If I care for the gear, the gear will take care of me. At least, that’s what I think.

It can be pedantic, but, each winter, I clean my fly rods, reels and lines, in addition to weeding out my fly boxes.

To clean the reels, I decouple the spools from the housings and wash both. I scrub the fly rods until they and their cork handles look like new.

I inspect the fly lines for any cracks. Then, I soak them in soapy water, pull them through a rag to remove any lingering dirt and dry them on a towel. As a last step, I put on Rio’s Agent-X fly line dressing.

And, I trash any worn Euronymphing leaders and tie new ones.

Soon, I will wash my waders with a special soap that doesn’t completely strip away the waterproofing layer and will re-treat them with a water-repellent mix (I use the Nikwax kit, which Orvis recommends).

I also will empty my chest pack and hand wash it. I’ll then re-organize everything before I re-load the pack.

Fly-fishing gear doesn’t have to be expensive, but it rarely is cheap. So, I hope all this maintenance pays off, but I don’t see how this hurts.

How do you maintain your gear?

Last, here is a video from Super Bowl 53, just after the game ended. Tom Brady looked so happy. Good times.