Spinng reel question for you techies

[autorain]

Ok, I've just worn out my 5 th reel in about 10-12 yrs. I admittt I do a lot of spin fishing for about 8 mos. every year and I have allways bought the inexpensive reel but -------------even so. In each and every case after I took em apart I found that I have worn out the worm gear!!!!!! I think they were all made from brass. It doesn't seem that it has had anything to do with bearings. They've always had plent of grease. Of course the bail spring goes early but that I can deal with. When a worm gear goes the reel is shot! I've always bought what I thought were good brands, Diawa, Shimano, Qantum, etc. I've allways written this off to (cheaper reels) but 2 yrs.??? What realy got me to post this was that some very experienced fishermen have said they never had a reel go bad from a worm gear????? If I'm right, worm gear material, then what reel has solve this problem? If I'm wrong, what's my problem? Leaky
A：We've always hear the term "If you buy cheap, you buy often". That is not always the case. There are some bargains to be had out there and by looking around carefull (as you are doing now), it could save you some money in the long run and also help you to establish a nice relationship with some decent fishing equipment. The reel manufactures found a way to make some decent money on people by comeing out with an economy line of many of their reels. Many of these include the Brass gears driven by a hardend gear on the handle. Result? The softer material will always loose the battle especially on the Mohes scale. That just sticks us with a slightly inferior product with the top namebrand on it. If you could find a reel that has the stainless or hardened gear components in the inside, you will notice that you can get a tremendous amount of life out of the reels. I still have some older Mitchell reels. I'm sure that my dad has put them through the test for many years and then passed them on to me quite a number of years ago. They are still working great. All in all, you are getting the expected life out of the equipment that you have purchased. I'm sure you fish quite a bit if not every day. Most of the lower line reels are intended for the angler that gets out to fish only once or twice a year. That person is happy after 20 years and boasts how his equipment has lasted him so long. That person has only used it 20 to 40 times! Bass are toys. Gills and Trout are food. There is a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore looking like an Idiot Fast, Free Registration Tell them TubeN2 sent ya Search From this siteClick Here Current Moon Phase Tide Reports
A：Hey there leaky, I was no spinning reel fan until I started fishing the beaches, and finesse fishing the swimbaits. I do know I was very suprised at the materials used in some of the gears and other components I looked at upon shopping for my first spinner in 15 years. I ended up getting a quantum '110yds of 10lb level' model with 4 ballbearings and although it functions perfectly I don't think I would be able to depend on it for a major fish attack. You see..... the spool (properly seated and tightened correctly) can be tilted vertically quite freely on the shaft no less than 1/4 of an inch either to one side or the other! Told that's the nature of the animal. I'll just wait till the bottom of the spool scrapes the spool housing, binds the spool and looses me a trophy before I go balastic! ha ha ha No problems yet! Seems like there is a price relation between number of bearings and $$$. Drags are really smooth on almost all reels I tried starting from a tiny bit of pressure to locking it down only to a degree where the clerk didn't grit their teeth at me! ha ha Surely some of the old standard models like the Mitchell 405 have replacement parts. or part out a yard sale reel if they are common. Good hunting, JapanRon

more info:www.fishingfeeling.com

[MuskieBait]

How hard are you cranking to worn out the worm gear? If you are just straight cranking a fish in it would put a lot of pressure and stress on your reel. Try lifting up and winding down. You don't see a lot of freshwater anglers doing it since most freshwater fish are not large enough to need it, but it is still a good technique regardless.

Personally, a smooth drag, good corrosion resistant components and tight tolerance gearing are more important than more bearings. The old Penn Spinfisher is not the smoothest reel on earth. They don't even have bearings in the old days. It was all bushings. But the HT-100 drag on those reels, especially with a light coat of grease, was extremely smooth. They have kicked butt and my Hawaiian friends had caught anything from bonefish to giant trevally on it. The gearing was all stainless steel and marine grade brass. Yeah, brass is a little softer, but if given care, they are great for reel components since the are fairly corrosion resistant.

Bearing count is just there to steal money from your pocket. A well greased and oil reel will feel smooth. My overhauled Trion felt plenty smooth prior to my trip (not so much now...poor thing...it probably needs an open heart surgery now...sand, saltwater and all). You just want bearings at key areas...sealed bearings are best so there is no water intrusion. Water (especially saltwater), dirt (or sand) and grease do not mix. If you have seals at the key parts, it will slow water intrusion into the guts of your reel. This further prevents your reel from gumming up.

A sealed drag also prevents water intrusion into the drag stack...and it allow you to spray down your reel to wash off dirt and saltwater. Without the sealed drag, you have to be more careful so saltwater doesn't go into your drag stack. The saltwater will dry, salt deposit will develop, and it will gum up your drag (and in some case, I've seen drag washers completely rusted...been there, done that...never flip over on a kayak in saltwater with a kayak full of gear!). My poor Shimano Cardiff sounded like it was going to die at the end of my trip...I'm pretty sure some sand and saltwater got in and things are already corroding...may have to send it to Shimano for an open heart surgery and replace some junk parts.

Anyways, just some thoughts...Regardless of spinning reels or baitcast reels (or fly reels or conventional reels), the basis are all the same...gear material and component, body frame material and workmanship, drag washer grade and material, and drag washer type and grade are the things you should consider when buying a reel. I probably do more saltwater fishing here than most people around Toronto, so I would choose strength and corrosion resistance over weight and smoothness any day.

[jwm]

I'm pretty sure this is just cut and pasted from some other site, possibly the one he links to. The entire thing makes no sense to me in context and I've banned this guy until he wants to email me and post a proper introduction. As far as I can tell he just wants his URL in here for SEO or something.