put on it? Right after a big fish runs off with your hook. So replace your line at least once a year!

This doesn't cost much money. A spool of decent mono line can be bought for less than $10. Really good stuff could cost as much as $30. The crappiest line out there was the stuff you got for free. The line that was already spooled onto your $25 rod and reel combo. That line is the fishing equivalent of the crappy headphones that come with an mp3 player. Ok, it kind of works but you are expected to replace it.

Not sure what to buy? Stren makes good stuff, and I've really been happy this past year with Northland's 'Bionic' line, which is usually a little stronger than advertised. This 8 pound test braided line should be great for bass, smaller catfish and pan fish in general in an early spring like this. Its designed for ice-fishing, so if we get a March or April cold snap and you go out fishing anyway then it will hold up against the freeze. Its blue camouflage, which means that it blends in with the sky when a fish sees it from below. It costs less than $8. Just go for it.

2. Cleaning and oiling your reel. This isn't very hard to do and besides, taking things apart is fun. This video that someone posted on Youtube gives a pretty good run-down of how to do this job and I don't think that I could much improve on it. This is worth bothering with whether you paid $200 or $10 for your fishing reel. Its like changing the oil in your car. Sooner or later it has to be done or the thing will break, probably at a very inconvenient moment.

3. Throw away the crap. Those old leaders with rusty hooks that you picked up off of the ground? Cheap lures that never caught a single fish no matter what situation you tried them in? Clean out your tackle box and get rid of the stuff that doesn't catch fish.

4. Make sure that you still have the basics. There are some fundamental standbys that your typical knock-about American fisherman ought to have in his or her tacklebox. See to these items and replace them if need be. If you don't have strong feelings otherwise, you should have the following:

1. Some plastic worms. These are good, and so are plenty of other brands.
2. A few spinners. I absolutely love these little Rooster Tails. Big bluegill go nuts for them and now and then I get a bass on these things as well. The backseat of my car contains at least three ripped-open packages from these lures. All bought at country stores in the middle of nowhere when I hadn't caught anything the day before and I realized that the answer was waiting for me right there between the cold beer and the bait tank.
3. The Arbogast Jitterbug lure. I keep mentioning this lure in blog entries because it keeps catching big bass for me. The frog one is the best.
4. Good hooks in a variety of sizes. I really love weedless hooks since I usually fish without a boat and I'm stuck trying to cast out past the weeds along the banks of ponds and lakes. Weedless hooks are a godsend. A lot of brands are good, including these ones from Matzuo. Honestly, if you have to fish around a lot of weeds and snags then these hooks will save you money. You will lose less tackle in the snags.
5. As for bobbers when using live bait, I have only ever bought them once in my entire life. I find that bobbers are mostly floating around free for the taking at any public fishing lake and there's no need to spend money on them.

That's enough for now. This ought to keep you busy through the weekend without costing you more than $30 or so to get your gear in order for the next six months or so. Try to get out there and fish some this weekend, ok?

[Photo copyright 2011 and 2012 by Jackson Landers. That is Fergus Clare with a 17" bass that he caught on (as I recall) a brown plastic worm.]