Today’s Universal Fly Fishing Tip is one that most anglers know, but few actually follow through on. After a day or a week or fishing, make sure you dry out your gear well.
Gear that gets stored wet gets nasty. Waders stink, rod socks mildew, flies rust and backing turns black. When you’re done with your fishing session, make sure you get all your gear dry.
That means…
- Hang up your waders inside out so any sweaty condensation dries out. Go to the extra effort of pulling your stocking feet inside out – they’ll get really nasty otherwise.
- Take your rod socks of of their tubes and unroll them.
- Hang up your raincoat and take everything out of its pockets.
- Set out your wading boots.
- Open up your fly boxes. If you’ve got a bunch of matted down flies all crammed in there together (say with marabou or bunny fur), spread them out.
- Take the covers off your reels.
- Unzip the pockets on boat bags, hip packs, etc.
- Open up any waterproof cases (like that Pelican case for your camera) that might have gotten a tiny bit of moisture in them – those cases keep water in as well as they keep it out.
- Do your laundry right now, you slob!
[…] Dry Out Your Gear! […]