Winter prep
This last weekend, I started the process of preparing the gear for winter. It is really important to maintain and then store your gear correctly to ensure that it will be working how you want it in the spring.
Firstly, I took the Tiagra 50’s and Talica 20’s off the rods, I have kept the 80’s and 130’s going for the fall run which will be more of a bait bite, that said the Tuna spinning gear will accompany me on every Tuna trip till the end of the season. I then broke down all of the Bass gear and put the reels with the trolling gear and presented it Tom in the Rod and Reel room. Tom will clean and lube the reels, check the rollers and make sure the top shots are ready for next year.
The bass rods get a thorough wash with fresh water, a light oiling on the reel seats and are then are stored in the basement in old rod racks to ensure they are kept nice and straight. It is important to do this as leaning them against a wall for the winter might cause the rods to bow slightly.
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Tuna bars on 12" pegs[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1225" align="alignright" width="253"]
Stringers hanging on 2x4. The hooks are tucked behind cooler.[/caption]
This year I created a new system to store the Tuna bars, I simply mounted an old piece of slat wall onto the garage wall (out of the sun) and then used some 12 inch pegs from the shop. All of the bars now hang nice and evenly. Its really easy to see which bars and line need attention and most importantly the squid shells will hold their form and do not get flattened. On the other side of the room I used a piece of 2x4 and screws to hang the stingers, they needed to be hung separately as the overall bar would be too long if not separated. I then stacked my cooler boxes in front of the stingers to keep the hooks themselves out of harms way.
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The left overs.[/caption]
Once I had hung all of the bars, I had a small pile of broken bars and messed up lines remaining, I then took them into the store for Danny to fix over the winter for me.
We offer a full repair and maintenance service at the store, if you would like us to provide the winter maintenance, storage and repair of any of your fishing equipment, please bring it along to the store for Tom, Mark and Danny to get things sorted.
Phil