Dunked Penn 750 SS & Shimano Saragosa 4000F

[Surfwrangler]

Well I thought I would post about something many of y'all are familiar with. A dunked reel, or 2 in this case. The cobia are pushing through the outer banks right now and I couldn't resist trying to get out there and get a couple on the kayak. First trip went fine saw fish immediately and caught one, headed in without incident. Second trip was arguably nicer conditions but saw fewer fish and I flipped the yak on the sandbar on the way in, submerging both reels.

They were rinsed and left to dry for 1 and 2 days respectively. They were then cracked open for a service. I am here to report that both reels although somewhat different in design and assembly seem to have faired quite well. The Penn 750 had nearly 1/2oz of water still in the gear box  but once cleaned and regreased and a bearing soak in corrosion x seems good as new. The shimano had not one drop of water inside but the ARB is of serious concern in these situations. Cleaned and regreased the gearbox. Soaked bearings in corrosion x and did my best to clean the ARB with alcohol and paper towels. Both reels drags had been upgraded to carbon fiber with Cals grease prior. so that was not too concerning. Basically just here to say if you get dunked don't despair, just get cleaning as soon as you can. Both reels are quite hardy pieces of equipment without many fiddly bits, which have lasted me many years of faithful use. But the shimano does seem quite a bit better sealed for whatever that is worth. Happy fishing.

[foakes]

Sounds like you got right on the reels after dunking & did the maintenance properly.

Good work!

Best, Fred

[jurelometer]

Don't think alcohol is going to help much. Alcohols are extremely poor solvents for salt. Not familiar with the Shimano roller clutches, but more than likely, the rollers are 440c stainless, and freshwater will not hurt them. BTW, Isopropyl Alcohol is a my favorite degreaser.

As strange as it sounds, water is not the problem, water is the solution to the problem.  The problem is salt.  You need something that will dissolve and dilute the salt, so that it can be flushed out.  Nothing works better than warm freshwater.

For non sealed reals, I soak in a bucket of warm fresh water. Sealed, or poorly draining reels are a bit trickier, as the seals and bearings still can let a bit of water past the seal, and the seals will prevent most of it from getting back out.  I refuse to own sealed reels, so I can't tell you what method works best with sealed reels from real world experience, but for poorly draining reels like the old Penns like the SS series, I just remove the sideplate cover,  soak in warm freshwater for half an hour, and replace the cover after the reel has fully dried out. I suspect you need to be a bit more strategic on flushing areas of sealed reels to get the most benefit with the least risk of locking in more moisture.

Agree on the rinsing.  A light rinse with freshwater will help, but the more water, the better when it comes to evacuating salt.  You want time to dissolve any crystals, and volume to dilute the salt in solution.

I soak all my reels regularly, as I fish on open boats on choppy water.  At the end of the day, the reels can be caked in salt.  I would be fooling myself to think that salt is not also making its way inside.


And congrats on the cobia.  They are a cool gamefish!

[Anti-soakers should avert their eyes now  ]

-J