Are there any sealed reels available besides a $500+ VS? Im sick of cleaning my reel after every 2 trips!!! Is there anything good available around $200 thaTS SEALED?

the fin-nor ahab series isn't sealed but for 200 bucks its a great reel. my father has had one for the last 8 years. he takes minimal care of it and it still performs very well.

Wrap a plastic baggie around it :smash:

Does your reel live in the suds? I can't imaging having to clean it out that often.

-spence

Mitchel has some sealed reels. I think the Nautil is sealed?

Yeah the nautil is sealed. I have heard some pretty bad stories about them though. Ask newell guy/MAC. You can get them on ebay for like 60%

So the nautil is no beuno? Yeah if i dont clean it out every 2-3 trips it doesnt crank half as smoothly. I fish pretty hard, it gets dunked a couple times a night and a bunch of waves splashing over it. Also wanted a sealed reel because im getting a wetsuit next year so i can swim out to some rocks further out and fish.

what are you using right now? a grease packed 704/706 with l-i-g-h-t-l-y greased washers and a rinsing after EVERY trip will last. replace the washers after about every half dozen trips and you will have the next best thing to a VS. you are better off saving until you can afford a VS, if that is what you need, than to get something halfway there and replace it 3 times. in the end you'll save money. this is what i did before i bought my fleet of "Yuppie Reels".

I've been using a Nautil all summer and haven't had a single issue w/ it. So far it seems pretty durable and Braid friendly.

I have a penn 6500ss that i mainly use and a 5500ss. What do you mean by grease packed, the hole inside loaded up?

Chef- I use a 706, packed with blue grease. The grease inside keeps everything coated, and even if water gets in there nothing with start to rust. The grease also keeps the clicker quiet. For routine upkeep all I do is clean the drag and occasionally check the roller bearing.

Originally posted by cheferson
I have a penn 6500ss that i mainly use and a 5500ss. What do you mean by grease packed, the hole inside loaded up? SS's are crap. get either a 704 or 706. remove the sideplate and fill ever bit of the inside with Super Lube grease. put the sideplate back on and crank the reel for a few minutes. open the reel back up and fill in some more. put the sideplate back on, crank it for a while, and wipe off any extra grease. make sure you put a heavy amount around the threads of the screws also. if you get a 706, buy a new, unassembled, roller bearing assembly. pack the same grease into the bearing and assemble. replace this roller assembly for the noisy stock set up. apply a tiny amount of the Super Lube to some HT-100's and replace them for the dry set up. you now have a quiet, water resistant, reel. as i said earlier, you will need to replace the washers occasionally, but you will not have to do it as often as dry ones. with the slight addition of the grease to the washers, they will be less likely to absorb saltwater and stick.

here is the grease you want, second from the right on the top:

http://www.capecodtackle.com/Merchant/graphics/00000001/OIL LG.jpg

Shimano Spheros.'Nuff said.

The spheros is sealed? I thought packing the reel with grease also caused problems?

Spheros isn't sealed. It's a decent reel but I prefer the Penn 6500SS! The SS wasn't made to get dunked, that’s why the 706Z was never discontinued. A little imagination some EP grease (not alot) and some felt washers and you can help make your SS reels last the night in the suds as long as your not cranking under water. You don't want to pack the SS reels with grease... that’s a no-no, binding and mysterious instant reverse are not things you want when battling a big fish.

Leptar, no problems with the anti reverse blowing up in the SS? killed a 5500 and 2 6500's in less than a season each. ok starter reels when i didn't know any better, but they wouldn't last for me. not a reel i would trust in the long haul.

I have two ss7500's in the rotation I do swap the drag washers frequently, and have to rip them apart and clean them VERY well after every trip. I dunk them but that is because I know they be cleaned VERY well when I get home, ( have no choice, if I dont they will die) I also have a 704 but the weight is about the same.. But packed should handle a dunking better, maybe with a bit less maintenance looking into vs in the spring which is when I buy most of my gear. I've fished both ss's for 4 seasons with no issues with the anti-reverse etc, and TONS of cleaning. Was primarily a bait fisherman at the time I picked up both reels, and I'm going to run them both into the ground:devil: :humpty: I figure it this way every 1 minute wet or under water is 5 minutes cleaning and maint. time. :wall:

Run what you have into the ground and save as you're beating the ever loving stuff outta 'em :D Only about 3.5 months of reel cleaning left Chef hang in there :)

tlapinski, I wouldn't trust a 5500SS as a light reel for blues and bass as I've had serious problems with that model, but I do own a few 6500's and I can say this, with proper care they will hold up with the best of that type of reel, I have 1 setup I use for jigging for Cod in shallow water that I have used dropping eel's over by BI and the countless 40#+ fish I have hauled in with it. Like I had said it wasn't designed to get dunked but you can do things to it to make it a more water resistant reel.

