Macfly, I wouldn’r worry about your line, rod, reel. I am like you and worry more about what effect it will have on my gear.
Like you said, you are wiping the line off while stripping it in, plus it is a pretty smooth surface.
I think the main worries are shoes (specially felt soles) Waders and Tubes/toons.
[reply]
DR wrote:
**Hopefully I can detect any foreign agent hanging around. **
**----------- **
Testing by the California DFG demonstrated that visual inspection for New Zealand Mudsnails on waders boot and wading staffs is completely inadequate.
When those 1/8th inch long snails die the expell their young. They can contain 120 young ones in that tiny body.
Those huge Didymo mats coating a river bottom you see pictures of consist of little micorsocpic individual diatoms. How are we to see that? [/reply]
I believe that I was referring to what I could see on my rod & line. I know that I wouldn’t be able to detect them on my tube, boots, waders etc. In fact as I was cleaning my boots today several insects came scurring out. Looked like stoneflies to me.
Dry Rod wrote:
believe that I was referring to what I could see on my rod & line. I know that I wouldn’t be able to detect them on my tube, boots, waders etc. In fact as I was cleaning my boots today several insects came scurring out. Looked like stoneflies to me.
My point was that no matter where the contamination is you are not going to visually be able to detect it with any reliability because of the minute size of a number of the invasives we are contending with. So if you don’t clean it then you are leaving the next body of water at risk of being contaminated. As I referred to before that risk is a whole lot less for rods, reels, and lines than it is for waders and boots. I for one sometimes rest my reel and rod butt in the water on a rock or weeds while I am releasing fish. So the risk would be higher than the guy that is worried about his reel and rod Thus keeps it out of the water. I am more worried about getting the fish back to his home quickly so that we all can have fun again sometime.
If we use cleaners that don’t kill the invasive then the risk would be higher that some how a live invasive could still be on the equipment even after cleaning. For an organism that can reproduce from one single individual then that risk would be much higher than for one that requires a mate. Didymo, Whirling Disease, and New Zealand Mudsnails all fit the former.
I understand what you are saying S_F. So what do you do to clean all of your clothing & gear?
I do various things for whatever fits me for the time. If I am not going to fish for about 10 days I brush everything off and let it air dry. I put everything in the sun to facilitate drying.
If it is in the winter I sometimes leave the stuff outside for the night.
But for most situations I keep a 5 gallon plastic pickle bucket in the garage with a copper sulfate solution that I bath everything in for about 10 minutes. Many times I forget that i have my stuff in the bucket so they end up being in there for several hours. Then I rinse it. It all will not fit into the bucket at one time so I have to do it in steps. I have a 5lb weight that I put on top of my waders to help keep them submerged. When finished I put the lid on the bucket so that it does not get spilled.
Last year I used a 50/50 solution of CS Formula 409 Degreaser Disinfectant to which I also added copper sulfate.
Thank you … I am more than willing to do my part to help stop the spread here.. but was getting too deep…lol. I was even thinking.. with as small as these things are.. wouldn’t we have to clean the flies.. especially the ones that drap on the bottom… so to recap…
**in my case.. for now anyway.. since I dont have waders, tube, or toon.. **
I need to make sure my shoes get cleaned since they do get wet at times plus collect a lot of sand, dirt, and muck… I would clean them with the 409 that is a disinfectant.. ??? I am assuming a good place to get this would be like Home Depot or Lowes in the industrial cleaning supplies section…
**I dont need to worry about the rod/reel/line etc unless they get covered in muck basically… **
Does that about cover it…??
MacFly 
Is this the 409 that I should use to clean my shoes???
