So I wade fish alot in the gulf and use low profile baitcasters mainly doing this. I am wondering if I will benefit any from doing 1 sheild off to let excess lubricants seep out or if I should keep them fully sheilded because of the occasional dunks that happen with wade fishing?
The metal shields on bearings will just hold the saltwater in. It's best to remove both shields for easy service, cleaning, and so any water entry will not be trapped. That is how I do my own and my customers.
Hi Guys,
With our surf fishing, we do a lot of wading – perhaps to the extreme, with some reels under water for a long time. Some of my more enlightened clients have ended up dedicating one reel solely to wading, and in these reels we remove the shields and grease pack the bearings with a water proof grease.
Sure we lose a little outright casting performance, but not huge loss when wading. The removal of the shield stops the bearings retaining salt water to corrode after fishing, the grease holds the water out mostly between services.
The guys then have dedicated reels for fishing off the beach, and these have the shields kept in place, and loaded with high speed oils – maximising the performance of the reels for distance.
Casting reels with shields kept in place have most of the problems, as the shields hold in the grease or oils, but also retain the sand, silt and salt – miss one service period, and the next is fraught with problems of jammed up and rusted bearings. There is no easy solution.
Hope that helps.
Cheers from sunny Africa
Jeri