Take care of your gear

Maintenance is an important issue for all fishermen. This article tells you how to take care of your rod, reel and flyline. Remember that warranties does not cover missuse. Neither does it make fishing more enjoyable. Follow these easy steps and get the most out of your gear.

Take care of your Guideline rod

Keep your reel seat clean from dirt and grit. Clean and dry your rod after each fishing trip. Also take good care of the guides, dirty guides will have a negative influence on casting performance. Always rinse all metal parts on the rod in fresh water after use in salt or brackish water. Store in a dry environment. Regularly treat the ferrules with candle wax or use the natural body grease from your face. This makes it easier to separate the parts and helps to protect the carbon from wearing out prematurely. If your line is caught, don't force it loose by using the rod. Always pull on the line with your hands. Don't bend your rod at extreme angles over a short distance. The rod is designed to bend throughout its complete length. Never hold the rod by the tip and thread the line through the guides with the rod in a straight position. Never use tools to take apart fastened joints. Big changes in temperature make the carbon expand and get stuck. Disassemble the rod after each fishing trip to avoid this happening. If joints are stuck, hold the two parts behind your knees and pull in both directions. If you want to loosen the joint by twisting. Make sure to grab as close as possible to the joints. Do not twist a large area of the rod.

The gear can take it as long as you take care of the gear!

Take care of your Guideline reel

Avoid dipping your reel in water as much as possible and certainly in saltwater. Don't knock the reel against rocks and other hard surfaces. Small scratches will unleash bare metal and make the reel more exposed to corrosion. Never drop the reel in sand! Sand grains are very hard and can scratch the inner housing, damage drag disks, ball bearings and flyline. Immediately after fishing, rinse the reel under the tap. Remove the spool, shake off excess water and leave it to dry before reassembling. After a saltwater fishing trip, and before putting the reel away for a long period, do a in-depth cleaning: Remove fly line and backing, scrub carefully with hot soapy water to remove salt crystals, rinse and dry with a clean cloth. Apply new lubricate to moving parts.. Apply a light coating of oil or car polish on the housing. If you fish year-round in saltwater, in-depth reel maintenance should be done regulary. Don't store the reel in its pouch it might contain water/moist. Store it in a cabinet or shelf and let it be a nice ornament when you are not fishing.

Take care of your Guideline flyline

Avoid using insect repellent inside your hands. Use the back of the hands to spread repellent to the neck and face. Never leave your flyreel exposed to strong, direct sunlight inside your car. The heat buildup from the sun coming through the windshield or rear window can literally cook the line. Check rod guides for damage. If you fish a lot in areas with sand, the guides will start to wear and eventually get sharp edges. Damaged guides can be replaced by you or through your Guideline dealer. A clean flyline will perform much better than a dirty one! Even when you are fishing in clean waters, small particles of dirt will get stuck to the line. When the tip of your flyline starts to sink, you have overlooked this important point of maintenance far too long. Clean with mild soap and a clean cloth, use lightly tempered water. Line dressings make casting fun and help the line to glide through the guides and float better. However it is a known fact that these lubricants wear out the line. The dressing will not shorten the flylines life significantly, though for a person who fish regularly. We recommend you to use the dressing and enjoy the fishing as much as possible. Practise casting on a lawn and not on dirt or asphalt. To remove twists and kinks, take off the leader and troll the line behind the boat for a few minutes. On a river, just let the line hang in the current. If you are on shore? Take a walk with the line hanging in the water! Don't drag the line over rocks, through bush. Neither drag or "snap" the line when it gets stuck on the ground. The coating is not bulid to handle this and will get damaged if you do so. Take a break, calm down and loosen it proper. Stretch the line before fishing, it will cast much better.