It can be a laborious task to clean a fishing reel and ensure that you maintain it after each trip. However, most fishing reel faults can be put down to the fact that it was not cleaned properly and now has corroded parts or instead under-performs. This is an anglers most frustrating problem. Even more so if it is one of their favourite baitcasting reels that has been affected.

Preparing your fishing trip however should incorporate a full cleanse of your tackle and equipment, and the most important is probably your fishing reel. A good reel should last you for a long time due to the quality construction, however, like any mechanical device it also needs to be looked after.

There are however, a few things you can do in order to keep your reel in tip-top shape.

After you have removed the reel from the rod, you will need to take the handle off – these usually have a reverse locking system so you just need to unwind it. Next, with a damp cloth, wipe over the visible areas of the reel. When you do so, be sure that you use clean water and especially not salt water as this will corrode inside.

Next, you will need to remove the side plate. Depending on your reel, some will un-clip, unwind or perhaps even unscrew. If in doubt, check the manual. To clean the inside of the reel, remove any dirt with a swab and be sure to get out any other debris. Apply some bearing grease, or WD40 to the bearings and gears while you are inside as well to keep them fresh as this is one of the main causes of reel failure. When you have done this part, put the side plate back on.

Before reattaching the handle, give it a good wash too. Its likely to be covered in dirt, bait and a whole lot more!. Just rinsing in water should suffice, but again make sure it is clean water you are using.

As demonstrated in this article, it really doesn’t take much to keep your reel clean after you have used it and it is going to last so much longer. If you ever have a reel stop working while you are trying to retrieve a fish, perhaps its time to look into the maintenance of your reel. Fishing reels, especially some baitcasting reels, are not cheap, so look after them.

Casey, Jamie and I had such a good time the day the three of us were fishing French Lake for chain pickerel that Casey tried to get us together for another day on the water. That didn’t pan out as Jamie, being a teacher and vice principle, started back to work and was unable to go with us.

Jamie did get to French Lake for some pickerel fishing fun on Sunday with his buddy Matt.

Always Looking For Deer

The first couple of times I went to French Lake I heard about the numbers of deer that hang around the fields next to the lake but never saw a deer.

However, the last time Casey and I were at French Lake we saw about 10 whitetail deer along with 2 really cute fawns. They were running and jumping in a field next to the lake, well until they saw us and then it was off into the bush.

This time around we only saw three under the apple trees but we didn’t stop long, it was day break and we had fishing on our mind.

The Weather Forecast: HOT, VERY HOT

Hot didn’t really cover it as it was the hottest day I remember being out on the water and I do remember some very hot days fishing from my float tube at Chipman in years past.

The water temperature when we arrived at day break was already 78F/26C and by the time it was late afternoon it had risen by 5 degrees.

Even though the water was so hot it still felt really refreshing when I used it to cool down throughout the day.

Catch 22 With The Wind

Personally when I am fishing pickerel I like it to be calm. I think I get as much of a rush watching the wakes and big explosions when they come for the bait.

I must admit that by noon I was secretly wishing for the wind to pick up just give us a break from the heat of the sun. But that was going to happen, it just got calmer and calmer and hotter and hotter.

At one point Casey looked at me and thought I had not put on the ole sunscreen as my face was so red it looked like I was about to explode. I had lots of sunscreen on I was just overheating, big time.

So it’s a catch 22 situation. You want it calm but when it’s that hot you want some breeze blowing across your face.

Hawks, Eagles and Heron

We see a lot of hawks and eagles on our fishing adventures but on this trip they were really actively taking fish from the water all around us.

It’s so cool to watch them floating high above the water and then in an instant into a dive and off with a fish.

The eagles would swoop down and grab them with their talons and off they would go.

However the hawks, if that’s what they were, would beat their wings to stay in place and then dive like a bomber right into the water and then back in the air with a fish.

So cool, I can’t imagine the power in their wings to get them out of the water and back into the air while holding a fish in their talons.

Forgive the poor quality, I had to zoom in

It really cool to watch the heron stalking fish. They can stand so still they are all but invisible. I have seen them standing in the tall grass and all you see is their head. They can look just like a piece of drift wood.

I was watching this one when a Kingfisher dove from his perch and blasted into the water right next to the heron. It scared the heron so much I thought all it’s feathers were going to fly off before it could get into the air.

I love living in New Brunswick.

How Was The Catching?

My Record For Smallest Pickerel

The only time I have ever caught a smaller pickerel than the one above was when I was fly fishing for trout. I pulled my fly off the water and while it was in mid-air a little pickerel, not much bigger than a pencil, shot out of the water like a bullet and nailed my fly.

I think the heat drove the pickerel to deeper water as the action wasn’t as furious as it was on our last trip but we still had a great day.

We didn’t land any huge pickerel. My 22″ pickerel was the largest for the day but they were all fun.

We always have a little contest to see who buys the icecream at the end of the day, well if anything is still open by the time we are done fishing, so we do keep track of what we catch.

I sure wish we had the icecream in the boat, what a treat that would have been in that heat.

We had a lot of action and I mean a lot but they were not quite as explosive as usual and came up short on the baits for most of the day.

Casey started out strong and had 3 pickerel in the boat before I even had a strike. It looked like he was going to kick my butt this time around, but at the end of the day it was Casey with 21 pickerel boated and Jim, that’s me, with 33 pickerel in the boat.

Red 5″ Senko Worms

By now anyone familiar with my blog knows I am in love with the Red 5″ Senko Worms.

