High end Bass gear in Salt?

[Rattus]

Question for you experts: Are you willing or do you often use your high end freshwater bass gear (rod/reel) in saltwater? Or do you prefer "dedicated" saltwater gear?

[Gotfish?]

High end bass gear. I have had zero problems with Shimano and Daiwa bass reels corroding. I do rinse with freshwater after each trip. I use the smaller baitcasting reels (mostly loaded with 6 lb mono) and 2500 size spinning reels. Most rods are very corrosion resistant, even the cheap ones. BFS stuff is a nice size for spotties too but you might be wishing for something bigger when you tie on to some of the bigger halibut or bat rays.

Traditional saltwater gear is overkill in the bays.

[inthedeep2]

no problems at all. be sure to rinse afterwards, and i like to fully break the reels down and service them about every 6 months.

[DarkShadow]

I have a dedicated outfit. It doubles as my 'beater' or the combo I lend out to people in the fresh, and is essentially high end bass stuff from yesteryear.

It's not that I don't have a problem using my high end gear, even those with Magnesium parts...

Buuuuuut I'd rather not.

[Gotfish?]

That would be the exception to salt water use, magnesium corrodes quickly in salt water.

[Carpkiller]

I am an expert...in using less-expensive gear. I like Daiwa baitcasters, and mine range from CC 80s (about 70 bucks) to a Salamandura ($250). I use them all in saltwater, and just rinse after each use. They're all holding up just fine, and I use them in freshwater as well.

I do have a couple of reels exclusively for freshwater, but that's mostly because of the line they're spooled with, and the rods they're mounted on.

[Bendo]

I don’t have a lot of gear, over the years I’ve worn out my Garcia 308 and 300, replaced by a 408 and 410. Then Gold Series Diawas, followed by a Tournament 1000 and 2500. Those reels were bulletproof and are still fishable. I have 4 Stella reels, bought used over the Internet from Japan. They are all 20+ years old now and function as new. I recently replaced the bearings in my 2500AR. It has been a trusty friend for literally 1000s of Fishing trips. It now functions better than new with Ceramic Bearings from Japan. I’m 64 so I think these Reels with be with me the rest of my life. All fish Saltwater regularly, either Surf fishing or local Saltwater. They are cracked open and flushed with WD-40 once a year, then lubed with the Garcia Reel Oil I still have. I am extremely Sand Phobic and somehow keep it out of my reels, my Fishing Buddies seem to coat their reels with sand often. In my early life working at Andrew’s Sporting Goods( Later Turners) I was often presented with Reels in a paper sack. “1 tried to put it back together…” it would always be a bag of parts. Back then we didn’t have the internet, so no exploded view. My Dad, an Engineer, told me to treat it as a 3d puzzle. So I would find sub-systems that fit together and parts that had to go certain places, I could figure out how a section worked and then, sometime had to disassemble something so I could get them to fit together. I got really good at it, tearing down reels, cleaning them and reassembling reels until I was getting Penn Internationals at a regular basis. I spent more time on the Reels than selling Tackle but Jessie Turner wanted me in Reel Repair. Thank God College came around and took me away from that. I believe I was making $2.65/hr and the Shop was getting $30 a reel for those Internationals. The economics were absurd from my standpoint. In 1977 I started making way more money catching and selling Crawdads between Classes at OCC. Then throwing weekend Fish Taco/Wet T-Shirt Parties at the Beach. Anyway, I kept my Reels clean and lubed, spraying fresh water on my gear after my trips and spraying on the Magic WD-40 on the outside to disperse the water so as to prevent Rust. The WD standing for Water Displacement. My neighbor two houses down invented Armor All and had me spraying that on my Fishing Line and Rods. It did make my Rods look like new, and maybe conditioning the line, I wasn’t convinced. But he was a nice guy and gave me tons of samples to hand out on the Party Boats I frequently fished from. So, yes I fish high end gear in that Nasty Salty Water and they are fine, I also fished a series of Aluminum Boats and they worked fine. I had a buddy that fished his Champion Bass Boat exclusively in Newport Harbor, a Spotted Bay Bass Fin-Addict( Name of his Boat) as well as a Bat Ray Specialist, always using 15 pound test and following his Hook ups around the Bay with the first Electric Motor I ever saw on the front of a boat. His boat was fine, I always think of him when my Bass Boat owning acquaintances draw back in horror at coming down to the Harbor from some Saltwater Bass Fishing. My Skiff is still “ a week away” from completion. A complete rebuild, after 40 years of faithful service from Cabo(3 times) to the Columbia River in Washington and out to Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah to Amistad Lake in Texas. Both the Mercury 2 Strokes getting 2500 hours on them before the rings couldn’t hold enough compression to keep running. Now a brand spanking new Suzuki is hanging on there, waiting to push me into the Sunset. This time with hydraulic steering. Nice! I’ll be on the Water, both fresh and salt, fishing the “ Longshot” hard and spraying my Powerhead and wiring with WD-40 (this is for you Dad) until my last cast.

