It’s a fact that fishing rods with cork handles will get dirty from hour after hour of time on the water. This is especially true if you regularly use live bait such as nightcrawlers, or fish from shore. Your hands get dirty, and this grit and grime is transferred to your rod handles. The good news is there’s a simple and inexpensive way to bring new life to cork-handled fishing rods. 

Baby wipes can be used for cleaning a lot more than babies, and in particular the wet towelettes work very well for removing stains on cork handles. Simply take a baby wipe and begin rubbing it gently over the cork handle, as well as the reel seat. You don’t have to rub aggressively; let the baby wipe work its magic. Use different parts of the towelette to remove grime until the entire cork handle looks as good as new. 

A baby wipe also works well over the entire rod blank to remove foreign objects and restore it to top condition. As a final step, use a clean rag to dry the cork, reel seat and rod blank.