surf perch reels (alan tani, there are pictures of reel internals, :-) )

hey what do you guys use for surf perch reels? any problems with corrosion, etc?
probably same question for kayak salt water spinning reels.

When perching, I always end up going in the water maybe more than I should
(since I wear a wetsuit, don't have waders) and although I don't think I actually go under the water, my
reels seem to get pretty wet.

In a weak fiscal moment I bought a shimano spheros 3000FA, a $65 reel. what was I thinking? 
They are advertised as salt water reels and they have this on the front:



(Is alan tani laughing at this point? he probably should be).

Well, after a few trips, I saw salt coming out between the black and the gold edge of the spool.

waterproof, indeed. I was also curious because I think these are dartanium drag washers and
alan t. didn't like those either.

so I took a look:








so dartanium is white felt?  .

well I cleaned up as much budding corrosion as I could, but I don't have reelX or
corrosionX, so I just used



over everything.

I actually have two of these other $15 reels, which apparently have a single "dartanium"
washer in them, and seem to catch fish about as well as the expensive versions. not to
mention being a lot lighter.




I should have used those instead of the $65 reel, but I couldn't resist trying it,
it was so pretty!  .

alan t., where would one get carbontex washers for these reels? is it worth it?
you were kind enough to do the drags on some big old shimanos,
an AX400F and AX500F. even a spinning reel can end up with some big fish on
sometimes.

In this article it says that spinning reels are ultimately more durable when it comes
to corrosion than conventional reels. I don't know if I believe that one, but my
shimano AX400 and AX500 reels are still going, although I'm sure their one bearing
is a bushing at this point.

http://www.stripersonline.com/Pages/Articles/article_conv_faq_BMul.shtml

And if you fish down and dirty, if you wade aggressively and your reel is dunked on every trip, the toughest spinning reels are tougher than the toughest conventional reels. The guys at Montauk who swim out to rocks and fish with reels submerged do so with spinning reels.

No those are felt washers. dartainum is simaler to grafite if not actualy grafite. Those are deasent reels the thing I would look for is crbbs or corsion resitant ball berrings.  Regular slainless brarings will corode fast in salt water.  espesualy those used by shmano because they are seealed witch keep the oil in but also keeps the sand and salt in once it gets in there.  I would throughly wash my reel every time it is used in salt water but any time it is sumurged you should dissasemble whash the parts with fresh water dry and relubracate.  the seeled drag is ment to keep the sand and salt out of the drag.

patrick, thanks. the spheros is a joy to use, but I think the sealed drag is an issue, water gets in and
doesn't get out, maybe some kind of well greased open drag chamber would be better.

seeing alan t.'s comments on the lever drag penn's made me take apart the spheros and I'm glad I did,
there was some corrosion just starting or at least quite a bit of salt.

I could have sworn the box said dartanium, but yeah, it sure looks like felt! It was cool to see multiple washers
in there tho, not just one.

but maybe I should chuck the felt and try and get hold of a carbontex or ht-100 washer that would fit?

For perch felt is fine.  I wouldent bother messing with the drag on any spinning reels with 15# or lighter line.  Even if your using 30 braid your fine for perch.  The seeled drag should have copious amounts of grease to keep water from intruding alan can tell you exatly what kind of grease to use.

dartanium is black and quite brittle.