[Mike M]

I fished with Curado 100Ds for many years and got pretty good at servicing them. The outside edge of the spool was something that I couldn't prevent from corroding even with a light freshwater rinse after each outing and eventually led to their retirement. I now fish Tranx 200s and although they seem to need less servicing, I'm starting to notice the same outside edge spool corrosion.

With upgraded bearings, the Curados also casted a lot better than the Tranx, but the Tranx cast far enough for croaker and corbina.

I tried some cheaper reels, but they are just not as fun to fish with.

I also have a pair of G-Loomis STR1263C steelhead rods that have served me well and with continued freshwater rinses, will probably outlast me These are by far my favorite surf rods and their action and casting ability make them a ton of fun to fish with.

So, I'd say, if fishing with high end gear makes you happy, then use it!

[Midnightpass]

So, I'd say, if fishing with high end gear makes you happy, then use it!

I 100% agree with Mike...
Butch

[Pourboy]

High end bass gear. I have had zero problems with Shimano and Daiwa bass reels corroding. I do rinse with freshwater after each trip. I use the smaller baitcasting reels (mostly loaded with 6 lb mono) and 2500 size spinning reels. Most rods are very corrosion resistant, even the cheap ones. BFS stuff is a nice size for spotties too but you might be wishing for something bigger when you tie on to some of the bigger halibut or bat rays.

Traditional saltwater gear is overkill in the bays.

I totally agree. The one issue is if the reel gets completely submerged, but that rarely happens (2x in 35 years of bay fishing)

[Gotfish?]

I recently took apart several Shimano baitcasting reels (Curados and Chronarch) that I had been using in the bay for years with little maintenance. Some of them were starting to feel in need of lube or cleaning and I had some down time. Even though I rinse the outfits off after each session and never dunked any reels, I still saw plenty of salt crystals inside. But the insides were relatively free of corrosion and after a soak in warm tap water, removing dirt and excess grease and then regrease, they work like new.

I used Penn reel grease and Ardent reel oil. I applied the reel grease with an eye makeup brush my wife gave me (she did not ask for it back). You really need the brush to get the grease down in the bottom of the gear teeth rather just on the tops. I used an empty 18 egg carton to hold the parts in sequence so everything went back together in order. Double pointed swaps were much nicer than regular Q-tips for cleaning old or excess grease from the unit. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085TBDXC4?re ... title&th=1

It is a pain in the butt to do the job but once you have done a few reels, you get much faster. It makes it easier if the reels are all the same model or at least the same manufacturer. I have an old tackle box filled with various tools that are real helpful (tweezers, small screwdrivers, small toothbrushes, magnet, bearing removal tool, reel size hex wrenches, needle nose).

I rarely use vendor schematics. They are in very fine print and often do not show important details like how a part is oriented or exactly how it fits with the other parts. Sometimes there are good YouTube videos for a model, sometimes not.

[Gotfish?]

I fished with Curado 100Ds for many years and got pretty good at servicing them. The outside edge of the spool was something that I couldn't prevent from corroding even with a light freshwater rinse after each outing and eventually led to their retirement. I now fish Tranx 200s and although they seem to need less servicing, I'm starting to notice the same outside edge spool corrosion.

With upgraded bearings, the Curados also casted a lot better than the Tranx, but the Tranx cast far enough for croaker and corbina.

I tried some cheaper reels, but they are just not as fun to fish with.

I also have a pair of G-Loomis STR1263C steelhead rods that have served me well and with continued freshwater rinses, will probably outlast me These are by far my favorite surf rods and their action and casting ability make them a ton of fun to fish with.

So, I'd say, if fishing with high end gear makes you happy, then use it!

FYI, if you have a part number for the spool, you can probably buy a replacement. Either from a shop that sells reel parts (I have used https://www.mikesreelrepair.com/?zCountry=US ) or eBay.