Reel care and storage
A reel does not fail from the fish or from the hours on the water. What kills it is whatever has got inside, and most often that is water with sand in it. So its care begins not with an action but with a list of things not to do.
What not to do
Never submerge it and never hose it down. The body is not sealed: there are gaps around the shaft, around the spool and around the lever. A jet drives water where spray never reaches, and sand along with it.
Do not dry it by a radiator or with a hairdryer: the grease thins and runs out of the assemblies it belongs in. And do not strip it «to be safe» while it runs quietly and without play — something goes back differently every time it is reassembled.
After every trip
Wipe it with a damp cloth and dry it off, holding the reel handle down so the water runs away from the body rather than into it. The line roller and the bail get their own wipe: that is where sand collects.
Take the spool off and wipe underneath it. That is the place most water reaches and the one nobody looks at.
Salt
After salt water the tackle is rinsed in fresh, but the reel gets careful treatment: a damp cloth, not a jet. Salt stays as crystals in those same gaps and eats them from the inside. What it does to line is covered separately — fishing line care and storage.
The drag comes off for storage
A tightened drag presses on the friction washers all winter. They stick together, and in spring the reel starts giving line in jerks instead of a smooth pull — which is exactly the fault that breaks tackle on the first take.
Back it off completely, and set it again before you fish — how, is described in the entry on the drag.
Grease: where it belongs
Two things are enough: light oil on the line roller and the handle shaft, heavy grease on the gears inside. They must not be mixed, and more does not mean better: surplus grease works its way out and collects sand.
The same reasoning applies to a rod, with the opposite conclusion: a carbon spigot gets no grease at all — rod care and storage.
What to check before the season
Four things, all of them checked by hand in a minute. The line roller has to spin freely at a touch of a finger — a seized roller saws the braid from the very first cast, and why that is so is set out in the entry on bearings.
Then: whether there is side play in the handle, whether the bail closes by itself and fully, and whether the drag gives line evenly with no jolt at the start. All four are done at home, and not one of them calls for taking the reel apart.
Line on the spool
A winding left under tension does not go into winter that way — the same rule is already written down for the rod, and the reason is shared: constant tension does nothing any good. The line gets checked before the season in any case, rather than trusted by its looks.