December 2010 - Service your kit for spring
Well I would like to start of this months diary piece by wishing everyone a Happy New Year for 2011.
Now what have I been up to besides eating and drinking too much over the Christmas period? Well probably like the rest of you not a lot due to everything being frozen solid. I seem to say this every year now by saying this winter was worse than last years. But in all honestly I don’t remember the lakes being frozen for this long last year? And the other thing that starts running through your mind is the amount of the old warriors we lost last year, such as Heather, Two Tone and in my eyes the best looking Carp in the country The Black Mirror. We certainly don’t want a repeat of what happened last year that’s for sure.
Now back to the matter in hand of what I have been up to, while not a lot of fishing has been done I have been quite busy getting other things done. Now there is no longer as a close season as such I’ve found this the perfect time to service all my kit ready for when the old fish come out of their winter slum. Let me run through the things that I have serviced, lets start off with the reels.
A complete services has been carried out on this by myself, all the grit has been removed by a toothbrush completely re-oiled and line stripped and new line put back on ready for the off again. I know so many people who don’t even bother to do this and in my eyes your reels is one of the most important bits of kit you own, it needs to be working in tip top order.
Next on the list has to be your buzzers making sure you have new batteries in them, also that the speakers are cleaned out of any grit and trapped water. I normally use ear bud to do this and it works fine. Also if you have a receiver make sure the batteries have been replaced and the signal is still picking up fine.
The next thing on the agenda is new lead core leaders and new rigs all tied up and ready to rock and roll. You want everything spot on for when you make your return back to the lake after its thawed out. The last thing you want to happen is finally get that bite that you have been waiting for, only for one of the rig components to let you down so check and double check everything.
The other bit of kit I want to mention is your camera if you read Martin’s French article on cameras in the tips and tactics its covered quite a lot, bar servicing your camera. Yet again batteries need to be replaced or if you have re-chargeable ones make sure your spares are fully charged.
The next thing I tend to do is make sure all my lenses are clean or if it’s a digital camera make sure the screen is all clean. The last thing you want is to have the fish of your dreams and your camera is not working in tip top condition.
The point I’m trying to get across is make sure that everything is working in the manner it should be. All though its not the normal diary piece section I would do there is not a lot I can write about when the lakes have been frozen for about 5 weeks. Well that’s it for this month and lets hope next month everything is back to normal. I hope you bag the one you are after so until next month...
Cheers and tight lines...
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