Gettin' Ready for Opener

• Posted on 20 April 2023
• By Lauren Kingsley
• Posted in michigan opener, saturday in april, trout opener
• 0

Are you ready for opening day? Here's some tips to get ready.

In just a little over a week, it will be the legendary Last Saturday in April, a date that for most of the anglers I know is sacred. Yes, I know we can fish many of the waters of Michigan year ‘round, but the tradition has been this late April date, and many people do not start fishing until then. This of course requires much partying, but that’s a subject for another time. 

The weather is usually less than magnificent, and those who do venture out usually return at the end the day fishless, though there’s no mistaking that look of happiness that accompanies. 

I myself do not go out on Opener and while my excuse is the “waste of time” to do so, the truth is that I’m never quite ready.  In spite of the calendar being a yearly thing, the end of April always creeps up on me, or to put it more accurately, the idea of actually being able to go out and fish is just foreign to me after a long winter of just thinning about it. And so the last week of April is, or used to be, kind of a panic. It was just too much to “get my kit together” in time, too much to do, to think about, to plan, and most of all TO PREPARE.

What does PREPARED look like? Different things to everyone probably but if you are a troutist, a traditionalist, a gear junkie, or unfocused and impatient like me, it’s a good idea to ask yourself what would it take for you to head out on that Saturday without a care in the world regarding your equipment. 

First of all, keep it contained. Plan on bringing only the stuff you KNOW is necessary. My own lack of preparedness has more than once caused me to overpack too many leaders, tippet spools of dubious vintage, extraneous and chaotic fly boxes (because I didn’t bother to reorganized them since last season), a vest AND a sling pack (because you never know), wading belts, nets etc etc. Now’s a good time to ask yourself, if there were a plane waiting on the tarmac, honking its horn, what would I grab?

   The Reel - Probably the most important item in your kit bag because when a reel is not up to snuff, it will let you, the fish, and every angler within hearing know about it. So get out the reel or reels you have thought about bringing, and get out your readers, a good light, and some cotton swabs and tooth picks. If you’re an experienced angler, you know what comes next: take the spool off and look at the gear real.  You’re looking for gunked up lube, and dirt and grit.  Use an old t-shirt rag to wipe everything and if necessary clean with some alcohol. The reel lube of preference these days is “Reel Butter’ that you can find in any fishing department, but Marine Grease is another option. I’ve used Reel Lube made by Loon and it’s great.  DO NOT USE OIL - it has a nasty habit of getting everywhere and of attracting dirt. Wipe down the plates inside the reel housing and on both sides of the spool and reassemble - done!  If you encounter worse, don’t go any further taking it apart unless you know what you are doing; take it to your local fly shop for help.

   The Rod - you know what you want to bring, of course, if you’re a seasoned angler, and again, keep it simple. The odds are you won’t actually get onto the water, unless you’re a masochist, so just take your one go-to trout rod and maybe a spare to loan to a pal who forgot hers. Make sure the rod you pick is actually in the tube. Make sure all its pieces are in the sock or lining. Have a look at the line guides and give them a wipe even if you don’t see anything. You’d be surprised at the build-up of dirt and crap over the course of a season, especially if you use line dressing. Now take the pieces apart and make sure they fit together in the way you like, that you don’t have to force anything either going together or coming apart. No contortions or yoga poses to separate the pieces should be necessary. If needed use a little beeswax, tiny amount of soap, your nose grease (a traditional fave) and if things are bad, use steel wool if the ferrules are metal — and again, only if you know what you’re doing.  The there is a problem putting your rod together or taking it apart, now’s the time to make a different selection. 

   Line. Look at the line that’s on the reel you have in mind.  If you fished it last year, did you ever clean it?  How old is the thing anyway? (Do you even know what it is?  Double Taper? Long-belly? What size?) Look for minute cracks in the polymer coating — this indicates damage from age and sun.  If it’s not too far gone, you can clean it but if it’s not, just man up and buy a new line (or two). The fly shop will be happy to take off that line and put the new one on. You can look up easy ways to clean and dress your line. My method is a bucket of warm soapy water, a micro-fibre cloth, then rinse in clean water, wipe dry. Coat with either line dressing or Armor-All, but be sparing. You don’t want to weigh down the line or get too much residue in the line guards you just cleaned.

The rest is easy, because if you make a mistake or forget something, there’s bound to be a fly shop in your area to help you out. My advice is to think about the flies that you KNOW are relevant to the season and waters you will be on, then go through your fly boxes that are perhaps in mad disarray from the previous year (because you were in such a mad disarray all winter). I generally don’t have the patience to do the whole spring cleaning thing with my boxes, but I’ll try to find just one small box and curate the flies I want into it.

Check your waders and when in doubt, bring some wader repair stuff made for the purpose. Again, maybe they will fit fine and not leak or they won’t, in which case, your fly shop will have either the repair kit you need or a nice selection of new ones.

Things not to forget: net, wading belt, hat, rain/wind jacket, neck gaiter, magnifiers, and the appropriate leaders and tippet material.  If these are old, simply replace them.  Heat and sun will wreck this stuff, so if you’ve left this in your car all summer, you should look it over and test it to see how it has held up.

Don’t forget to get a fishing license for the new year - easy to do online and you can keep an image of it on your phone in addition to printing out the copies you are used to losing over the summer.

Tight lines!