Fishing Reel Maintenance: How To Maintain Your Spinning Reel

Mark Berg: Good day! I am Mark Berg and welcome to Rapala Fishing News. Now we are starting a new segment H-Newsletter and that's on the, How To's of fishing and we are here today with Big Tony AKA Big T at the Maintenance Department as you call it here at the Okuma factory and mate I want to talk to you about reel maintenance. Now I have just been fishing, my Salina here, is just covered in salt, it's been a messy workout, it's a big snapper, how do I look after my reel? Tony: Okay, well most of the -- just remember, you would normally house the reel done, while it's on the rod? Mark Berg: Yeah. Tony: Wrong. Mark Berg: That's wrong. Tony: Absolutely. Mark Berg: Okay. Tony: First thing you got to do is take the spool off -- off the reel, put the reel aside. If you feel on the rod, good otherwise just pull it in is a spool, take it to the kitchen sink, bit of warm water -- Mark Berg: Why warm water? Tony: Okay, well warm water is the only thing that will break salt down. Mark Berg: Okay. Tony: So warm water across your braid your mono, because one out of ten, as you know it is the thing that holds your line and also helps you keep connected to the fishing and brings the fish in. Mark Berg: Absolutely. Tony: So water across the face of the reel, you can spin it around make sure it gets a good saturation and then shake the water free. Mark Berg: Okay. Tony: At the moment we have just finished cleaning the mono or the braid. Remember the drag assembly, has already got it's own little water protection. Mark Berg: Well, you don't want to be pouring water in that. Tony: Absolutely not, absolutely not. It's because it's already there, it's got a water shield. Mark Berg: So, there's no slat water getting in there, anywhere. Tony: Absolutely. Now after, sort of six months or year of use, drag normally dries up, three drops of oil in the main is sort of like housing in the drag, easy accessible, just soon as the drag -- Mark Berg: The drag comes up. Tony: Yeah, absolutely. Now you are finished with the spool, shake it free, wipe it down with the cloth. Mark Berg: And nothing. Tony: That's it we are done. Mark Berg: Right let's get the body. Tony: Okay. Mark Berg: Now do I need to start taking the side play it off and we will let these out? Tony: Absolutely not, because all reels they have got like a water proofing gasket in the inside of the housing. So all we have to do is make sure that the working parts of the reel, which is the ball arm, ball roller and the handle are working, because as far as internals that's all pretty -- pretty sort of like a-- Mark Berg: Great stuff. Tony: Absolutely, yeah, maintained. Mark Berg: So do you hose these down first, can you hose these down? Tony: No, not at all. Remember no hosing of any reel or spool, because we just cleaned the spool, maintained it, wiped the reel down with the same cloth that you just finished the -- Mark Berg: So it's sort of a damp cloth. Tony: Damp cloth, because it's going to be damped after the wipe the wet spool down. Finish wiping those spool down, then reassemble it back on the rod with those spool, with the guy for the next, fishing session. Mark Berg: Okay, so maybe a few drops of oil? Tony: Absolutely, two drops of oil. Now a lot of guys ask me this question, what type of oil? Well, any super market, you can pick up just a general sewing machine oil, two drops of oil on the roller, the ball arm and the ball arm supports on the handle, because that's the thing you are going to grab and your moving parts that you see -- Mark Berg: Couple of drops. Tony: Absolutely. Mark Berg: Now, what about the other products like Silicone spray and other sorts of things for reel, are they a good thing? Tony: Well Silicone spray is a good to protect the paint on a reel. That's not going to sort of help, the fish come in any better or faster or it's just going to make the reel look better over a long time. Mark Berg: Okay, but it's not a bad thing to do. Tony: Well, it's always good to protect, what you have because it's not something that you want to replace. Mark Berg: Alright, so the spool goes back on. Tony: Yeah, absolutely. Mark Berg: And we put the --. Tony: Drag it out just to keep it from falling Mark Berg: Do you got that? Yeah Tony: Job done. Mark Berg: It might have taken about 5 minutes. Tony: A lot of fisherman, when they go fishing, they normally use 6 or 7 rods, a different adding, it will take me 10 minutes to take the whole six spools off, give the spool -- body the reel a wipe down, and make sure, that the line and the drag assembly is good as going to be for the next fishing trip and -- Mark Berg: And the reel is going to last for a very, very long time. Tony: Mark absolutely. Mark Berg: Cool, mate. Thanks for that. Tony: No worries.