So you have just come in from a day on the Bay or ocean, and your fishing tackle is covered in salt spray. What do you do? Do you spray everything with fresh water? I hope not. The water just dilutes the salt and makes it easier to get into all the little nooks and crannies where it can do lots of damage.
For at least 40 years I have been using WD-40 on all my fishing tackle from rods and reels to fish hooks. At the end of a fishing trip I completely cover all my tackle with WD-40. I really put it on heavily, especially on my rods and reels. The stuff should be dripping off my reels including the line. The only way to keep salt from corroding the reel spool is to soak the line in WD-40.
I set the outfits out to dry off, and then wipe everything down with a clean rag. If I used lures, be that trolling, jigging, or casting, they too get a good coating of WD-40. I don’t put the oil on soft plastics because they are in no danger of rusting. I have Plano plastic boxes for most of my casting and jigging lures, and I spray them right in the box. My larger trolling lures are hung from a five-gallon bucket, so I spray them and hang them back up to dry.
I tie most of my rigs, so I have a pretty good stock of hooks. These too are kept in plastic boxes and get a good dousing of WD-40 on a regular basis. The only drawback to using WD-40 on my rod and reels is the residue oil will hold sand when surf fishing. A quick wipe with a clean cloth takes care of that problem. I have reels made for freshwater fishing that have never seen freshwater. They have held up remarkably well over the years, and I expect to get many more years out of them.
By Eric Burnley