With proper care and maintenance, good quality gear can easily outlast you. When I’m out on the water, I want to maximise my time out there. I spend the money on quality gear and I take the time to maintain it and treat it properly. The last thing you want is to hook a great fish and you end up losing it because a gear failure, due to neglect. It does not take much time or effort to take care of your gear, which will pay you back over time.

IN GENERAL…

⁠Do you clean your rigs after each and every trip or only after a season? 

When fishing the salt, you need to thoroughly rinse your gear in clean, freshwater at the end of each day. Put the gear in a good spot to dry and make sure your drag is backed off. Important to note, NOT to use high pressure spray from a hose when rinsing off saltwater gear. The heavy spray from a garden hose can actually push the salt and grime further into the reel. 

When fishing freshwater, there generally isn’t a need to rinse your gear off, unless you were fishing a very dusty, muddy, dirty area. A big mistake I see people make is storing their gear after the season with the drag cranked way down, which put lots of pressure on your drag material, which can result in problems when you get going the next season.

I try and treat all my gear with care, no matter if it’s a $2200 tuna set up for a $200 trout set up.  I don’t store any fishing rods and reels in my truck.  Especially during the summer, the high temps are not great for the gear.  Also don’t want to tempt any less than ethical folks walking by my rig, to bust out a window.  Take good care of your gear and it will likely take care of you.

FLY LINE CARE

What does line TLC look like to you?

It is always good to give your lines a good looking over. I make a point to clean my lines during the season if I see them getting dirty. Cleaning them at the end of the season gets them ready for next season and allows you to ID any issues, be it a crack in an older line or a nick in the coating from when you stepped on it. A quality line will for sure perform better when it’s clean. 

Here at Scientific Anglers, we offer a soap formulated for cleaning fly lines. It works great cleaning fly lines without damaging them. If you don’t have a bottle of that, a few drops of a mild dish soap in a couple gallons of water will also do the trick. Run the line through a soft cloth soaked in the soapy water and then rinse the lines thoroughly. Then be sure to let the line dry properly.

During inspection, if you find any cracks, it might be time to pick up a new line.  A few cracks in a sinking line isn’t a huge issue, as long as the coating isn’t coming off the core. Cracks in a floating line however is not good and the line will start sinking as the core soaks up water. Once the core is wet, it takes quite a while to dry, so best to discard the damaged floater and get a new line.

At the end of the season, I know some anglers spool off the lines, in large coils and hang them in a cool, dry place. I would say that is not at all necessary – there is no advantage to unspooling lines and storing them separately during the offseason. Just be sure your lines are clean and dry and not wound onto the reel tightly and they are fine sitting until the next season comes around. Best to keep them in a cool dry place when storing. Our Regulator Spool is a great tool for pulling lines off reels and re-spooling lines onto reels. 

If at the beginning of the season you find that a line was spooled onto the reel under heavy tension and now it’s wavy or coiling, you can usually solve for that. Pull the line off the reel and give it a mild stretch and then give the line a few minutes to rebound and then lightly spool it back into the reel. Generally, once tension is released, the line will relax. If it’s real stiff and has taken a significant set, the line is probably older and is ready for replacement.

If you have a beat up line that you are trying to get through the last part of the season, there are a few things you can do to help. 

First step is be sure it’s clean. Next you can try and bring some slickness back with our Revive Fly Line Treatment – this product will give you some good slickness without the issue of then attracting dirt. Some of the treatments add some slickness but the line then has a residual that attracts more dirt.  The Revive product dries completely, so it does not attract dirt.

If you have an older line, with impregnated slickness, like one of our AST lines, you can use the SA Cleaning Pad to remove a tiny bit of the coating and expose some more AST slickness. It is worth mentioning to NOT use the cleaning pad on any clear lines as this will affect the clarity.

If you find a small nick on your line or you have worn out your welded loop, we now have a great option to repair it. In October 2025, we are rolling out a product called ReLoop, which allows an angler to repair a welded loop or a damaged section of a fly line. 

RODS (not undies)

Do you have any tips for rod care?

For rods (and reels) that I know may sit for an extended period of time, I’ll just make sure the rigs are clean and dried and drags back backed off completely.  I keep all my rods in rods racks mounted on by basement ceiling – assembled with reels and supported horizontally. There’s no issue to store them as such and it allows me to quickly ID all my outfits and grab what I need for a trip. Some folks store reels in pouches and rods disassembled in rod socks. I prefer to be able to see all my gear, be able to take a quick inventory and grab what is needed.

I make a point to look my rods over a few times during the season. Of course when fishing the salt, you should be thoroughly rinsing your gear after every trip. In the fresh, that isn’t necessary, but it’s still a good idea to wipe them down from time to time. A quick cleaning is the perfect time to inspect for any guide, reel seat or cork issues, that you can address. 

It could be during an outing that a stripper guide or snake guide got stepped on or there is a chunk of cork breaking off. Always better to repair that at home than have an issue on the water, causing problems. I make a point to wipe down rods a few times during the season and apply a little wax to ferrules. This helps keep the rod from coming apart when casting, which can cause a break.

