Just starting out... what are the must haves?

[mytmouse]

Hi all,
  First off thanks go to Alan for this site! What a wealth of information and sadly another DARK hole for me to spend endless hours and money getting into a new sub-section of my love for fishing! LOL My wife will hate it, but she will live!

  Over the cooler months a buddy of mine helped me give a little cleaning and refresh of an old Penn 112H.  Just a little cleaning and lube and also an upgrade of the drag washers to SmoothDrag. It was fun, a little daunting, but we knocked it out!  I'd call on him to "help me", aka let me use all his stuff but I've since moved a couple hours away so I figure I better start getting what I need to do it myself, well that and also fix an issue I'm seeing out of 2 of my reels.

   My 1st 2 solo projects will 2 Daiwa Lexa's(100 & 300).  Neither of them will engage properly after I put them in free spool.  From reading online others have had the same issue and the resolution seems to range from pressing the thumb bar harder or clean your reel.  So I am going to go for the latter seeing as I have used them in salt and they haven't been cleaned other than freshwater rinsing.  I figure I can take the money I'd spend in getting them serviced and put it into the materials I need to do it myself.   My question is what do I need to buy to get started?  I read about this grease or that grease, ultrasonic cleaners, I found out about the special Penn wrench that you need.  So I was wondering what the essentials are so that I can get started.  I'm a kayak fisherman so most of my stuff is relatively light, an Avet SX and the Lexa 400 are probably the heaviest that I'll ever fish.  The Penn will be used sparingly, that bad boy is too beastly for the yak! LOL Thanks for any insight or tips you guys can give!

[Dominick]

Welcome.  Go here.  http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=3.0 Dominick

[Rancanfish]

Welcome.  Now we're old friends I can give you my opinion re: Kayak fishing. 

Here goes,  I would pick up a couple of Penn Jigmaster 501's, give them a light coat of grease all over the insides and fish them on that yak.  And save the Lexa's for fresh water, shore work or if you are going on a real boat that is less likely to get your tools soaked.  I love the 400's I bought.

Randy

[RowdyW]

From the video Alan has switched from Yamaha Multi Purpose grease to Yamaha MARINE Grease.

[mytmouse]

Thanks for the link Dominick. I'm already searching for my lube, grease, and a nice set of precision screwdrivers.

Rancanfish, you're probably right.  I have been coming across more and more less than favorable reviews of the Lexa line in the salt.  I bought the 300 1st and scooped up the 100 because it was on sale and I liked the 300 so much now this! The 501 is just heavier than I like to wield on the yak. But I see that I am going to have to put a harder look into the longevity of my future purchases.  Once I crack open these 2 and hopefully resolve the issue, I might just sell them. The 300 has served me well, but the 100 started acting up after just a few trips!

Rowdy, funny I was just about to ask that after I Googled the Multi purpose grease bc Marine is the only stuff that came up! You guys are great!

[Rancanfish]

If you want to save weight, then I change my recommendation to a Surfmaster 100.

As you probably know I am pointing you in the direction of the 501, 100 because they have bushings, not bearings.  Hence less to go wrong.  

[anglingarchitect]

Bushing never give much free spool but they don't go from awesome to don't work in a second like a bearing in salt.

[RiverAngler]

Exactly! And in a Yak fishing is primarily jigging or bottom fishing, no?

[Bill B]

MM. welcome to the Darkside...no going back now  ....essential tool are good screw drivers, a Penn wrench if you dont have one pm me and Ill send one no charge, needle nose pliers, any drag grease Cals or Shimano, grease (yamaha or Penn grease), and a computer to view the tutorials posted here at Mr Tani's house. You will see many specialty itemsfor very specific purposes, they will come in time.  Keep an open mind and ask questions we are all here to help someone get lost in the dark arts of reel repair    Bill

[mytmouse]

I get the bushing versus bearing thing.  And it totally makes sense.  It's just for me the trusty old faithfuls are often heavy and devilishly hard to wield on the yak. I used to mainly fish in the Chesapeake Bay around Annapolis, however since I've moved to VA I've been at the mouth of what bay where there is a much higher salinity.  So what I'd get away up in MD isn't flying in VA.  I fish off the yak just like any boater. I jig, bottom fish, inshore casting, trolling, live lining, and so on.  I just don't use downriggers. LOL Being on the yak I also value versatility. I can't bring a ton of setups so I value versatility.  I can take the Lexa 300 and live line for Striper then tie on a buck tail for Flounder. It's light enough that I don't mind bouncing buck tails off the bottom or holding it waiting for my live bait to get inhaled. But I might have to sacrifice some comfort for bullet proofness for at least some of my bottom fishing and heavy jigging.

Bill - thanks a ton for your kind gesture and info!  I've already making my list of what I need to buy and trying to weasel a work table in the extra bedroom without my wife seeing! My buddy has learned a ton from this site and I have already seen what you all have done to his basement!  I'm just hoping I don't get that bad... LOL