Note: I do use other baits but just have the best results using the red worm.

Pickerel are known for coming up short on the baits and can easily shred the worm until your 5″ worm becomes a 2″ worm.

Well I was always quick to put on a new worm but this day I was running short so I just cast the half worm back out there and to my surprise it still got smack and this time the pickerel was hooked.

Can’t tell you how many half worm I just tossed in the garbage when I get home from a day of fishing pickerel. Not any longer, now I am going to see just how many pickerel I can get with just one worm or perhaps one half worm.

As they hit the worm time and time again the front of the worm gets torn up a bit and won’t stay on the hook. Well one day I looked over and Casey was threading the worm on the hook upside down and continued to use it. What a great way to conserve your worms.

I’ll steal that idea and save some worms, thank you Casey.

Confession Time: I got beat by the day.

I never like being the one to call it a day and love fishing right until dark. Heck I usually have the best fun the last hour on the water, just before it gets dark.

Sadly by 6pm, the sun had completely wiped me out. I fought the crappy feeling for another hour but by 7pm I had to admit I was done.

I imagine you find times when you wish you had a magic rod and reel that you could store in your briefcase or perhaps the glove box in your vehicle. I have thought about having something like that for decades and now I can have it. It’s the Mini Pen Fishing Rod with Deluxe Spinning Reel, how very cool.

I’ve had so many days that would have been much better days if I had a rod and reel like this while I was going college, driving past so many great fishing spots on my daily trek back and forth from Moncton to Sussex New Brunswick. So I know what I’m getting for Christmas this year. It will be so awesome to just pull over and pop a mini fishing rod from my jacket pocket and be fishing, where before I would have to just drive right past these great little spots.

I have seen fishing rods that were small but most of those were for kids and made to look like it’s made for kids so I don’t really want one of those. But this mini pen fishing rod looks like it’s just what I have been looking for. I have just the right tackle boxes with some of my mini baits and I always have my fishing license in my wallet, so I’m always ready to go fishing.

I have a couple, well a dozen or so spots that would be perfect for a mini rod and reel setup. The trout are all 12″ or smaller and I have a special spot for bass where they never seem to get past 14″.

The perfect gift for the fisher that has everything. Take a few minutes and pop on over to see this  Mini Pen Fishing Rod with Deluxe Spin Reel today!

Casey was heading to Salmon River, off Grand Lake New Brunswick this past weekend so I asked him to tell me about it. I also asked him to send me a picture of his 24 1/2 chain pickerel, that he landed in French Lake, as the three of us, Jamie, Casey and myself are always trying to out do the others. Ha.

So here is Casey’s catch.

Congrats on Your 24 1/2″ Pickerel Casey

Now here’s what Casey’s wrote:

Salmon river was pretty good in the morning.

We landed 31 pickerel and I had a 24″er for the largest.

There was a huge amount of boat traffic which by the afternoon had pretty well ruined the fishing by mudding the shoreline and weedbeds.

I would never go there again on the weekend.

One big boat hauling a tuber put 2 large waves right into my boat and we had to stop and bail out the water.

I was ready to go above the bridge but my buddy said he was tired at 4 o’clock and wanted to go home, the wimp!!!

Used a lot of worms !!!

We went downriver to about a km from Salmon Bay.

Talked to a boater who said it was very rough further down so we turned back.

End of story.

Well 31 pickerel is still a good day, consider his partner for the day wimped out at 4pm.

I like hearing stories from those who hooked into their first Atlantic salmon that they managed to land and photograph. Well even if they didn’t get to photograph it, like my first salmon, but that’s another story.

A guy who has become a good friend, Jamie, who has also taken me on so many fishing trips got to go on a salmon fishing trip and got his first salmon.

Take a minute or two and read Jamie’s Atlantic salmon fly fishing experience. I always love the excitement when someone is sharing.

You might laugh at the title but sometimes I need protection for other fishers trying to catch my fish, so I started training pickerel, when they are still pickerel pups, to recognize my call for help. They protect me for those that would catch my fish.

They usually do one of two things. First they will try to cut the line of anyone close to me that has a fellow fish on that exceeds 20 inches and if that fails they will come out of the water like a torpedo and try to knock them out of the boat.

Even with all that training and dozens of them scattered around New Brunswick I still couldn’t stop Jamie from catching a bigger pickerel than me. I may have to resort to sharpening the edges of his paddles so they cut the line better.

Jamie took a good hit to the kidneys from one of my trained pickerel but it didn’t stop him, barely slowed him down.

Well now I’m off to think up a new scheme for getting the bigger fish.

P.S. I did think of leaving him home the next trip but it’s his car and his canoe, so I had to rethink that one as well.

First, my personal best chain pickerel was caught while fishing with a friend some 20 years ago in Cassidy Lake. He was pickerel fishing for the first time and landed a 26 inch pickerel, show off.

Well I have caught plenty that size over the years but was never able to break my personal best until Casey took Jamie and I fishing in French Lake a couple weeks ago. I laned a 24 1/2 inches for a new personal best. And was the biggest for the day as well.

Then a week later Casey was out with a first time pickerel fisher and Casey landed his personal best at 24 1/2 inches, tying my record.

I guess Jamie felt left out because when we went fishing a few days ago he caught his personal best which smashed our previous record. Jamies’ chain pickerel measured in at 24 5/8 inches.

Jamie’s Record Breaking Pickerel

You can read about it on Jamies’ Pickerel Fishing in New Brunswick post.