The Fishing Reel - Tips For Routine Maintenance

Many anglers overlook the importance of their fishing reel. Many times your fishing rod and reel simply get thrown in the basement at the end of the fishing season and then dragged out at the beginning of the next season to be used again. You can run into some fairly serious problems with this type of scenario. Very often your reel will choose to not work properly at precisely the worst time, such as when you're fighting a large fish. This is why I do a little routine maintenance on my fishing reels before the start of every fishing season. You only have to lose a trophy one time because of your fishing reel not performing to make you a believer. Take my word for it. Do a littler routine "check up" before the beginning of every fishing season. Here's a list of what you'll need:

1) A small screwdriver (usually Phillips head)

2) A pair of needle nose pliers or hemostats

3) Lubricant. Either purchase a small bottle of reel oil or just use some WD-40

4) 2 or 3 small towels

5) Some Q-tips

6) A clear area to work. Any cleared off table will work fine.

First of all take your fishing reel off of your fishing rod. Now take the reel and some warm water and wipe it off thoroughly. Once you have the reel wiped of debris, remove the handle. It normally simply unscrews either by a screw that you back out with your fingers or by turning the handle the opposite direction that you turn while reeling. Once the handle is removed, set it aside.

Now locate which side of the reel has exposed screw heads and lay the reel so the screw heads are visible. Now using your small screwdriver, remove the screws that are holding the reel together. Once these screws are removed, set them aside as well. At this point you can remove the reel plate. Once the reel plate is removed the gears and springs on the inside are exposed. Without taking anything else apart, simply examine the inside of the fishing reel. Many times you can see sand and or dirt particles. Using the Q-tips, you want to gently remove any exposed sand or dirt particles. Once this is accomplished you want to add reel lubricant to any exposed gear (not too much, just enough to cover the gear).

At this point, simply reverse the process by installing the reel plate and screws. Add a little lubricant to the spindle of the handle and re-install the handle. That's it; you just maintained your fishing reel and shouldn't have any problems with it. I've been doing this to my fishing reels for a long time and it works wonders. I have fishing reels that are fifteen years old and still work like new. Doing maintenance such as this enables you to know if your reel is in need of being replaced, before you get on the water, which is what we want. Because losing a trophy because of a reel malfunction is no fun at all. This routine maintenance will alleviate that problem forever.