geartalk

How to Store a Boat Outside in the Winter

If you’ve got one vessel, or three, and climate controlled storage space is as ridiculously-priced as it is in my neck of the woods, you’ve gotta get creative with how you store boats in the winter. Some of these ideas are better for hard boats, some for rubber, and a few work for both.

Here goes…

Wash your boat (well) before putting it away for the winter with soap and water. Simple Green is a safe bet and shouldn’t hurt any boat I can think of. Dry the boat completely before storing. Any dirt, sand or other debris can hold moisture. I know it’s a boat, but moisture plus cold equals unforeseen consequences.

Spray and rub in 303 UV Protectant for all rafts before you store them–top and bottom. Besides being ~3000 SPF for your boat, it also helps keep everything hydrated.

‍Pro tip 1: Fill each valve with 303 and close it. This helps prevent leaks by keeping the seals and plastic hydrated, thus preventing shrinking and leakage. It can even rehab old leaky valves.

Double check your raft frame pipes for water–freezing water, and expansion, is bad for metal pipes.

If possible, get a dedicated kick stand for your drift boat, or dory. Consider this an insurance policy. Should the cover rip and snow begins melting into your boat, it’ll all drain out the plug. Pro tip 2: remove drain plug and place thick wire mesh in hole, so water can get through, but rodents can’t. Pro tip 3: use wood 2x4s for a drift boat trailer stand. Make sure to chock wheels.

Keeping your boat outside on a trailer, fully covered with a UV tarp, is arguably the easiest solution, and it’s better for the boat. Just make sure the tarp is held down securely with bungee cords top and bottom–attach on the grommets underneath the boat to help with heavy wind.

If you store your boat where there’s the possibility of damage from mice or other rodents, rolling up your boat and standing it in a large plastic garbage can will provide better protection than simply wrapping it in a tarp.

If you keep your boat on the trailer, remove the frame and use a tarp, or something heavier, for coverage. Even with the frame, you should always pitch a high point in the center of the boat to promote drainage off the tarp from rain and melting spring-time snow. I use a long cam strap from lean-bar-to-lean-bar from my fishing frame. This creates a tent structure that allows snow and rain to roll off.

Poking a hole in the center of the low point of the tarp will allow the snowmelt to escape. (Don’t follow this suggestion if your boat is not self bailing.)

‍Pro tip 4: after many years of the wind ripping holes where my oar locks and towers are located, I finally started taking them off for the season when I store my boats. Not only does it help with wear and tear, it lets water and snow drain more easily.

Quick Tip: Use Tape to Make a Sunglass Retainer

A number of times I’ve brought new sunglasses with me on a trip and the retainers I like did not fit the larger ear stems of my new shades. Or I’ve been with folks who didn’t bring any sunglass retainers and desperately needed them due to the conditions at hand. No problem...

A trick my friend taught me years ago on a backcountry trip always saves the day.

All you need is about seven-to-ten inches of medical tape, preferably the fabric kind, and you’re set.

Here are the steps:

1. Cut a length of tape seven-to-ten inches long, depending on where you like your glasses to hang around your neck.

2. Fold the entire length of tape in half.

3. Cut another couple inches of tape and wrap one side of the longer length of tape to the outside end of your sunglass ear-stem.

4. Repeat on the other side

5. You’re finished. Go Fish.

Rod Weight Should Be Based on Fly Size

A lot of people think the size of the fly rod they use should match the type of fish they’re going after. Sure, that can play into it to some degree. But Jerry Siem, rod designer for Sage, once explained to me that the number one factor in choosing a rod should be the type of flies you are going to cast. 

Remember that the fly rod is meant to enhance your efficiency and make casting easier. Throwing big articulated streamers with a 3-weight isn’t very efficient. On the other hand, casting Size 20 dry flies with an 8-weight doesn’t make much sense either. The rod companies don’t advertise this, but 75 percent, or more, of all fly rods sold in the United States are 9-foot 5-weights. Why? Because that weight is versatile enough to throw dry flies with feel, but also has the oomph to toss a Woolly Bugger when you want to. 

If I know most of my fishing will be with mayfly or caddis dries on a given day, I usually fish a 4-weight. If I don't know what will happen, I’ll take a 5-weight. Tossing large terrestrials in the wind, probably a 6-weight, and a dedicated streamer day is usually the 7-weight. Everybody is different, so don’t consider that a rule, just a little advice. And you certainly don’t have to assemble an arsenal of fly rods that outnumber the irons in your bag, but the process can be fun.

Stop! In the Name of Love (and a Good Cast)

When we watch casting, we are absorbed by motion: the back and forth motions of the rod, the fluid flow of the line trailing behind in symmetrical loops. Done correctly, it’s a spectacle of motion, one that makes fly fishing so visually appealing.

Always remember that the stop is a key component, one that makes all that casting motion work. A good cast is built by gradually accelerating the rod forward, and stopping it, precisely, then changing direction and gradually accelerating the rod backward, and stopping it again to change course. With each stop, you let out more line. With more line, you exaggerate the time between stops.

If you don’t stop the rod crisply on the forward and backward strokes–if you just slush and slop your way forward and back, with no precise rhyme or reason-you cannot load the rod. Your cast will droop, sag, flutter and die.

The stop is as important a concern as any motion or power in your cast. Stop with authority, forward and back, and you will cast farther, straighter, and more accurately.