Fishing is a wonderful sport to be enjoyed for years and years, yet so many fishermen do not take proper care of their fishing tackle, rods, and reels. There are simple, basics steps to caring for your fishing reels that can help greatly extend the life of this essential piece of fishing equipment.

If you are like me, then you have spinning, bait casting, even saltwater reels that you use. They may range from inexpensive to expensive, but they all deserve the proper attention to maintaining their use. This will help to insure a trouble free fishing experience and allow you to focus on the fish, rather than any problems.

Let?s start with the end of your fishing day. Remove the spinning reel spool and rinse it under some fresh, clean water. Do not take the spool off and dunk it in the lake, pond or stream you happen to be at. There are impurities in the water that will eventually gunk up the reel action a few fishing trips down the line. After you rinse the spool, take a moment to dry it off with a cotton cloth. Lubricate the essential parts with a couple of drops of light oil. This would include items like the center shaft, crank handle knobs (shaft too), line roller, underneath the anti-reverse selector switch, and bail hinge springs. All of this takes just a few minutes and is far from being rocket science.

Every now and again I get down to some real nitty-gritty maintenance. This usually happens the end of every fishing season. For instance if I am done with bass fishing for the year, then I clean up the bass fishing gear so next season I will be ready to go. Again, this is not difficult and requires only 5-10 minutes per spinning reel. I do so by removing all of the parts like the spool, crank gear, handle, rotor, and side plate. Then I choose from a number of size brushes I have set aside for this task to clean all parts with dish washing soap and hot-to-warm water.

A good selection of cleaning brushes would include sizes that range from a toothbrush to smaller paintbrushes. Make sure the bristles are on the stiffer side to get the grit and grim removed. After cleaning in this manner, dry with a cotton cloth and lubricate with a small amount of oil, say a drop or two. Following the fishing reel manufacturers recommendations should always be done when possible. When finished reassemble the reel components.

That?s all there is to it. Not much time and effort is involved, just a few minutes really. Yet following these simple spinning reel cleaning methods can help your fishing reel last a lifetime and result in fewer problems on your fishing trip.

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