"Money Saving Tips for the Angler"

Posted November 2003

1. Every so often, you can get a nick in one of the guides on your favorite “Hawg Stick”, which is almost impossible to find and plays havoc with your line. A simple way to check your line guides for nicks and cracks is to wipe around the inside of the guide with a cotton swab. If there are any nicks or cracks, the swab will leave behind telltale white fibers.

2. Another great way to check guides is to run a piece of the wife’s old panty hose through the guide. If there are any nicks or cracks, the nylon will snag on it.

3. Tired of wiring clips on your boat trailer rusting, slipping, coming off or shorting out the wiring? Use silicone caulking to glue the wiring to the inside channel of the trailer frame. It won’t skin or short the wiring, it’s impervious to fresh or salt water, and it can be removed if necessary, with a firm pull or putty knife.

4. One day I hit a rock with my trolling motor prop and sheared the pin. I didn’t have a spare, so I cut a piece of wire from the arm of a spinnerbait, and it saved the day and a wasted fishing trip. NOW… I carry extra pins and a spare prop too!

5. Wear a pair of baseball batters’ gloves on those cold and/or rainy days on the lake. They keep the chill off of your hands and help you get a better grip on the ole “Hawg Stick”.

6. I’ve tried all kinds of lubricants on my pedestal seat poles. They either wore off fairly quickly, or made my hands and boat carpet black and greasy. I solved this problem by thoroughly cleaning the pole and socket and applying a good coating of bees’ was to the socket and pin. No more squeak… No more mess!

7. The ABSOLUTELY BEST cleaner I have found for removing grease and oil, tar, stains, decals from aluminum, fiberglass or auto glass, and removing the ‘scum line’ your boat gets from being in the water, and has never harmed any finish I have ever used it on. It’s Berkebile 2 + 2 “Instant Gum Cutter & Carb Cleaner”… Available at any good auto parts store for a very reasonable price.

8. I learned a LONG TIME AGO to “Be prepared”, as the Boy Scouts say! I keep an emergency kit in my vehicle whenever I am trailering my boat. It contains a trailer jack, new wheel hub, complete set of bearings, spare spindle nut, washers, lug nuts, bearing cap, bearing grease, hand cleaner, paper towels, a can of “Tire Fix-it” and the necessary tool to replace the whole works. Also a fine file and emery cloth to work on the spindle. It all paid off recently, when I completely melted the bearings out on a trip up north.

9. I bought a bottle of clear red fingernail polish and painted all of the bulbs in the gauges on my boats’ instrument panel. I also painted the bulbs in the interior lights and rod box lights. Now I can see what I need to see, and not have my night vision zapped every time I turn on a light or try to read my gauges.

10. I bought a couple packs, of different sizes, of those “rattle eyes” you can find at any craft store. I use super glue or hot glue to attach them to tubes, worms, lizards, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, or any lure I want to ad a little fish attraction and appeal too. They work GREAT!

11. To keep my hooks organized, and to keep them from slipping between the divider and the lid of my tackle boxes, I thread each size onto a large safety pin. Keeps them from tangling too.

12. I salvaged an old “ground-lead clamp” from a welder friend of mine and converted it into a GREAT brush clamp. I simply attached a length of rope! It has a good, strong spring and will hold tight to shoreline brush or limbs.

13. The next time your boat is off the trailer, spray the carpeted bunkers with WD-40… The boat will slide on and off with little effort.

14. ALSO… The next time your boat is off the trailer… Take a block of bees’ wax, or paraffin wax, melt it with one of those butane matches and let it drip onto the carpet of your boat trailer bunkers. The boat will practically glide on and off the trailer all by itself.

15. ONE MORE! Keep a couple of those “Tee-Shirt Bags” in your boat. The ones Wal-Mart and the grocery store use to bag your purchases. When you catch a nice bass, and you want to weigh it on your digital scales, before releasing it, simply dip the bag in the water to moisten the inside, dump out the excess water, slip the fish into the bag, hang the bag on the scale hook and WEIGH. Won’t harm the fish, you won’t drop her, you won’t have to poke a hole in her lip and you won’t damage the gills. AND… You can use the bag to clean-up all of the trash, used plastic lures, line clippings, etc., at the end of the day, for proper disposal.

Tight Lines,
Pat Fisher
President
E-Bait Express