Well the Cold Weather is Good for Something
 

Since there's not much fishing happening right now I started going through my tackle bags, spare lure drawers and miscellaneous boxes of gear that have been accumulating.

I'm mostly a freshwater fisherman and it really shows in my gear. I love fishing with plastic lizards, and over the years I've become a firm believer that color does matter for some lures. Lizards are on of those lures where it seems to matter. So that fueled my addiction to having virtually every conceivable lizard color and combo ever made.

I counted up all the bags of lizards (Mostly Zoom 6") and estimated that I have 315 plastic lizards. :eek:
Same thing with plastic worms. Between finesse worms, trick worms and senkos I'm pushing almost 200 worms. :rolleyes:

I use a lot of beetlespins for Crappie and White Perch. Every time I go to Walmart I pick up a few since they're only 99 cents there. It looks like I have 22 beetlespins.

Now of course the plastics have a finite lifetime before they get too chewed up and beetlespins aways seem to get loston underwater snags a few times a year, so I don't feel too weird about having a fair amount as back-up.;)

Anyway, I cleaned all the goop and trash out of my bags (found a pint of Jack Daniels in one! Woohoo!) and vacuumed out all the stinkbugs that have taken up residence in my bags since I've had them out in the garage (When will these $^%$#$# things go away?:mad: )

So both my freshwater and my saltwater bag are cleaned out and organized and it looks like I have absolutely NOTHING on my shopping list for the Timonium show or the Pasadena show. I guess it'll be beer and oysters getting all of my money this year. :D

I also took apart a few reels and cleaned them pretty well. I use a lot of Reelmagic on them throughout the year and it really seems to help keep the reels and line in decent shape, especially the saltwater combos. This year I'm trying something different to lube the reels. I have a small bottle of Wilson Combat gun grease that I use on...well on my guns:rolleyes: and it works fantastic. I figured if it's good enough to handle the abuses of thousands of rounds of ammo through my guns than it'll perform excellent on my reels. I'll let y'all know at the end of the season about that.

I also learned that I have 16 rod and reel combos as well as a few extra reels sitting around. Where in the HELL did these all come from?:o (Geez I hope my wife never sees them all at the same time.)

So I think that was a good use of about 4 hours of my time tonight.

Is it spring yet? :(

you did all that in 4 hours??

If you come over my house and help me, I will buy you a case of beer, or a 5th of whatever you want.

That sounds like a 3-4 week project a couple of hours a night for me.

Good Job,

John

Well I only got 2 of the combos cleaned up.:o

I have to cycle them through the house 2 at a time or else the wife will get wise to my collection. I figure anoher 6 hours to get the rest ofthe gear tuned up.

But yeah....the tackle is ready to go! :D

Damn and here all I have gotten done over the last few days was build and install a new 16 rod holder to hang from the ceiling in my garage...At least my wife just looks at the stuff now, shakes her head, and walks away...She has no idea how imortant it is to have the right equipment for the job....

Hopefully Marty wont tell me about Clyde's having a great sale on trolling gear again this year...

:)

Spot,

You mentioned nothing about moving on to your shootin' irons... ...or is that a subject for that other board?? :) There's a lot to be said about using something like "break free" on your reels...

I still need to touch up planer boards and reconfigure my stuff for spring.

Don

Last year I came to the realization that I don't need to buy any fishing tackle ever again. This might be a slight overstatement, but with dozens each of bucktails, jigheads, rattletraps, 100's of fresh and salt plastics, chutes and spoons, I really am set for years. Only thng to still buy regularly is terminal tackle and line and leader. I notice old-timers' tackle boxes are usually sparse with only a few lures proven over years. I have tons of stuff I never throw. Why is that?

Man if I ever got to use them, I'd have a need to clean them. :rolleyes:

I actually get to shoot less than a half dozen times a year.

Of course I'll burn through 5,000 rounds each time. :D

I did use Break Free for a while, and when I just need a regular oil I put that CLP on everything. But Mark at 2A in Jessup swears by the Wilson stuff so I told him I'd try both the grease and the oil.

Reminds me of the quote about fearing the man who owns only one rifle.....you can be damn sure he knows how to use it.

I buy a lot of things that look great in the stores, but after trying them with no luck or being disappointed in the action I tend to jump right back to my old reliable lures.

Which leads to me having tons of crap I'll never use.:rolleyes:

I haven;t bought anything in two years. Just don;t need to. The RIPS normally " ate" my tackle, but fishing the RIPS is just a waste of time at this point.

I " double ordered" jig heads from Capt Steve three years ago, which I figured out two years ago, so I'm good. With the cancellation of Upper Marlboro show, which I ALWAYS attended, mostly for the comradeship, that's lessened my urge to buy things that " look good".

I do need some lil bunkers thou...