Get Organized!
People are often SHOCKED when they see my fishing gear: it's meticulously organized. I may not always hang my coat in the closet, or fold my laundry, but every few weeks I make sure my lures, lines, rods and reels are in order. And when I'm preparing for a new open-water season, I revamp just about everything. And here's amazing part: I love doing it! Everything from sorting baits to sharpening hooks. Why? Because attention to detail reduces the chances of losing a big fish.
Here are three tips to help you stay organized and keep your gear in good shape heading into the new season:
1) The safety pin hack
This is a neat little trick I've stolen from the internet. All you need to do is group all hooks of a particular size and then place them on safety pins. No more scrounging for the right hook when you're on the water.
2) Give new life to old lures
I'm pretty cheap, so usually I just sharpen my hooks. But at a certain point, you have to bite the bullet: dull hooks lose fish. That doesn't mean you have to buy new lures! Go out to your local fishing store and buy some treble hooks. This year I'm trying out Mustad UltraPoint KVD Treble Hooks. It can be a bit tricky getting the old ones off of the split rings and putting the new ones on, but once you finish, your old lures are now good as new!
3) Sort it out!
Once you start fishing, it's easy for things to get disorganized: you start changing baits quickly, and before you know it your soft plastics are with your crankbaits and your spoons are lost somewhere with your jigs. Try getting into the habit of reorganizing your tackle at least once a month, if not more often. When you're out on the water, the less time you spend looking for things, the more time you'll spend holding big bass and toothy walleye.
Stay tuned for more content in the upcoming weeks! It was a slow winter, but I plan on doing some trolling for lake trout in the Algonquin Park Haliburton area before month's end.
Greg Cholkan is a lawyer, fisherman and Hemingway impersonator. He works in Huntsville with Barriston LLP and his practice focuses on real estate, wills and estates, and business matters. Follow him on Twitter: @gregcholkan
Here are three tips to help you stay organized and keep your gear in good shape heading into the new season:
1) The safety pin hack
This is a neat little trick I've stolen from the internet. All you need to do is group all hooks of a particular size and then place them on safety pins. No more scrounging for the right hook when you're on the water.
I'm pretty cheap, so usually I just sharpen my hooks. But at a certain point, you have to bite the bullet: dull hooks lose fish. That doesn't mean you have to buy new lures! Go out to your local fishing store and buy some treble hooks. This year I'm trying out Mustad UltraPoint KVD Treble Hooks. It can be a bit tricky getting the old ones off of the split rings and putting the new ones on, but once you finish, your old lures are now good as new!
Once you start fishing, it's easy for things to get disorganized: you start changing baits quickly, and before you know it your soft plastics are with your crankbaits and your spoons are lost somewhere with your jigs. Try getting into the habit of reorganizing your tackle at least once a month, if not more often. When you're out on the water, the less time you spend looking for things, the more time you'll spend holding big bass and toothy walleye.
Greg Cholkan is a lawyer, fisherman and Hemingway impersonator. He works in Huntsville with Barriston LLP and his practice focuses on real estate, wills and estates, and business matters. Follow him on Twitter: @gregcholkan
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