Salty equipment maintenance?

[Bait O' Eggs]

Most of my tackle and equipment that has been to sea tells the tale at a glance :depressed: :depressed:

I bought a 4/O Senator recently, took it to sea for some flatty action. Now how do I keep it looking semi new. I look on ebay and see tons of reels that look they have been rode hard and put to bed wet.

Will a fresh water rinse be enough or do I have to do more?? Dont really want to get oil on my tuffline, or do I

My salty rods, are getting some nasty looking guides, reel are various shades of chrome and green fumungus [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

There must be some maintenance tips for those between trip times to fight the rust that never sleeps from the salt.

[Pilar]

Roy, lean the poles against the side of the boat when you do the clean up and mist them with the hose. As any diver can tell you the salt has to come off the gear as soon as possible or the gear rusts.

All of the poles I use periodically get washed with soap and water and rinsed. When dry I mist the rod with WD40 and wipe it down with a rag. This will keep the guides from rusting. The reels get the same treatment. I do not recommend soaking a reel in water.

After 5 or 10 trips break the reel down and check the grease on the gears and look for the green stuff. If that is present break it all the way down clean it and regrease.

Spraying the gear set and clicker pawl with a light coating of Corrosion X spray will help prevent the problems of green gears. I got my can from Ollie Damons.

Sounds like alot of work huh? We forgot to tell you about that before you became addicted.

Oh, one more thing. Simichrome paste wil polish the green off the chrome parts of your reels. It also works well on flashers and dodgers.

[ 05-13-2003, 08:57 AM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

[Mr. Fisherman]

Roy, a good fresh water rinse after each trip and anual maintanence consisting of a complete tear down and repack of grease and oil for the reel after a through cleaning. don't forget your old tooth brush. Turn the line around if it is only a season old. Three seasons is usually pushing it. Some folks wipe down the rod and guides with a rag sprayed with WD40. When you rinse your reel DO NOT spray water very hard on the spool and gears, you will force the salt into the gears instead of rinsing it off. Take it easy on the pressure and don't be shy with the fresh water, use plenty and wipe it down while you are rinsing. I like to get the jelly fish off my main line if I have time between trips, I think it makes a difference. A charter boat captain that I fished with swore by it, in fact if the deck hand on that boat saw jellyfish on your rig he would change it and wash the one with jellyfish off before using it again.
I use lemon Joy for most of my wash down chores and haven't had a problem since I quit using a spray nozzle to force the salt and crud into the gears.
I hope this helps....

RINSE OFF WITH FRESHWATER ASAP
Listen to the words of "The Great and Powerful Pilar" he knows of what he posts :smile:

Another tip is to take out the screws and put a light coat of waterproof grease under the rings and on the screw threads.

When I got home on Sunday ( :blush: D'OH!!!! :blush: It should have been done Sat.) I had crystallized salt on everything.

[DriftR]

Guys,
I rinse my gear everyday. I use some lemon joy dishwasher liquid soap. I made up a nifty little stand out of PVC pipe fittings. It holds four rods with larger reels. When we clean the boat off I just put those rods/reels in the holder then flush them off with a good hose rinse. when I get back home I use the true soap washdown method. Then I use a good reel lube and lube the factory areas. Use some good spray oil that displaces water. I have been using a Remington spray oil for years. I used it on my gun barrels and reels for years. Really works good. Oh, the little rod/reel holder is fold up style. E-mail me if you need directions to build one. I have made four of them and they work Great, plus they drain out the bottoms really good.