Warwick Leslie of Alu-Cab demostrates how to do a clean of your cork-drag reels (like Shilton, Abel and Tibor) here:

JEFF’S BOAT

How do you look after your boat?

I’m blessed here in Michigan to have a nearly 12 month boating season. Even in a real cold winter, there is usually some open water somewhere, so I’m not typically winterising my boat. That being said, when the weather starts getting cold, I’ll change the engine oil and the lower unit oil. The lower unit oil change around here is important because as the temperatures drop below freezing, any water that has leaked in can freeze and cause significant damage.

I make it a point to take very good care of my boat, so it will outlast me. As the main season starts, I’m checking to be sure the bilge pump is working properly, all fuses are good, battery connections are tight and no that there’s corrosion on battery terminals. All screws and bolts must be tight too.  I also check carpet and flooring to be sure there are no issues that need to be addressed. 

It’s also important to check your safety gear; PFDs (Personal Floatation Devices) are all in good condition, flare gun is good and all flares are valid and not expired and make sure the air horn, whistle, compass and radio are all good and the ditch bag is ready to go.  Here in Michigan, I’m fishing some very large bodies of water, I’m talking lakes that are up to 563KM X 257km wide (Lake Superior), and safety is paramount on water like this.  When I have friends and family out on the Double Haul fishing, I’m responsible for their safety

JOIN THE CULT OF FLY FISHING

WEARABLES

What about your apparel? Waders, boots, jackets etc.

At the end of the season I’ll give my waders a good looking over. The off season is a perfect time to make needed repairs. If you noticed a leak during the season, it’s a great time to find that leak and patch it. 

Isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle is a great option when trying to find pinhole leaks in breathable waters. I give my wading boots a good looking over as well. Check your laces, if you have them. My Korkers boots have the BOA system, which I LOVE, so good to check that and be sure its working properly and does not need to be cleaned. If your boots have studs, check to be sure they are tight and replace worn ones or those that are missing.

FLIES

How do you prepare your fly boxes during a busy season?

The fly box deal is challenging here where I live. We are blessed to have an incredible number of species to chase on the long rod; smallmouth and largemouth bass, pike, musky, brown trout, rainbow trout, lake trout, brook trout, chinook salmon, coho salmon, Atlantic salmon, steelhead, walleye, catfish, carp, panfish, sheepshead, white bass and the list goes on and on. 

So, needless to say, I have a lot, and I mean A LOT, of fly boxes. From little boxes holding #20 – #26 midges to big boxes holding 12″-14” streamers.  Organisation is key. The species we chase can change from day to day depending on conditions, so I need to be able to put my hands on the right boxes, at a moments notice. 

When the wind changes direction, often so do the plans change. During the peak of the season, I can be chasing a dozen different species – this means flies all over the place, mixed up in piles. So, I regularly take the time to gather up all the loose flies and get them back to their proper boxes, so they are there when called upon.

I have flies grouped by type, not really by species. Some of my favourite flies I tie are reverse-tied bucktail streamers. We have several species that love to eat them, so it’s shorter to label the fly type/colour than the species.  If I’m keeping up with things, in a matter of a few minutes, I can be ready to go, with the right boxes of flies and rods for a day chasing “X”.

How do you protect your flies?

Pretty frustrating when you put a lot of time into tying your flies, or spending a bunch of money purchasing them, only to have them rusting and then having to throw them away. I make a point after every day of fishing, to open all boxes used that day and let them sit, so they can dry properly. 

When fishing the salt, I keep all flies used, out and separate, so they can be rinsed and dried before putting them back in the box. Always good try and keep your fly boxes from getting water inside, especially saltwater. Otherwise you’ll need to rinse the whole fly box and get it dried out, so the flies don’t rust.

I store the vast majority of my flies in boxes. Some folks use utility boxes, which are OK but you need to be sure they lay properly, so that they fish right when the time comes. The main enemy of flies is moisture, especially salt water and BUGS! Moths can quickly ravage a bunch of flies so I like to have flies in sealed boxes, when properly dried, so no insect damage can happen.

TIPPET

How do you know if your tippet is good enough, too old, or if you should replace it?

It’s always critical to check your leader and tippet throughout the day. One little nick that goes unnoticed could mean a very nice fish and maybe a favourite fly is gone on a break off.  One of the good things about fluorocarbon is that it holds up very well over time, which of course is not a good thing when someone discards it along the riverbank. 

So, as long as there are no nicks in your fluoro, it’s good. Best to store your fluoro and nylon at a reasonable temperature, not roasting and bouncing around in the bed of your Hilux. When it comes to your lighter nylon tippet, before the season starts, it never hurts to check it, give it a stretch and be sure it seems to break as it should.  If not, toss it and pick up some new stuff.  The biggest enemies of standard nylon tippet is UV exposure and excessive heat.  Fluoro isn’t impacted by UV and not as sensitive to the heat.