[seadogg]

i can tell you one thing, every time i set eyes on the old Van Staal 250S, it's like the love i'm just dying to know. until that love is mine, i'll use my older model 6500 Penn Spinfisher. it's been a hell of a workhorse, having caught hundreds and hundreds of fish, and I haven't had a problem yet, even after countless dunks in the sand and salt, wetsuiting and wading alike. what i decided to do was fill the gearcase with an automotive bearing grease. i mean FILL that baby. inevitably water will enter the reel, but the grease never allows the corrosion to occur. unless you have the VS, which of course is sealed, i would reccommend doing the same to any reel.