I hear mentioned Cal's grease to grease the drag washers. Do I need Cal's specifically or will any decent grease work? I will likely buy some Lews Super Duty grease made by Lucas. I trust Lucas greases and oils for other things.

 

So will this be acceptable for the drag disks too?

Some grease will make your drag stutter, so you can't use whatever. Cal's is great for carbontex, but nothing special for the rest. The Shimano DG04 will do a better job on most drag materials than Cal's. For example, if you were to use Cal's on the rubber-like drag washers that were used on the TDZ's and gen 1 and gen 2 revo's, the drag will be a stutter fest, but with DG04, it's silky smooth.

Okay. This gives me something to go on. Thanks.

I'll second what Micro Module Police said. Shimano drag grease is smoother. I won't bother with Cal's any more.

I've been using Lucas reel oil and grease for a few seasons now. Top shelf products, IMO. Cal's is the only drag grease I've used though as all my reels have carbontex drag washers.

As others have said, Cals on Carbontex washers.

Just remember when using it you only need a tiny bit of it, I have the 1 oz container and it's lasted me for years.

Don't know how many of youse remember this one; "a little dab will do ya"

26 minutes ago, herder said:

Don't know how many of youse remember this one; "a little dab will do ya"

Dad and I used that stuff all the time when I was younger.

All I have used is Cals. Here is another one that is supposed to be good https://deuthlon.com/products/deuthlon-power-drag-grease

 

Just want to point out a few things.

 

When I worked on reels in an under contract warranty repair shop we had to go by the book on brand recommendations. One reason was warranties can be voided if the wrong lubricants are used on reels. And some brands may refuse to service reels if they have unapproved lubricants used inside.

 

There are also engineering reasons for why different greases are used.

 

In this thread the terms shimano or cal's drag grease are kind of loosely used without specifics.

 

Both Shimano and cal's have at least 2 different drag greases. The specifics of why are not making their way into this forum. Does this matter?

 

Two Cal's drag greases. Which one is suggested and why? Not specified in this thread.

 

Shimano has 3 drag greases:

 

 

Daiwa also has 3 drag greases:

 

 

So just between 2 reel brands and one aftermarket drag grease that is at least 8 choices.

 

Do you think warranty service centers can get away with using just 1 or 2 drag greases that are not clearly specified? Engineers who design reels have very specific lubrication requirements.

 

There is a phenomenon in service centers across USA and possibly around the world known as "forum reels" where some random guy online told some other person in a forum to use this or that lubricant on their reels. And when things don't go well, a lot of those "forum reels" wind up being sent to the brand repair center or under contract warranty repair centers to "fix" the "forum reel."

 

I can tell you from personal experience that when a mailman walks into a warranty shop with boxes of reels with lubricants dripping out of them, quite often those packages are refused and the shipper is informed to return it to the sender unopened.

 

I guess the one bit of advice the DIY tinkerers at home do not get is to use lubricants sparingly. Apparently there is a tendency to think that more lubrication is better than less. So some tend to way overuse lubricants.

 

Service centers and mailmen sometimes need hazmat suits to receive some "forum reels" because of people reading things that should not be happening and chemicals are oooozing from packages of forum reels.

 

My whole point here is to simply provide information that is in line with brand recommendations and nothing more. Forum readers can choose for themselves what they want to do. But I do think that brand approved information should also be available and I see nothing wrong with that.

 

In another thread on reel lubricants it is the general consensus that no matter what the brand of reel, that only 2 lubricants are all that are needed to service ALL fishing reels. And yet in this thread we are already at 2 lubricants (1 shimano drag grease, and 1 cal's drag grease) are all that are needed. It is conflicting information from where I sit.

 

Which cal's? It has not been said. But the 1 particular shimano grease has been identified.

 

Just be aware that all reels are not the same. And all reels do not use the same lubricants.

 

When I still worked at the warranty service shop we received visits from shimano engineers every year just ahead of ICAST. They wanted to see what we were seeing in terms of common repair issues that they could take note of and maybe go back to the drawing board and fix for the next year's line of reels. No other brand did this.

 

I asked those shimano engineers why they do not go online and into forums and try and straighten out the misinformation found on forums. They laughed at this and said to me "U.S. forums are hopeless" was their exact quote. Hopeless. As in hopelessly infected with misinformation that they concluded was hopeless to try and correct and straighten out. And this is where it stands to this day.

 

We who read forums don't seem to realize how many reels across the U.S. are ruined every day and every year by people trying to service their own reels unsuccessfully and they discard it or toss it aside and move on. Many of them wind up being sent into to service centers to fix what they did wrong. Many others wind up for sale in online websites.

 

I have sat on the receiving end of this. I've seen it. I have had to restore an endless stream of forum reels.

 

So my whole point is to get accurate information. Research it. Find out what the engineers of your brand of reels want used inside their reels and why. This is how you get optimum performance from your reels for years.

 

Listening to some guy online may not be the best way to go. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.

 

I'm just playing devil's advocate here trying to post what I would call brand approved lubrication recommendations.

 

I'm sure at ICAST 2026 this will once again be a topic of discussion.

 

But I am going to tell you a brand secret. Reel brand corporations KNOW that end users like to tinker with their reels. So sometimes a brand might put a part or 2 or more into one or more of their reels that will self destruct if the wrong lubricant is used. But the end user will never be informed of this. But they will be easy to spot when their reel reaches a service center. I've seen it.