Yes that is one of them but the size of bottle is rather small I would recommend the other one on this page which comes in gallon bottles
http://www.westdenvertu.org/NZMS/formula409pic.htm
You can lots more information about cleaning your equipment here
http://www.westdenvertu.org/snails.htm
You may find coppersulfate to be a more economical option and more convenient than Formula 409
Here is some information re Copper Sulfate CuSO4. TRADE OR OTHER NAMES
Basic copper sulfate: BSC Copper Fungicide; CP Basic Sulfate; Tri- Basic Copper Sulfate. Pentahydrate form: bluestone, blue vitriol, Salzburg vitriol, Roman vitriol, and blue copperas. Bordeaux Mixture is a combination of hydrated lime and copper sulfate. REGULATORY STATUS
Copper sulfate is classified as a general use material by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The warning signal “DANGER” must appear on the labels of all copper sulfate end-products containing 99% active ingredient in crystalline form. INTRODUCTION
Copper sulfate is a fungicide used to control bacterial and fungal diseases of fruit, vegetable, nut and field crops. Some of the diseases that are controlled by this fungicide include mildew, leaf spots, blights and apple scab. It is used in combination with lime and water as a protective fungicide, referred to as Bordeaux mixture, for leaf application and seed treatment. It is also used as an algaecide, an herbicide in irrigation and municipal water treatment systems, and as a molluscicide, a material used to repel and kill slugs and snails. Copper sulfate is a naturally-occurring inorganic salt and copper is an essential trace element in plant and animal nutrition. It is available in the following formulations: dusts, wettable powders, and fluid concentrates.
Here is some additional information about copper sulfate
There is a non chemical method that may work well for people to do at their homes.
Hot Water Bath:
- Give your gear a hot water bath (120 -130ºF) for five minutes. Water must remain 120ºF - 130° F during bathing - Water in your bath tub probably can maintain this temperature. Your dish washer should work well. This method has been proven to be effective for NZMS, rocksnot, and WD
Note - some places I see the temperature listed as 120 and other places I see it as 130 or 140
(a Colorado DOW & US Fish & Wildlife recommendation - plus other state wildlife websites)
Here is one way a camping fisherman achieves this:
“I’ve found one of those Zodi portable hot shower kits (http://www.zodi.com/web-content/ ) and a 5 gallon bucket makes a nice portable sterilizer without having to carry chemicals, and lets me take a hot shower while camping. The Zodi unit is a continuous operation heater. I just put the inlet and outlet hose in the same bucket, turn it on and let it run. I monitor the temperature with a cheap kitchen thermometer and once it gets up to temperature, I leave it running for another 5 minutes to be safe then shut it down.”
**You know this dialog is really good. Thank you Scruffy_Fly for your contribution to this important subject. I believe that Fly people are really conscientious and are willing to go the extra steps to protect our natural recourses. But how do we get everyone else on board? Bikers, off roaders, boaters etc are just as capable of spreading these invasive creatures if not more so. Another concern that I have is about the slobs that frequent our water ways. They leave garbage all over the place. I will pick up & dispose of trash in my immediate area. Although at times I feel that it is an exercise in futility. One person alone can’t keep the landscape clean but if each and everyone of us takes just a few minutes to do their part maybe, just maybe we will set a good example for the younger generation to mimic. Our water ways is not part of ****Las Vegas. e.g. What happens here stays here. **
FYI from the Simms website:
New Zealand Mud Snails Potamopyrgus antipodarum are threatening Western fisheries. These tiny, 1/8” snails reproduce rapidly, survive in harsh conditions and have an impact on aquatic insects and trout. The spread may be caused in part by snails “hitchhiking” on anglers.
Take the following precautions to make sure that you do not spread New Zealand mud snails:
Rinse mud and debris from waders and gear after use.
Use a hot water bath (120 degrees) for several minutes.
Let equipment dry several days between uses.
Dry heat will kill them.
I don’t have the answers.
I just do my bit to try to education recreationalist in particular fly fishermen.
I try to set an example by what I do. I have with one of my fishing buddies. He does not pick stuff up because he knows I will be along in a few minutes and i will pick it up. [pirate]