I've had a Stella almost seize on me as I found out the hard way that that reel isn't designed to be dunked.. :rolleyes: And if it wasn't for the Saltiga being as expensive as it is I'd own one, this guy I know has one and it gets dunked often an it still is smooth as brand new.. I plan on playing in different area's next year as I learned alot and missed out on alot this year.. So I'm really going to be watching and listening to the pro's and con's of the new VS. My buddies have the nautilus :laughs: out of 4 reels someone is still using his, it's the yellow one that's still holding up after 2 or 3 seasons with almost no maintenance.. but heck remember the old silver series from Daiwa.. Maintenance was a swear with those reels.

Throwing Timber, try cleaning the fiber washers in mild soap and let them air dry then clean the metal washers with never dull.. add a few drops of 3in1 (red can) to the fiber washers and let them sit on a rag for a day to get the excess off then put them all back in.. you won't have to touch your drag assembly untill the end of the season.. last year i fished 4 days a week from may-november and never once did i have my drags fail and when i opened it up there was almost no white build up around the clip.

thanks for the tip. :D

My drag has never failed because I'm extremely fussy about the maintenance, I know I'm doing exactly the oppisite of what those reels were designed for. :devil: :rocketem: :vamp: :zup:

Its like driving a pinto across the desert with a half full radiator, lotta frequent stops for water and anti freeze.. :(

I read about the blue grease but never used it.

I use the same grease tlapinski uses - Super Lube. Seems to work well but I don't go out of my way to dunk reels.

The Penn 704 & 706 are simple designed reels that just keep going and going. I got a hard cranking 706z in a trade and after a couple of hour digging out the hardened black crap on the inside and stuff its spinning pissa right now. :)

The VS insides are super simple and people shouldn't be scared to open them up at all. I made a wrench out of a piece of pvc for some one and made an extra one for myself. A guy I know on the other site fishes well over 200 days a year all the time and he beats the pee pee out of his reels - what does he fish?? VS150 most of the time and a 200. He plans on getting a 250 soon and has had a 100 in the past.

I used a yellow Nautil 6500 for a season - not crazy about the bananna handle at all and have problems at time I get the line under the spool and under the drag knob to boot. :( Happened more than once so it wasn't a fluke thing - running 30 lb Stealth. Since then I use PP on most of my spinners. Dirt and gunk sticks to the silicone rubber and seemed it was impossible to get it off.

I fish an 8000 Spheros and 4500 baitrunners (A&B) and find them to be dependable and the waterproof drags are nice to have. I never dunked one entirely just some mild soapy water after my trip and they been going strong over 3 seasons.

VS are $ - no doubt about it. I got thru reels like candy it seems....LOL. I fish one and get bored w/ it and go try another one and its a viscious cycle. :( For all the reels I have tried in the past 3 yrs I could have a full fleet of VS's bu now.

Here is an interesting fact: a VS300 can drag 20 lbs of dead weight across a basement floor faster and with less effort than a Penn Senator 4/0H. It does it better than a Penn 9500ss (it can do it but it doesn't like it). That is something you could appreciate if you needed to slow a fish down from rocks or whatever. For offshore tuna the VS300 sounds like it could put a hurt on some small-mid sized tuna.

As I was typing this - I grabbed my Shimano Torium30 and tied it to 20 lbs of weights and tried to crank it on the floor - it wasn't too happy......LOL. Bound up and too a lot of effort on my half. :(

Sorry for rambling - just some info I thought I would pass long to some one wanting a VS - don't over look the 300 size if you want a winching reel. :D

I just got a bunch of my gear together and sold & traded some of it until I had enough $ to buy an used one. :) Its a sickness because now it makes you wanting more in other sizes. :P