Look After Your Reels and Your Ski

Reels

For any newbies to this method of fishing you will soon learn that your reels can get a good amount of salt water over them especially in rough conditions and if you do not look after them they will start to seize up on you, and you can bet at the wrong time.

I give my reels a very quick hose off with fresh water and a healty spray of INOX after every trip and a more thorough clean down once every month. This has seemed to work great for me and other may have varying methods, but I can tell you now if you do nothing they will seize and corrod.

Ski

All the usually care that most would do, but an additional step that provides exceptional protection is to INOX through the inside of you ski after every use (or once a week if using frequently) and around the steering nozel and if you have a Seadoo spray the OPAS springs and hinges as well to ensure they operate properly. This will keep your important parts of your ski in near showroom condition and ensure good reliability and operation.

For any Seadoo owners, ensure flushing on the hose is kept to a minimum (around 10 secs) as certain parts are not cooled when out of the water and connected to a hose due to the Closed Loop Cooling. Maybe a ski mechanic could add to my limited but important knowledge.

my manual says flush for 2 mins max

Yeah mine does to but they only need a quick flush to get saltwater out of exhaust system and this does not take long. On my previous ski I replaced driveline seal and some other parts that are prone to failing early if people flush them for far to long and I was advised 10 - 20 secs if certainly sufficient and will ensure no unneccessary damage is caused.

Mine's not a seadoo so not too sure but I use Saltaway in mine, you only need to flush till a little foam comes out the back and thats only a few seconds, I normally squirt a bit around the trailer and around the wheel bearings etc too.

Salt Away is good, but if you follow that up with some INOX it provides awesome protection. Do not use Marine CRC in your engine bay where spray will cover over rubber hoses etc...as it can degrade the rubber and many manufacturers of outboards etc advise against the use of Marine CRC in such cases.

Not familiar with INOX, I use silicone spray, I always carry a can in my boot & spray my trailer runners when I park the trailer without the ski on, makes it a breeze to launch & retrieve.

Silicone spray is all good especially for the pads on a trailer. Next time your out and about get some INOX from any marine dealer but do not buy from a tackle shop as they seem to have at least another 50-100% mark up on the price over what others sell it for. Once you get it literally go hard with it on every nut, bolt, hinge on your ski and around all engine mounts, electrics virtually damn near everything. I go through 1 can every 2 months as after the initially dose you are just maintaining. My skis remain damn perfect and you will struggle to find any signs of salt doing its corrosive thing.

my abu sized up on saturday morn just striped down to find so much salt in the gears i couldn't turn the handle. after a full clean down a spray with inox the real is like brand new . so i am going to start washing and spraying down with inox after every trip to avoid the loss of a big fish

See I am not full of s@!t.... then

Hi Guys

Try this.... a bucket of water with small (but enough) amount of Saltaway or Mac's added. soak for a while then into a bucket of fresh water or rinse off with hose on fine spray setting.

his will get rid of the salt.

Then spray with INOX. if you leave the salt in and then throw in the inox the two mixing together become very abrasive.

Keith