This morning I cleaned my fly line and wiped the rod and the reel face, too, strung a new tippet, tied on a No. 20 dry midge and gently stretched the leader. This Sunday we are fishing a clear, cold trout stream where big trout live under the rock ledges and sometimes sip dries on February afternoons.

Why clean the line? Most people do not, and get along just fine. I know a guy who is still fishing the same floating line he bought in 1992 and would never even consider cleaning it.

You should see him throw a line. Or maybe you shouldn’t. That yellow floater piles up like a stack of memory foam mattresses.

My uncle Jon Lewis, who is two years older than me, was my fly-fishing mentor back when I was learning the art. One Friday evening when I was 13 and he was 15, he told me how I could catch a lot more fish in my life if I just rigged all my gear the day before a trip. Anticipate what fly to use, tie all the knots. Leave the rod rigged. All you have to do is walk to the river.

It was why I caught two steelhead one morning on the North Fork Lewis while my dad was tying up. One — a 16-pounder — on the first cast and the second, an acrobatic 10-pounder on the third cast. We fished another hour without a bite.

Think about it. An angler is not fishing when he is rigging. That is not fishing time, it is rigging time and it DOES count against your lifespan unlike actual fishing hours.

Case in point. The guide told me on the phone the night before, “Be out in front of the hotel in your waders at 6 a.m.” My guest for the day, a very good friend and the point man on this trip because he had never caught a steelhead before, showed up in the parking lot with his waders still in the box and rod unstrung. All the rest of us, in waders, with rods strung, watched him wader up, lace his boots, string his rod, then tie on a leader and then sort through a fly box for the right pattern.

Forty-five minutes by my watch later we got in the truck. The sun was well up by this time. Yes, he got his first steelhead. Yes, I got one. It was a good day, but on a great river during that run, it could have been a spectacular day with a half-dozen or more hook-ups apiece, big B-run steelhead burning line off reels. Imagine first light, swinging through steelhead green riffles with big moochy articulated flies, the fish still close to the bank, in shallow water, grabby.

A better way to do it is — a week in advance — make a mental assessment on what flies and leaders will be needed. Make a few notes, a to-do list. Put aside an hour and rig the rods, clean the lines (you will cast further), get out waders and boots, sort through fly boxes and get the right patterns together in one place. Tie one on.

Now do some mental mathematics. If it takes a fisherman 45 minutes to rig up on the bank of a trout stream or a steelhead river and said angler fishes 15 times a year, that is 11.25 hours of fishing time he or she does not get back. Eleven hours is pretty much two fishing trips. Over the course of 50 fishing years that equals 100 more trips! And how many more trout or steelhead or smallmouth bass?

Want to live longer? Yes. Want to catch more fish? Yes. Rig at home. Fish when you are at the river.

You don’t get second chances at first light.