LONG CLEANING TIME
Finally got everything cleaned. It took a long time to get all the fly lines cleaned. I had to take them off the reel and wash them for their full length. Then hang them to dry. I do use zip cast to clean them during the year, but that does not get them clean for their full length. I use the zip cast over the length of line that I use for casting most of the time.
I also cleaned the furled leaders that I have been using. I was not sure that I could use zip cast on those so I used the dish soap and got a lot of junk off the furled leaders using that. I know there was gunk on them from the ponds as at the end of the season there was an algae bloom.
I decided to also wipe down all of the rods. It’s amazing how much dirt was on them. They picked up a lot of dust from laying on the grass when I am fishing from the bank. I washed the outside of the reels also as I did that. There were almost as bad as the rods.
Then I checked the lubrication on the inside of the reels. I cleaned those and replaced the lubrication on all of those. They looked very different from pre-cleaning and post cleaning. Reminds me of the old statement that it’s what you don’t see that hurts you.
This year I got this done later than I usually do. This is usually done by the end of January. There is some open water starting to show around the edges of a few ponds. It was a stimulus to finish all the cleaning so I could head out for the New Year.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick