How to prepare your fishing season during the pre-season

• Posted on 22 March 2023
• By Pascal Rainville
• Posted in Fishing, Preparation, Tips and tricks
• 0

In this blog, Pascal Rainville offers advice on how to prepare for the fishing season.

When the outdoor and fishing shows come around in February and March, many of us start dreaming about the beautiful fishing days on the horizon. We all want to get outside and cast a line as soon as possible. It's important to know that to maximize our success during fishing season, we need to prepare well.

Whether you're a tournament fisherman taking your first steps into this world or a competition veteran, a casual fisherman, or an enthusiast who needs to get out as much as possible, you can prepare yourself before your first outing of the season.

Your goals for the upcoming fishing season

What you can do varies depending on your goals for the season and the extent to which you want to go. It all comes down to making a list of waterways to visit, seeing through our equipment what needs to be replaced, added, maintained, ordered, etc. It also involves updating your sonars, charts, accessories, and others.

Planning and inventory

The list of waterways is valid regardless of the level you belong to for the simple and unique reason that it will allow you to know if you need to plan your vacation, accommodations (hotels, motels, cottages, etc.), fuel, etc. All of this will also allow you to make a list of equipment to adapt to the place if needed and know what would need to be purchased for the rest.

For your purchases, I encourage you to visit the Boutique l’Archerot in-store or online. They invest a lot of time and energy to provide an excellent variety and several ranges of fishing products.

Education

Once the updates have been made and the equipment procured, there is still something you can do: watch educational fishing bogues and videos to learn about the techniques you practice or new ones you want to learn, see if there are new ways to work your lures, the positioning of the boat, or how to approach a fishing spot.

Maintenance

Another element that I like to complete during the off-season is to maintain my rods and reels.

For the rods, it's very simple

Take a soft cloth and hot water and clean the entire rod. From the base to the final ring, everything must be cleaned. The seat is an important part to check and rid of algae residues, coating for braided threads, and others.

Next comes the guides

The simplest way is to take a cotton swab (Q-tip) and run it through each eyelet. If any fibers remain attached to one of them, it's an indicator of damage, and replacing it would be important to avoid damaging your line and possibly losing a fish and lure in the process. Once all of this is done, you are ready to move on to your reels.

As for the reels, it will depend on your manual dexterity and the type of equipment you are using. Personally, each reel undergoes a complete disassembly followed by a thorough cleaning, with new oil and grease applied.

Our fishing lines

Remember to replace your line as needed. Braided line has a longer useful lifespan than monofilament, fluorocarbon, and copolymer lines. A braided line whose integrity is still good (not completely discolored, frayed, or breaking when tightening a knot) can still be used.

One thing that can be done is to flip the line on the reel. To do this, you will need 2 empty spools. Transfer the contents of your reel to the first spool, then transfer the line to the next one, and finally put it all back on your reel. The result is that the line that was at the bottom of the spool, which has hardly ever seen the sun and water, ends up on top and allows you to extend the lifespan of the line.

If you have monofilament or fluorocarbon, replacement each season is recommended, even for occasional use because these types of lines do not tolerate temperature changes and exposure to the sun well.

You are now ready to say, "Let the good times roll!" Your chosen bodies of water are picked, your purchases are made. Updates are completed, your rods and reels are ready for action.

Waiting patiently

You only have one last step left, which is to wait for the season to arrive. For those of us who have a boat, whether it's a canoe, kayak, or boat, you will need to perform routine checks, which I will cover in a future blog post.

Until then, be patient, be cautious, and have a great season!

Pascal Rainville