On Some Cold Winter Day

     The next time there’s a cold winter day and you find yourself dreaming about open water fishing go get your tackle box out of the closet.  This is a perfect time to go through your tackle box and make sure all of your lures are in tip-top shape for next season. 

     If you’re anything like my family then you probably don’t have much time to think about the shape your tackle is in until you’re out fishing.  By then it’s too late to do anything about the rusty hooks, missing hooks or bent eyelets.  It may take a little time, especially if you have as much tackle as we do, but you’ll be thankful you did when you’re pulling in fish after fish on the water next summer.

     You may not have thought about the beating a lure endures.  My lures get stuck in trees, submerged logs, rock piles, my fingers, my clothes and anything else they get near.  I yank on them with my needle nose and find them stuck to 5 other lures in the bottom of my box.  I have bent hooks and lures that would never be able to catch a fish so what am I doing with them?  I could fix them up to be fish catching machines if I just took a little time now.

     There are a number of things you can do with lures to make them attract and catch more fish.  While it is possible to remove the rust from a hook experts suggest just removing the hook and replacing it with a new one.  If you do leave an old hook on then make sure each point is sharp and bent back into the right shape with a needle nosed plier.  If you want to keep them from corroding then spray some WD-40 on it.  Lures can be cleaned with baking powder and water and jigs can be coated with clear nail polish to protect the paint and make them shinier.  You can add some paint to your own lures or colored tape to make them more flashy.

     I’m not sure I will have time to do all of the above steps before fishing season starts.  Hopefully I’ll at least have time to remove any wrappers, old sunscreen, food or water from my tackle box.  But if not, then it will surely still be there for me to deal with come May.