i have all baitcasters.  mostly shimano reels.  one diawa.  how can i be asured it is ok to use any of my reels in saltwater?  i will be wading for redfish and will try very hard not to submerge my reel in salt but if i do will it have to be completely disassembled or just rinsed.  any input.  seems like alot of people use the older green curados for salt.  but really how so you know before hand .  

blanked,

If you know how to service your own reels then I would say go for it, use them and break them down completely after every outing.

Tight Lines!!!!  

I grew up on the Louisiana Gulf Coast & still make about a dozen trips a year; all we use are bass setups for speckle trout & redfish trips.

As reelmechanic stated you got to keep em clean  

i use a c-100 calcutta ( freshwater version ) all the time and have had no problems always wash him down after im done. last time i went saltwater fishing i used my abu garcia cd4 1000 center drag, it was a ruff day all my reels got wet . washed them down when i got home and they all work great

You will notice that I don't say not to anymore. Because even with the information I have looking in the works of reels used in salt, your going to use them anyway. ..

So I will give you what I know, most anglers wash (as you have called it) their reels down after a saltwater trip. This is a must, but just washing them isn't doing all it needs to. If you break the reels down after the wash to dry them out, if you don't get the salty old water out of screw holes, spring holds and slits, the salt water sits and eats at the metals in these areas, and the screws stop holding, and springs holds give way and stop working... :-?

This is the minor corrosion problems you will find (open the reel up and look for the green colors).

Even if you don't get a lot of salty water in the reels there is always the sand.

Point: I just got a Shimano Stradic 1000 in with 10lb braided line on it from VA Beach. Complaint reel turns hard. I take the crank off sand in the crank bearing packs, removed the rotor more sand in the AR bearing pack and the pinion support bearing is hard to turn and grinding.

Long story short all bearings are being replaced and the AR bearing pack had to be broken down and cleaned out.

"I used mine and I washed them down and they work fine".

Sure they do the metals haven't had time yet to start to corrode let them sit for a few months and then look at welded ares (Garcia), and see if they haven't started to turn green yet. I have seen a lot of green on Shimano Calcutta's FW reels that weren't serviced properly after using them in salt...

"Saltwater reels use special seals on body screws (that doesn't allow saltwater to get into the holes). Special seals on side plates an frames to keep saltwater from getting into drive stacks, and worm gear drives.

Plus saltwater reels DO NOT have ported spools.

Do what you will with your reels!

"Sooner or later either I or another service shop will get to see them"...

Just my .02¢

Good Luck & Tight Lines!!!!

You will notice that I don't say not to anymore. Because even with the information I have looking in the works of reels used in salt, your going to use them anyway. ..

So I will give you what I know, most anglers wash (as you have called it) their reels down after a saltwater trip. This is a must, but just washing them isn't doing all it needs to. If you break the reels down after the wash to dry them out, if you don't get the salty old water out of screw holes, spring holds and slits, the salt water sits and eats at the metals in these areas, and the screws stop holding, and springs holds give way and stop working... :-?

This is the minor corrosion problems you will find (open the reel up and look for the green colors).

Even if you don't get a lot of salty water in the reels there is always the sand.

Point: I just got a Shimano Stradic 1000 in with 10lb braided line on it from VA Beach. Complaint reel turns hard. I take the crank off sand in the crank bearing packs, removed the rotor more sand in the AR bearing pack and the pinion support bearing is hard to turn and grinding.

Long story short all bearings are being replaced and the AR bearing pack had to be broken down and cleaned out.

"I used mine and I washed them down and they work fine".

Sure they do the metals haven't had time yet to start to corrode let them sit for a few months and then look at welded ares (Garcia), and see if they haven't started to turn green yet. I have seen a lot of green on Shimano Calcutta's FW reels that weren't serviced properly after using them in salt...

"Saltwater reels use special seals on body screws (that doesn't allow saltwater to get into the holes). Special seals on side plates an frames to keep saltwater from getting into drive stacks, and worm gear drives.

Plus saltwater reels DO NOT have ported spools.

Do what you will with your reels!

"Sooner or later either I or another service shop will get to see them"...

Just my .02¢

Good Luck & Tight Lines!!!!

thanx for the info , what does a nice cleaning go for these days