Save Money Cleaning your own Reels
By: Capt. Mark King
Fishing reel cleaning and repair is the not so glamorous
side of being a fishing guide but it is something that needs done at
least once a year in freshwater and even more frequently in saltwater.
A lot of charter captains and fishing guides turn to the experts to
do the maintenance on their fishing reels but a lot of us do the job
ourselves. All you need is a few supplies, a table to work on, and
a schematic of the reel you’re working on. If you don’t have the owner’s
manual and schematic of the reel you’re working on you can get
them off the computer.
A few of the supplies you will need
are a cleaner and degreaser like Simple Green, a can of lighter fluid,
a good quality grease and oil like the ones I use from Boca Bearing,
and a few small tools. Start by disassembling the reel and placing
the parts out on the table in the order you take them off the reel,
another great idea is to take pictures with your digital camera as
you tear your reel apart and you will than have a visual reference
of where everything goes. After you have disassembled your reel you
are ready to start cleaning, I like to clean each part separately in
a small bowl with Simple Green cleaner and a toothbrush and than rinse
it very thoroughly in fresh water and put it on a paper towel to dry.
I clean all the reel parts except the bearings this way, as for the
bearings I put them in an old pill bottle with some lighter fluid and
just swirl the bottle around and the bearing will come out clean. A
word of caution lighter fluid is flammable so do this away from any
flames and outside is a great place to do this. The next thing you
want to do with the bearings is to put them on a paper towel to dry
before you test them to see if they need replaced. After the bearings
are dry place them one at a time over the point of a sharpened pencil
and spin the bearing. If the bearing spins smoothly it should be ok
but if you can feel the bearing through the pencil and it feels rough
or does not spin smoothly the bearing needs replaced. For bearing replacement
I turn to Boca Bearings (www.bocabearings.com)
for all my bearing needs, they have replacement bearings for just about
any reel and have bearings from the ones like you took out of the reel
to high performance bearings and the all new ceramic bearings that
will give you years of service and will let you cast farther than you
ever imagined. Bearings have different industry ratings with an ABEC
#5 rating on most factory installed bearings to the ABEC #7 that are
a high performance bearing that has almost perfect tolerances. The
new ceramic bearings are made from a material called silicon nitride
that has similar characteristics of the highly resilient tiles that
are on the outside of the space shuttle. After you’re done with
the bearing inspection it is time to start reassembling your reel.
As you put each piece back in its place look at it carefully for wear
or breakage, you can usually catch pieces before they break and than
you won’t have any fishing downtime. The bearings will need oil
and for that I again turn to Boca Bearings for their Lightning Lube
for reels, it is a space age product that will complement your bearings
and allow you to make longer casts. You will also want to get some
of Boca Bearings reel grease for all the parts that need grease like
gears. A word of caution when it comes to lubing reels more is not
better; just one drop on of oil on bearings is enough to lube the bearing.
Now that your reel is back together and everything works you can pat
yourself on the back and you get to keep some of the money that you
would have had to pay someone else to clean your reels. Being a fishing
guide and having a lot of reels I save enough money doing my own reel
cleaning and repairs that I can go out and buy a new reel with the
money I saved.
Capt. Mark King
www.markkingfishing.com
www.mybassclass.com
