SPRING CLEANING
While the fishing is a tad slow, it’s a  good time to get your rods, reels and gear back in shape. Mundane it may be,  but ultimately, later in the year, good maintenance will put you extra fish on  the bank.

I start with a bowl of warm water with a  couple of good squirts of washing up liquid added. Using an old tooth brush I  give the rod rings on all my rods a really good clean to get all the old salt  and grime out, then wash the whole rod down in the same water. I finish with a  wash off with the hosepipe and leave them to dry in the open air. When dry I  check the rings for damage, and if all’s okay, I give the whole rod a couple of  coats of Johnson’s Rally Wax and they’re ready for the new campaign.

Reels are fully stripped to the last screw.  Everything gets washed properly in clean petrol and dried. As I do this I keep  each part in order of reassembly on clean newspaper. The bearings are double  flushed with clean petrol until totally clean, then immersed in oil warmed in  an old soup spoon over a candle or lighter. Wait until the air bubbles stop  rising from the bearing and this indicates it is fully lubricated. I reassemble  the reel using minimal grease on the gears and drive train, and in the drive  shaft housing. When back together I wipe the reel over with a cloth soaked in  WD40 and it’s ready for action.

Rod rests being made from alloy are also  showing signs of powder corrosion and inevitably are covered in old bait. Out  comes the bowl and warm water again, but this time I use a Brillo pad to fully  clean and polish all the alloy legs and head on the rest and make sure  everything is free and working properly.

Seat boxes are emptied and flushed free of  sand using the outside hosepipe, then washed in warm soapy water again. Any  lingering odours can be cleared by adding a few teaspoons of bicarbonate of  soda and leaving the lid closed for a couple of days. I also check the strap  and its anchorage are in top shape.

Headlights get a thorough going over too, checking  the leads and connections, plus I remove the lens, wash this in clean soapy  water, and when dry treat it with a water repellent like Rain-X to stop rain  spots sitting on the lens and to keep it cleaner longer. I also put the  batteries on drain with the light left on and check the battery life available.  If a battery is losing its power time it gets replaced.

This is also the time to check the small  accessory boxes I keep my swivels, links, hooks and other bits in, replenishing  items as needed. I prefer to do this as a separate thing every month, not just  once or twice a year. This means I never run fully out of anything, and if I  need to reorder items or visit my tackle shop, then I can do so at leisure  without forgetting anything.

Rig wallets are emptied of old rigs,  salvaging what is still in good nick and ditching the rest. I also make a note  of how many rigs of each type I have left. A few nights are then spent in front  of the TV tying up rigs until I have at least six of each type, though often  used rigs I carry as many as ten of each.

It can take me as much as two weeks at  nights getting everything back fully ship shape, but I look at this as time  gained for later on when the fishing is better. General maintenance is ongoing  throughout the year for me, but this main binge keeps me well on top of the  job.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Still on the tackle chores, if you’ve a rod  with cork handles that have discoloured with grime and sticky old bait you can  rejuvenate the cork to its former glory by using a wad of cotton wool, soaking  this in Brasso metal cleaning polish and rubbing this over the surface of the  cork.

Do this slowly and gently using short  strokes in line with the cork handle. The Brasso seems to soak in to the cork  slightly and lift the dirt free from the surface. When fully cleaned, wash the  cork in water to remove the cleaning fluid.

WRECK POLLACK TACTICS
The next few weeks sees some of the biggest  wreck pollack of the winter caught.

The peak feeding times can differ from  wreck to wreck, but a good guide is that pollack usually feed when the tide run  is slowing down and just before it really picks up, so the hour or so either  side of slack is often a good time. This period also sees the pollack higher up  in the water and maybe a little way out from the wreck itself. Once the tide  starts to run, the pollack tend to move back in to the wreck for protection  from the fast tide. Neap tides are usually chosen for wreck fishing as the  spring tide gives little if any time over the wreck for fishing as the boat  drifts too fast.

Few anglers fish with pirks and muppets now  as it’s classed as unsporting, but it is effective and can produce the biggest  fish working the pirk tight to the structure, but tackle losses can be very  heavy.

Far more sporting and easier on tackle loss  is fishing with artificial eels. Choose a light uptider or a 12 to 15lb class  boat rod, with a reel capable of taking 300-yards of 15 to 18lb line. The best  rig is a Flying Collar rig which is a fixed or running boom 12 to 15-inches  long tied to the main line with a weight tied to the base of the boom by a  short weak section on light mono. The trace is 10 to 15ft of 12 to 15lb clear  line joined in the middle by a size 6 rolling swivel to take the twist out of  the line during the retrieve.

The tackle is released until it hits  bottom, then is retrieved at medium speed counting up around 40 turns of the  handle, then go back down and start over. When a fish takes on the retrieve you  feel a steadily increasing pressure on the rod tip. Don’t strike, continue  retrieving until the rod tip pulls over the fish hooks itself as it crash  dives.

Artificial eels and Mr Twister type worms  are excellent lures for this. Carry black, white, red and a bright orange or  yellow. Black is the best all round colour, but in slightly coloured seas white,  orange or yellow can also score well. Change colours if you stop catching.