Maintaining your Fishing Ski.

I’m a little lazy when it comes to maintaining my fishing ski, often I come home from a mornings fishing and only start cleaning it in the afternoon… but unlike a Ski-boat it doesn’t take to long and it’ll help the ski last a lot longer.

• A good dose of fresh water to get all the salt water off is essential, rinse off all your reels at the same time. Tighten up the drags on the reels before rinsing them this will stop the water getting into the reels drum.
• Wash inside the hatch and always look out for that elusive sardine that may have wriggled its way into the rod shoot… never pleasant finding it a week later.
• Check that all the water is drained out of the bungs and always try and hang/store your ski upside down. This will stop any water going into your ski if it’s stored outside and it will keep the sun off your top deck… the top deck spray will fade if left in the sun. Certain colours fade more than others … red/yellow and purple are the worst. It’ll also give any wet buoyancy a chance to dry out.
• If you want to get the ski shined up, you can use ‘Brasso’ or any abrasive cream to get the colours to come back to life.
• If you have elastic on the pedals, try and loosen it when it’s not in use…
• A dose of Q20 or ‘Tool in a Can’ on all the screws and on the rudder cable connectors won’t go a miss… this will make things a lot easier down the line when you have to change things.
• Check out that all your rivets are sealed, either silicone or Quickset Clear epoxy on the rivets head will do the trick … rivets are a source of excess water inside the hull.
• Inspect your rudder is straight and not damaged … it only takes a minute.
If you do all this you’ll have little else to worry about the next time you go fishing…. there is a huge second hand market for skis so the more you maintain your ski now the more you’ll get for it later….

Tight lines

Anton