As the ice thickens, the days shorten and my mood darkens while remembering flowing water and sunny nights, I'm finding clarity and renewed enthusiasm in organizing tackle and doing some basic maintenance on reels. Here's my current list of tasks to complete this winter in order to optimize time on the water in the summer.

1) Replace all treble hooks with singles. Many spinners, spoons, jigs and plugs are originally equipped with treble hooks. The only thing I seem to hook more of with a treble is myself. When I'm trying to teach my young boys to be careful around “sharps,” I simply open a jig or plug from the package and let the blood flow. Replace those trebles with a hook of your liking, and for me this is usually a Siwash-style hook, and you'll both be legal wherever you go (taking into consideration regulations on hook sizing) and hook more fish.

2) Tie rigging leaders. Be they bead rigs for the Kenai, yarn and corkie rigs for king fishing in the Mat-Su Valley, mooching rigs and trolling rigs for saltwater salmon, or egg rigs for kings and silvers across the state, determine which riggings you use most and tie them up. Try to estimate how many you might use in a season and shoot for that number. Keep track of the over/under and next year you'll appreciate the optimization of time and materials.

3) Pre-tie leaders. For example, bead leaders, and particularly fly leaders on the upper Kenai, require several sections and valuable time is saved on the water if you have them pre-tied. If you've also done step 2 above, then you are back in the water minutes faster than someone who's tying on new tippet (if that's all that's been lost) and pegging a bead.

4) Sharpen hooks. When's the last time you emptied the tackle box and sharpened all the good hooks and replaced the bad ones? How about a closer inspection of those flies to see what's worth keeping. A hook that's been bent is more prone to break, and usually when you are fighting a hot fish.

5) Organize species-specific tackle boxes. I've got clear, plastic organizer boxes to house plugs for kings and silvers, spoons and spinners for kings and silvers, saltwater silver trolling rigs, spoons and bladed attractors, saltwater bottomfish jigs, topwater plugs for pike . . . you get the point. And the fly box pile appears almost menacing from a distance. Within a single species like trout, one ranges from early season topwater, nymph and streamer boxes, including a separate box for the range of mice patterns, to a summer course of 10, 8 and 6 mm bead boxes and into the fall streamer smorgasbord, perhaps the largest selection of all. Those articulated leech patterns, from orange to ginger, tan, cream, and white, dumbbell and egg-sucking, leave me feeling like the job's half done just hauling that huge box. Now add in the fly boxes for kings, reds, silvers and steelhead, and you are getting there.

6) Clean, lubricate and service reels. Alaska's fish and rough conditions are abusive on reels. Be it saltwater, silt or rain, corrosion and wear are commonplace and unavoidable. Routine cleaning and lubrication, as well as backing off the drag, will go a long way. If you didn't do this at season's end, do so now or bring it into a local shop for maintenance. You don't want the first big fish of 2011 to fry your reel.

7) Inspect and patch waders. If you've got one of the more expensive models on the market, you should take the time to find the holes and patch them. Some manufacturers will do this for you for a fee. If they are an inexpensive pair and prone to leaking, say in the feet or seams, it probably makes sense to toss them and buy a new set.

Instead of shoving all the gear into the shed until Memorial Day, getting ready early will give you better chances of catching fish, and at the very least save you time while you are trying to get to the water. Planning next year's trips is an enjoyable part of the routine, but remains a mental pursuit. I find it more comforting to lay hands on the rods, reels and tackle that I'll be using on those trips, and the process often helps me to narrow down the types of trips to set up for the following year.

-Marcus Weiner
Publisher