Ah winter, snow on the ground and a chill in the air. As a “Weekend Warrior” bass fishermen I tend to have a love hate relationship with this time of the year. Yes the fishing can be great this time of the year but with the “Moody” weather that usually happens this time of the year it makes it difficult. It seems that during the work week the weather is nice but when the weekend rolls around and the winter storms roll in. I personally consider taking leave during the week but I would rather save the leave for the upcoming late winter/early spring bite.This discussion I’ll talk about what I do if I don’t take leave during the week. In winter time blues part 2 I’ll share some tackle modification tips and in part 3 I’ll share some tactics I use when I decide to pull the trigger and go ahead and take leave this time of the year.
So, here it is Saturday, the clouds are rolling in, the weatherman says the snow level will be down to 3000 feet and in order to get to my local lake I have to go over the mountains where the elevation tops out at 5553 feet so I’m pretty much stuck at home just wishing I was fishing so what’s a fisherman to do?
Now would be a great time to service your fishing tackle, service your reels, change out your line and make some modifications to my fishing tackle.
First and foremost MAKE SURE you have or get schematics for your reels before disassembling them. 
It’s a bad thing to take apart your reels and not remember where all the parts go. Anyhow, clean out all the old grease, I use cotton tipped swabs myself for this. I then use them dipped in rubbing alcohol to completely clean out the grease and oil. Make sure you use a good quality lube and oil to service your reels, this will make a world of difference when you use it next. Me personally, I prefer Garcia lube and Remington Rem-Oil gun oil. Yes, there are allot of other excellent choices but these are the ones I personally prefer. Clean the reel externally, just to make it look nice and spool up with new line. The last thing you want to happen is to hook into the fish of a life time and loose it because your old line broke.
On your rods, clean the handle, it you have cork grips DO NOT use rubbing alcohol, this will ruin the cork. Simple Green works very well, just don’t saturate it! If the cork is heavily soiled you can use some extra fine sand paper and sand lightly, don’t remove to much cork. Wipe out the line guides, here again I use cotton tipped swabs dipped in Simple Green. Finally, wipe down the blank, again, I use Simple Greed and a micro fiber cloth to clean off the accumulated residue from the previous fishing season.If your lucky enough to have a garage where you can park your boat, trust me, I am jealous of you. I am fortunate enough to have RV access on the side of my house where the wind does not normally blow. I’m hoping soon to install a car port type cover. Until then I have to cover and uncover my boat whenever I need to access it. Even during the winter you cam perform maintenance on it. One very important things to do is if you don’t take your boat out very often this time of year you need to make sure you flush the system with the “Rabbit Ears” and garden hose at least once a month. This keeps your impeller from getting to dry and brittle therefore it does not flow water like it used to and in turn it does not cool your motor like it used to so its pretty important to avoid very expensive damage.
As for the impeller, changing it out at least once every 2 years is very good practice and cheap insurance. You can either do it yourself which is not all that difficult as long as you have a Mercury manual and the right tools or take it to your mechanic. Usually they will charge considerably less during the winter because they want the business. During the hotter months they can raise the rates because they know allot of people will be needing their services, basic supply and demand laws here.
While your in there make sure to change out your lower end oil as well as clean out any fishing line on the shaft. Look for any signs of water in the oil, this means that the seal is damaged and needs replacing.
Check the 2 stroke oil level in the oil reservoir, if you have a 2 stroke motor. Remove the propeller on your trolling motor and check for line. If you have trailer breaks check the fluid level of the master cylinder. Another big thing to remember is to make sure your bearing buddies have plenty of grease. That’s the last thing you want to happen, hook up the boat, get going down the road and having a wheel bearing go out because its dry. Make sure your tires are properly inflated to the correct pressure. This helps them wear evenly as well as improves your gas mileage.
I hope this helps alleviate some boredom we all experience when we cant get out and do some fishing. Be sure to check back soon for part 2 and 3 of Winter Time Blues.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
