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As the weather begins to warm up and fishing season approaches, it's time for every angler to start
getting their gear organized. One of the things that should be done every year is to clean your
fishing reels. If you take the hour or so to clean your fishing reel before the start of the fishing
season, it will add year's to the life of the reel. I've got fishing reels that I paid less than $50 for
and are over ten years old and still work like new. Why is that? Because I take care of them and
take the little bit of time it actually takes to clean and grease them every year. Cleaning a fishing
reel is very simple, here's a list of what you need :

1 Small Phillips Head Screwdriver 2 or 3 clean towels 5 or 6 Q-tips Some Paper
Towels WD-40 or a small tube of Reel Grease

Begin by removing the fishing reel from the fishing rod. Now find a nice clean area to work,
such as the kitchen table and lay out 2 of the clean towels. One of the towels is to work on and
the other is to place parts so they don't get misplaced. The first thing that must be removed is
the handle of the reel. It will either be held on by a screw that you unscrew with your fingers
or you simply turn the handle counterclockwise and back it out. Once removed, place the
handle and screw that held it in (if there is one) on the second clean towel.

At this point, take the third clean towel and some warm water and wipe the entire reel off well.
If you're using WD-40, you can spray a bit on the outside of the reel before wiping. We simply
want to clean the reel and remove any debris that might be present. Now turn the reel onto the
side that the screws are visible. There are normally four small Phillips head screws. Simply
remove the screws and place them on the clean towel so you know where they are. Once the
screws are removed you should notice how the screws were holding the reel together. Simply
remove the plate and place it on the clean towel as well.

Now the inner workings of the reel are exposed. You should notice a couple of gears and such.
At this point you want to use a couple of your Q-tips to remove any sand, dirt, or debris that can
be seen. Once that's done, you want to grease the gears in the reel. Just add a couple of drops
to each moving gear. If you're using wd-40, simply spray a small amount on each gear. Now
simply reverse the process.

With your fishing reel back together, you're done! It's that simple to clean your spinning reel. It
should work as well as it ever has after being cleaned, and will work like that for the entire
fishing season. As I said, if you do this before every fishing season, your fishing reels will last
for years. If your fishing reel was acting up before cleaning and continues to not work properly
after cleaning, it may be time to think about getting a new one. On many occasions, just
giving them a good cleaning solves many fishing reel problems.

Cleaning Your Reel