Protect your investment in fishing gear ... or not

If you embrace fishing as a wonderful sport, you may have a valued collection of rods and other assorted, related gear.

Like my wife's collection of shoes (which take up an entire closet), my personal fishing and hunting gear is an important part of my life.

But the fact still remains that I sometimes act like a pack rat, holding on to tackle and rods all because of sentimental reasons.

Now here's my moment of being truthful and realistic.

I will never claim the new stuff in my possession as well as the ancient treasure is anything close to objects art.

All of this jib-jab and excuse making has taken center stage because my patient wife took a broom and garbage bag to the floor of our basement and tossed out anything showing signs of mold or decay.

Fishing decay has to do with moldy conditions, especially with 50-year old tackle boxes that morphed into laboratories for growing potential medical miracles.

I refuse to share with you what my wife called me regarding the condition of our finished basement.

This is where I have my office and recording studio, as well as a wet bar that never gets used.

She also complains about any collection of junk that has been scattered throughout the basement.

Because I used to be extremely careless with my older fly rods (from the 1960s and 70s), as well as some of my favorite Fenwick and Garcia spinning rods, circa 1959-60, I often started a fishing season with more broken rod tips and chipped sections. The accompanying reels were in tenuous shape as well.

I got tired of walking into a rod repair shop and ringing up a hefty bill.

I must have had an epiphany some years back because I got smart and changed my ways with the care of my tackle.

Graphite rods need to be carefully stored during the off-season. I'll clarify.

All rods should be carefully handled and put away in protective cloth bags or hard cases.

Then I really got smart and perused through the pages of fishing catalogs until I found the accessory I thought would fill the bill. Actually, I previously had seen this simply made, particular accessory in some friends' homes and garages.

Several companies make rod racks one can attach to a basement or garage wall. So I bought a bunch of these neat-as-pin racks with a plan in mind to become a better shepherd of all my expensive tackle.

The cartons of rod tracks sat in the garage for more than two years when, all of a sudden, my wife decided to clean that last outpost of mankind.

Thank goodness my rods were in the corner of the basement as well as properly stored in the extra-long rod compartments of my fishing boat.

I stopped her just as she was beginning to hoist the cartons into the jumbo garbage bins assigned to us by a very watchful village bureaucracy.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.