Question for any saltwater guys out there:  How often do you strip down and clean/relube your reels used in salt water?

I have a couple of old Curado baitcasters that I've been using in the salt for the first time this season.  I rinse them down well with fresh water after every use,..but after about a month they began to squeak & squawk.  They weren't corroded too badly to clean & repair, however there was an awful lot of red-brown gunk and visible water inside.   I should also mention that they were pretty lightly lubed for max performance to begin with.  Well since then, I've really lubed the heck out of them and that's helped with the squeaking however I'm still concerned!  I fish way too much to be tearing them down after every use,..so I plan to tend to them every few weeks now and see where that gets me but I'm curious what other people do that have fished the salt a lot longer than me!

I will clean this way:

Outside of the reel
Gently doused fresh water
Wipe off excess water clean with rags and q-tips with rubbing alcohol

Inside of the reel
This is a heck of a lot more important IMHO because this is the area that isn't readily seen.
Use rubbing alcohol and rags/q-tips to clean out any debris or salt. I will clean every thing out this way, whether or not it looks dirty. You might be surprised how something looks clean but with one swipe of the q-tip you'll see the guck or dirt.

Lube if needed.

This is a light type of clean, not an overhaul.

J4,

The best thing you can do if you haven't already is the go to Shimano's site and download their cleaning instructions. They even cover cleaning after saltwater use and they're in the PDF format. Whenever I clean my reels, I always have the pdf open so I don't miss a step.


http://fish.shimano.com/publish/content/global_fish/en/us/index/customer_service0/reel_maintenance_instructions.html