The Outdoor Line Forum

Does anyone clean there gear prior to fishing? I've heard of guys cleaning gear in ivory unscented dish soap then rinsing them clean throughly and storing in a clean bag. When getting out to fish, put on gloves and not handling flashers, spoons, plugs, etc... with bare hands. Is there something to this or someone just over thinking it? I'm new to PS fishing and not doing quite as good as others and I'm looking to put more fish on the BBQ.

Also back in the day I was told to spray gear down with WD-40 which after looking into it. WD-40 is a solvent that is a Water Dispersant, (washes off with water). So it would clean your scent off, then wash off where it hits the water. Kinda makes sense. I would think that wash ing the gear the night before would be better cuz u arent getting WD-40 in the water though... Or I could be way off on the whole thing, I would like to hear what guys who catch fish think.

I do like to wear rubber gloves when I am fishing but I do it more to keep the scent off of me. I am a big believer in scent when salmon fishing however, I like to cover or mask any human scent by using some of the many scents on the market or by fishing herring. If I am fishing artificials, I will generally give my flasher a rub with herring or shrimp or whatever. I beleive this gives me a good scent trail as I am moving my gear through the water. In freshwater, I have heard of studies on scent in a river actually stopping migrating salmon but I do no know much about it and don't know if it's the same in the salt. Maybe someone else can weigh -in.