Spring clean your fishing tackle box

Having just moved house (without an internet connection !) I have been in a great position where I have been able to spend time getting rid of rubbish, loads and loads of it! What has this got to do with sea fishing? Well read on.

You fish every chance you have got, you get home and pack your gear away – damp, dirty and disorganised. You look in the bottom of your tackle box and there is a red hue in the corners from rust. Your tackle has a sticky coating, salt! All in all your gear is a mess.

What you need to do is give things a damn good clean out, throw away all those rusty hooks - they just pass rust around, they have no point and are no use to you. While you are doing that check your lures, change the split rings and trebles (when I dispose of hooks I cut the point off and take them to the dump).

Beads that are tainted or bleached might as well go, old nylon fishing line becomes brittle, tubes for booms break, the list is endless. You need to be ruthless and get rid!

Why is this so important? Well, to increase your chances of hooking and landing fish you need fishing tackle to be in tip top condition. Hooks sharp, line strong and your whole rig in perfect working order. Loosing a fish because your tube boom is split and it cuts the line is no-one’s fault but your own.

I know of lots of fish that have been lost because of old tackle. It’s a shame to think you have spent hours upon hours to locate fish only to loose it because of you faulty tackle!