Reel Maintenance

[Pete]

My gear is in tough shape ... long salmon season and too much salt water. I've always rinsed my gear in fresh water at the end of the day and back off the drag before I put my rods up. But here's my question: should I use different solvents on different reels? Ambassador, Shimano, Penn? Does it matter? They're all gunked up with all sorts of junk ... I promise to keep them cleaner in the future!

[ampersat]

i'm going over my reels (since the weather won't let me go fishing) and here's what i'm using to clean them. simple green with an equal part water and some liquid detergent. there was a post not long ago about drag washers and someone said they clean theirs with isopropyl alcohol. i'd recommend against it because the alcohol will leach the good things out of the rubber and they'll end up cracking.