THE REEL DEAL
QUICK MAINTENANCE TIPS TO KEEP YOUR REELS PERFORMING AT THEIR BEST
By Sean Ostruszka
PHOTOS BY ROB MATSUURA
Three minutes . That ’ s how long it took MLF pro Alex Davis to realize the importance of taking care of his reels .
A few years back , the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit veteran was doing a video shoot with some people from one of his sponsor companies . During the shoot , one of his reels was making some noise , which would ’ ve been no big deal on most days . He really didn ’ t even truly notice the noise , as he – like the majority of us – just assumed it was an older reel and older reels eventually make a little noise or don ’ t work as smoothly as they did fresh out of the box .
Well , fortunately or unfortunately , that day ’ s sponsor was Shimano , and one of the guys on the trip was Dan Thorborn , who heads up quality control for Shimano reels .
“ Dan mentioned the noise and said that when we get back to my house he ’ d fix it ,” Davis says . “ I just thought , ‘ Ok . He must have a bunch of new parts and stuff .’ Nope . He just taught me how to clean it .
“ It took him three minutes , and after he did it , that reel was like new money .”
A FINELY TUNED MACHINE
Like everything else , reels have come a long way over the years .
What once was a clunky casing of metal with a knob and spool is now a precision instrument . That allows for better performance than ever before – longer casts , more cranking power , the ability to skip or flip with ease – but it can also have its drawbacks .
With modern reels being built with such strict tolerances to maximize performance , the littlest thing can throw off those tolerances . That ’ s where nois-
76 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2022