differences in drag and reel grease

[controlled chaos]

heres a question for you reel guru's out there. what is the difference between reel and drag grease? When is it better to just go with oil when you have the reel apart. I fish with light tackle for the most part, both conventional and spinning reels, and target larger fish. My reels have seen better days for sure. so I am starting to rebuild my own older reels just to get the hang of doing it and I was just trying to find out what was best and what was considered snake oil by the dudes who repair and upgrade reels for a living. thanks in advance guys.

DK

[alantani]

here's an old post.....

for bearings, i have some "speed" lubes for the bass guys, but they don't get used much. i'm pretty much exclusively using corrosion x, but i keep it in a reel x bottle. that's been a point of some confusion. i started at the recommendation of my local tackle shop. it's worked well enough, so i've seen no need to change. the reel x is $5 for a tiny bottle, the corrosion x is $17 for a big trigger spray bottle. the math is easy.

for drag grease, i just switched to cal's drag grease and i'm very happy with it. i had purchased 6 pounds of shimano drag grease late last year and finally ran out. cal's grease is $24 per pound, shimano's is $80. the math is pretty easy here as well.

for the screw holes and other non-exposed metal surfaces, i am still using yamaha engine grease. there are four reasons here. first, i was told way back by my yamaha dealer that this grease had excellent salt water resistance. i've never questioned that claim but it seems to have held up. two, it's available in cartridges for mini-grease guns. you've seen my grease gun before. it's a life saver. three, it's dirt cheap, at i think $5 for a one pound tub or $7 for a set of three mini-grease gun cartridges. and forth, the stuff says blue forever. i can open up a reel five years down the line and see that i've been there before. that helps me quite a bit, because i like to know if a reel comes back with a problem.

and then there was my secret sauce. i was goofing around with a mix of corrosion x and shimano drag grease for a while. i was looking for a lube that i could use in spool bearings. the goal was more protection than simple corrosion x, and more spin than heavy grease. i got my best results from a mix of 1 part shimano teflon grease and 5 parts corrosion x. even these results were disappointing, so i gave up. i've come to the conclusion that bearings will simply not last forever. if i want a reel to cast, i leave the bearing open and lubed with corrosion x. if the reel is used for trolling only, then i pack the bearings with grease and reinstall the shields or seals. it's one way or the other. alan