I recently dunked all my gear in the swamp for over an hour. Cleaned the best I could and was about to send them out to be tore down and serviced. Found this Shimano link on Face Book. Start to fishish on a baitcast.

Part 1

Part 2

I've had those bookmarked for a while now. Never thought to post them here. They're showing an older reel, but the same principles apply. Good instructional video.

Well I would be interested in reading about how you did servicing your reels with the vid.

This is a very good video to give you an idea of how your reel works and to help with a superficial service. This is in no way indicative of the pro service that myself others perform though. Our process is much more thorough and time consuming.

My first thought was that they were not thoroughly cleaning it. I watched it to learn how to properly grease a gear though. Was helpful in that. I break mine down a lot more than they did there though. Every part is removed and cleaned thoroughly.

Yup, that's the "right" way to do it. Especially in a case like the OP, the level of servicing in that video would do nothing at all for a swamped reel or even a really dirty one. The one in the vid was pristine lol.

Yeah that's good stuff. It's also listed on the Fish With Shimano YouTube page. There are 7 reel maintenance videos in all.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FishWithShimano

I finally got into the Curados today. There was swamp crust all throughout. Reels cleaned up nicely. I had tried to clean a baitcaster before and its still in pieces in a zip lock bag but watching the video gave me the confidence to try it. I'am happy with the job.