 

In the old days decades ago when most reels were made of metal, petroleum lubricants were cheap and used across the board. But as plastics and other materials made their way inside of reels, there was a switch from petroleum lubricants to synthetics. If one tries to use a petroleum lubricant on a modern reel, they may wind up causing more harm than good. Parts inside can be destroyed with the wrong lubricants.

 

So I guess my whole point of this comment is to simply provide brand approved recommendations and try and help at least one person from adding their reel(s) into the "forum reels" servicing pipeline.

 

But for guys like me, I love to buy "forum reels" that hit online sales websites cheap, cheap, cheap. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

If you spend hundreds of dollars on quality reels, to me it is just common sense to use only the lubricants that are approved by that brand for that reel rather than taking advice from forums that don't always align with brand recommendations.

 

But as we all know -and do- there are other lubricants that will suffice, but are they the best choices? I do it myself. I do use brand recommended greases, but when it comes to bearing oil I choose my own since the reel brands do not make the stainless steel bearings used in reels. It is the one area where a change can be done without causing harm.

 

But where it concerns brand specific parts, my suggestion is it is best to use brand recommended lubricants where they are supposed to be used.

 

How often do you read on a forum brand approved recommendations? Not often enough.

 

Posting this type information should be welcomed on forums. Not demonized. Fishing is our passion. Tackle is our tools. Surely getting it right is important? It is to me. I try.

 

Right here on this forum are comments telling others all you need are just 2 lubricants for ALL brands of reels. Until you get to this thread. Now I am reading suggestions that 2 drag greases are all one needs for all brands of reels. I am reading conflicting information.

 

So my best suggestion is to simply follow brand approved recommendations to stay out of trouble and get the best performance from your reels. I don't think this is bad advice.

 

At ICAST next year I plan on asking various brand engineers some lubrication questions, especially shimano engineers. I want to ask them about what they think about us using aftermarket lubricants on their reels- like Cal's as an example. I want to know and hear it directly from shimano engineers.

 

I can tell you this... I use Shimano stradic reels as my preference. I use only FG, FH, FI, and FJ models. I won't buy or use any older than these. And I won't buy or use any newer than these and I won't get into reasons why.

 

But what I can say is that using the correct lubricants is the ONLY reason my stradics continue to work smooth as new 20+ years later. Proper maintenance using correct lubricants is the key to longevity. I have zero issues. Zero problems year after year.

 

I just rebuilt a Shimano Stradic 4000FG I purchased in a pawn shop 2 days ago for $30 for my 12 year old son to receive on Christmas morning. He likes my stradics so I bought him one of his very own. His first stradic. It is now well over 30 years old. FG Stradics were first introduced into the market in 1991. My son's "new" 34 year old stradic will work for him for decades to come if well maintained. It even looks like new. Super smooth. Super reliable too.

 

For baitcast reels I read all over this forum of various brands of reels having problems over and over and over. I read a thread about Daiwa yesterday. Lubrication issues at core of it.

 

I personally don't use any Daiwa baitcast reels. My preference has been Shimano Curado's, Chronarch's, and mainly midline reels for what I think are good reasons I won't get into here, but my primary go to baitcast reel today is the Shimano Curado HG series. I have been using them for years and I have zero problems. Zero issues with them year after year and I even slack off on annual maintenance and use them until I think they need it. I can go for years with zero problems.

 

You won't see me posting threads about my reels and their problems because I don't have any.

 

At the core of my reliable use of reels is quite simply using the correct lubricants. End of story. And I don't get this correct lubrication information from off of forums. It comes directly from each brand of reels as to what is correct for their reels.

 

Back to regular programming...

tl;dnr

Purple Cals is lower viscosity cold weather grease.

Good source for reel lubricants and drag washers is Smooth Drags.

Tom

@FloridaFishinFool

 

I have Bass Pro Pro Qualifier 2 reels and Abu Garcia Black Max 3 reels. What would be the correct grease for both their drags and for their gear lubrication?

 

I plan to switch to carbontex drag washers on some of them, which one of the 2 greases for that is the correct one?

--------

Which companies are those that engineer reel parts to deteriorate on purpose? Is it Shimano, as I suspect from your tone? Diawa?

 

As long as the parts don't self destruct, how can grease type cause problems in a reel?

 

I know it can make a difference on the drag and how it starts up and such, but how can it make any difference on the gears?

---------

Those Bass Pro Qualifier 2 reels I like, they are made in China, so assume that's by DOYO, how do you find out what grease/oil is preferred for them?

 

I've been using Lews oil made by Lucas. I was thinking to get Lews grease made by Lucas. Are either of these a bad choice for my BPS PQ2 or Abu Garcia Black Max3 reels?

I used the SLP104 grease as well, but not for drag. I love this one for the anti reverse bearing and and the worm shaft. I tried it on gears, but it's too low viscocity, the reel loses smoothness too quickly after service.

Drag grease and gear grease have two different purposes - gear grease viscosity is to prevent mashing contact of metals.  

Drag grease is lower viscosity and formulated not to decompose with heat.  

On 10/24/2025 at 12:36 PM, Bazoo said:

Which companies are those that engineer reel parts to deteriorate on purpose

I havent completed this video yet, but have watched others on the topic. I'll finish this one as well to remind myself. 

 

If you just want a quick blurb about it jump to 5:40 and listen for a few minutes. Should be enough to help you peek behind the curtain just a bit.

 

 

Be warned, there's a fine line between being informed and being insane. This is just one aspect of social construction and population control. Question everything

Same, I have been using the Shimano drag grease for over 30 years on my drag washers (including Carbon) and main/pinion gears with great success.