Tangled tackle fondling 2026

The snow is mostly gone, the mud is flowing, the stocking trucks are rolling and that means only one thing: it’s tackle fondling time!

Yes, it’s that happy time of year when we dig out all the gear we carefully cleaned and stowed away back in November.

What’s that? You left it all in the car until you had to help Aunt Edna move? And now it’s piled up in the garage?

Never mind that. What’s important is getting ahead of it,starting now.

Reels: Take the spools off and blast them with a can of compressed air. Then deploy a Q-tip to get the stubborn stuff. Then deploy something long and pointy to get the little bits of cotton that came off the Q-tip.

Lines: Clip off the old leader. It’s no good. Pull the fly line of the reel and clean it with something. There are many commercial products available. The Rio line cleaner seems to work pretty well, but it goes fast. I use a weak solution of Dawn dish soap and warmish water and a clean sponge or two, so I can see just how much yick comes off the line. Then I give it a shot of some stuff called Albolene, which is used for removing heavy theatrical makeup. It also functions as a line dressing and costs much less than actual line dressings.

Rods: I check guides and ferrules, and give everything a wipe with a chamois cloth or something similar. Then I start emailing people I barely know looking for someone who repairs rods.

I have something like 60 fly rods, and they are a pain in the neck to store. But I had a brain wave over the winter and bought four kitchen garbage cans. Ignoring the lids, I arranged them in a corner of my living room and to my delight found I can corral most of the rods in such a way that I can actually find the one I want.

It works very well. If the cans had an Orvis or Simms logo on them I could sell them for $85 apiece as a “modular rod storage system.”

Flies: What you absolutely don’t want to do is buy more fly boxes because the giant cardboard box filled with fly boxes is still in the back of the car and you can’t remember what’s in any of them so it’s better to just buy new flies and boxes and use those, reserving the joy of sorting through the old boxes for the summer when you’re at the summer camp that has a nice big table. Whatever you do, don’t do this. Oh, excuse me, that must be the Amazon guy at the door with my new boxes and flies.

Waders and boots: I have a dedicated wader rack where I hang them up. This is an improvement over my old method, which was to leave them in the car in a crumpled heap all winter. Check for leaks by taking a small flashlight and running it over the seams from the inside of the waders. If you see pinholes then it’s time to deploy Aquaseal. There are wader repair kits that have small tubes of Aquaseal and patches that can be cut to fit. Do not buy a big tube of Aquaseal unless you plan to use it very quickly, otherwise the big expensive tube turns to stone in a matter of days. That’s why the tubes in the kits are small. Ask me how I know this.

Check boot laces and replace if necessary. Paracord is your friend here, if you’re on a tight budget and don’t mind using a lighter to create an aglet. Look for missing studs and replace. Clean the soles with an old toothbrush. Do this outside. Ask me how I know this, too.

Note: Thanks for all the kind inquiries as to my new right hip. I am pleased to report that Ye Surgeon took me off the Injured Reserve list a couple of weeks ago, and as soon as things settle down a bit on the run-off, I will be back in action for the first time since September 2025.