I know all about cleaning reels every few months or so, but what about after every trip? should you just wipe off with a paper towel?

I just lightly oil the spool bearings if need be. Any debris can be removed with any soft rag and a little water.

I just spray the reel with KVD L&L and wipe it down. Maybe a light film of oil on the brake drum if used alot.

light oil spool shaft and bearing when I change line ... which is about every two weeks.

I don't do anything to mine after a trip... Unless you dropped your reel into the water or were fishing in slip, you don't need to do anything special with them.. The only thing i TRY and do after every trip is take my plastics off my hook because the salt in the plastic will cause your hook and your hook holder on your rod to rust

Same here. After an outing all I do is clean the reel line guide (pawl) and the rod line guides with a Q Tip wet with KVD, or reel magic and wipe the reel off with a damp cloth. If you oil bearings after every trip you are really going to slow down your spool. I may add a drop of oil to my spool bearing once mid season. My personal view on oil on a spool shaft is do not do it. Spools spin faster inside the pinion gear if they are kept really clean. Putting oil on them just slows down the spool spin.