Top Five Things to do Before Fishing Season Starts.

Hunting season is over and spring is quickly approaching. This can only mean one thing. It’s time to get ready for the fishing season! If you’re like me you have barely touched your fishing gear since September or October. Now is the perfect time to drag yourself out of duckpression and get ready to catch that fish that got away. Below is a top five list of what you need to do to get ready for your first day out on the water.

5. Get your watercraft registered. Depending on your state you will need to have your boat, kayak, or canoe registered. If it’s annual get on this right away! You don’t want to end up with a ticket on the first nice day of the year. Nothing would be quite the buzz kill as having a full stringer of crappie when you get slammed with a hefty fine for operating an unregistered boat!

4. Get those tackle boxes organized! If you’re anything like me, then you absolute trash your tackle box. On the first day it’s immaculate. Everything is arranged by lure type, size, color, and purpose. By the end of the season, you have senkos in the frogging box and square bill crank baits in with your deep diving rapalas. As the season goes on you take one lure off and replace it with another. Often, we are in a rush and just put and take as we go. By the end of the season our boxes are pure pandemonium. Exterior pockets are full of half-empty bottles of sunscreen and bug spray, gas station receipts, those pliers you thought you lost, and a graveyard of Snickers wrappers. RIP. Get in there and organize your lures. While you do this inspect them for damage. Check for rust and bent hooks. Replace what needs replacing, but remember that you can sharpen some hooks by hand, and even buy new hooks for your lures and switch them out with just a pair of pliers. Don’t trash that twenty-dollar specialty lure or sentimental spinner without checking for a cheap fix. Take inventory while you go, and you won’t waste money on more curly tail grubs when you have nine unopened packs stuffed in a snack pocket on your tacklebox that you forgot about seven months ago. You’ll also avoid a ton of stress and regret if you double check that your lucky lures and just-in-case emergency backups are actually in that compartment you swear you put them in. Don’t wait until you’re on the water, miles from home, to test how good your memory actually is. Start the season off right with sharp hooks and an organized tackle box.

3. Respool your reels. Nothing is more frustrating than casting out the first cast of the day and getting a bird’s nest. If you’ve fished long enough you’ve certainly ran into memory coils. Line memory can make a great day bad. I recommend always changing out your monofilament at least annually. Normally I will change out braid at the same time as well. Braid doesn’t have as big of an issue as monofilament in regards to memory but, it still is affected. Line isn’t expensive and it beats struggling with your casts all day. So, go buy some spools, turn on YouTube, and get to respooling.

2. Clean, lubricate, and inspect your rods and reels. Before you replace the line on your reels you want to ensure they are in working condition. Inspect them, make sure there are no issues with the bail or drag. After that take them apart and clean them. Dirt and water get into our reels no matter how careful we are. This causes the oil and grease in the reels to degrade. Clean out the oil and grease and replace it. You can easily purchase a kit which contains a cleaning fluid, oil, and grease. This process will improve the reels and make them feel close to new again. I won’t sit here and tell you they will feel out of the box new but, they will feel and perform better. After this put your reels back together and make sure they are functioning correctly. Next inspect your rods. Are there any issues with the guide eyes? Look for cracks and damage on the rod. Some minor damage can be fixed, if its major it’s time to replace it.

1. Buy new licenses. This should go without saying, but in case you forgot it’s a new year and you have to pay for this year’s license. Now is a great time to buy them all. If you fish multiple states buy all your licenses. You can purchase most if not all licenses online. Get them now before you forget. You really don’t want to deal with the game warden because you forgot to purchase this year’s fishing license.

That’s the top five things you need to do before heading to your favorite body of water. With this you’ll be organized and ready to go. Get out there and good luck!

Orion

The Versatile Hunter