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One man’s old fishing tackle, is another man’s catch of the day

A few of the guys got together this month and the discussion got to the topic of downsizing their fishing tackle collection.
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A variety of used fishing tackle you can pick through. Photo by Don Daniels

A few of the guys got together this month and the discussion got to the topic of downsizing their fishing tackle collection.

I had a chuckle and I mentioned that I have tackle boxes packed away and to be quite honest I really don’t know what fishing contents lie inside.

We buy used plugs and lures and, at times, the items are never used, it just gets filed somewhere in the basement or garage and never seen again. A few years ago, my sister had bought a tackle box at one of the markets and the cost of $5 was really reasonable. I went through the contents and sorted out old plugs flashers and fishing line. The hooks alone were worth the purchase price and, still, today I use the tackle box.

A few years back, a member of one of the local service clubs phoned me up and asked me to go for coffee.

At coffee we talked fishing and he had mentioned he had salmon fishing rods that he hasn’t used for years and he asked me if I would take it.

I took the rods and tackle and I donated the items to a few of the guys I know that could use them. About a week later, I found out my friend had, sadly, passed away.

If you have any old fishing tackle, the best thing to do is take inventory of what you have and check online to see the value of items then decide to sell, give away or discard. On the other hand, there are people who buy up old tackle and spend endless hours on the Internet selling to collectors around the world.

In Campbell River, garage sales will start to spring up and the markets often have fishing gear on hand and it sells fast. Old fishing line should be discarded and where you can, just burn it instead of putting it in the garbage. Old fishing reels can be taken to a metal recycle bin and thrown out and old fishing rods can be used to stake out gardens and flower beds.

Fishing rods that have been in storage may have some rust on the guides and the residual salt eats away at the metal. The way to clean rod guides is to get vinegar and soak cotton balls and apply to the metal guides for an hour then wipe and rinse with water and go fishing.

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