Fishing Forum

My Shimano failed me again yesterday......went to set hook on northern and the spool free spooled......



Any of you have or know of a dependable cold weather spinning reel?



My Shimanos SUCK!
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Hi there spinner,

Sorry to bug you but just how does the cold cause the spool to free-spool? Does water get in under the spool or.....?

JapanRon
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cold effects it...........



won't work from get go.........



Might be the fire line I use?



I doubt it............



is like bail is open almost........
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Hi spinner,

OK..... if the gearbox has lots of grease, maybe the stuff is freezing or creates a condition where parts won't intermesh. How about cleaning out all the grease from the inside gears and use powdered graphite. Yep, powdered graphite don't freeze from my experience with firearms.

Mr. Shimano may get real mad at you though I don't know.

JapanRon
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line is a major concern when fishing on ice. you want a line that is designed for just those frozen conditions. and if you are talking about line despooling (meaning comming unraveled, then yes. the wrong line will come unraveled and I beleive fire line is one of the lines that come unraveled in cold weather, I used a similar line made by maxim that will not stay on the reel in early spring. I have long quit using that type of line on open faced spinning reels.

the line may not be causing your reel to stiffin up on you but the line certainly can become a pain on the ice. from being stif and the curls not unwinding to the line not wanting to rap around the spool properly.

you realy want a line that is formulated for the cold. here is what I use. no curls from tip to the 1/32nd ounce tear drops I use with out sinkers. keeping the curls out with out adding weight to the terminal set up makes all the differance in the world when it comes to detecting the extreamest light bites. [center][/center] [left]

I have a shimono and yes it dose become difficlute to use in the winter, it always has from when it was new. I gave up on using it for winter 10 years ago. I might change my mind this year, I have to strip the reel down to get rid of a squeek, I am going to change the grease with a touch of gun oil, should make my reel lightning fast. I will let you know how it turns out. [/left] [left]as for a good reel for winter I sugested one on the alaskan board for you but I will reitterate here. I have had years of success with this brand reel for winter use. Shakespere modle Sinergy open faced size "200" this is an ultra light reel and is live through out the winter, I have used it in temps -30* with the line mentioned above. [/left] [left]I posted a bit more info on the alaskan board about this particular reel. by the way, I own 8 of these reels and have not had a problem with one of them. these are reasonable in price as well. for the money you cant go wrong. thay do make larger sizes of this particular model.[/left]
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My shimanos have been the best, most dependable reels ever and I've used many brands. If your reel is a newer model it has roller clutch for the anti-reverse and if it gets any oil or anything in it it will slip-it happened to me.You just clean it in alcohol and wa-la.
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[cool] Rain, sleet, snow, or sunshine! My old Mitchells have been through it all and still keep on tickin.[]
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i use the shimano sedona 4000 with #6 yo-zuri flurocarbon hybred line for the winter steelhead and late season salmon runs .

i tried the spider-wire , that just plain sucked , then i tried the fire line , i loved the strength , but had the slipping problem you mentioned in the cold . i even put on some backing line to help reduce the problem without sucess .

fireline was just too smothe and stiff to spool up tight on the bail during colder conditions .it got progressivley worse as the temps droped below 40 degrees . around 20 degrees i had birdsnest after birdsnest , it was time to switch .

although the yo-zuri is my first hybred line to try out i am pretty happy with it so far , but the real test will be when ice starts to form on the line while fishing . thats when problems have shown up the most in my line testing efforts . this usually happens in the single digit temps and below .

the only problem i have encountered with my shimano reel is remembering to disengauge the fighting drag after pulling a bottom snag free .
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Thanks for the experience tips. So, would you say the braided lines aren't very good for cold/ice fishing? Stick with a good quality mono or flouro?

I'm getting ready to buy my first ice-fishing outfit. Should I go with a ready-to-go combo and trust the reel that's on the rod?
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Hey there DDR! I would definitely stay away from braided line in the ice and snow. It has microgaps inbetween the strands that allow moisture to stay in there and freeze. Therefore making your line stiff. A good mono or even an iceline is the best bet for those conditions.[cool] Happy Fishing Bro!!
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Hi there DrownedDesertRat and all,

Life is becoming so complicated don't you think? I'm suprised that some of the winter steelhead or cold whatever anglers /flyfisherman haven't jumped in on this one! Lots of cold water lines (mono, co-polymer) lines and flylines/leaders for the cold.

Depending on how we fish, a spool of leader material might be enough to test if things really work in the cold. If the line works, buy enough for a top shot and fish that for a while. That's how I test a completely different and new line.

This ought to be a topic for several other board except for southern California of course as it never rains or snows in so. cal. Right TubeN2?! heh heh heh

JapanRon
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You got that right JR. I haven't seen any signs of snow around here for a few weeks. That was a surprise for SoCal. The last recordable snow that we had was in Jan of '90. That is when it snowed up near me in the San Fernando Valley.

It was unusually cold during that time and instead of the rain that was forcast, we did get a couple of inches of snow. It stuck around long enough for some of the residents of Granada Hills to go out and purchase snow toys to play in it.

For the local fisherman, that may have constituted going out and buying some kind of winter line to topshot his/her reels with. But it didn't.

For those who waited patiently for the weather change, it only took about 1 month before we were blasted with 107 degree temps in the early part of February. The beaches reported record crowds for a couple of weekends.

Therefore your cold weather spinning reels may not be too necessary if you are in SoCal.
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you know , if it is a reel problem , and the friction disk is slipping , or the greese or oil is thicking up . the graphite powder could clear things up , but if there's the possibility of moisture freesing up in there maybe a coating of rain-x or no-fog would help to keep the ice out . possibly an adjustmernt to the drag itself is in order .

i know that wear on my less expencive reels gives them a slight wabble , when i tighten the bale spindle to reduce the wabble something else is effected , stiff cranking , tight drag , stuff like that .

i tend to tourqe down on it rather than snug it up , once i release the pressure and add a shim washer and a drop of thread-loc it goes back to working fine for a bit .

on some of the reels parts wear out , for a small fee there are guys who will rebuild and repair a reel to like new condition , beats spending a small fortune on getting a new reel .

however a brand new reel , well there's something to be said about breaking in a new model , especially so close to x-mass time .

latley i've been droping hints here at home about NEW WADERS , i think she's starting to pick up on them , then again i'll probbably end up with a six pack of cotton socks to change into after my fishing trips , lol !
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i have a small shimano spinning reel, too.. with 8 lb , regular monofiliment line.. never had problems with either one, .. winter fished on the mississippi river, 30 ft deep.. the coldest i recall, was 9 above, with wind chill of 10 below.. the only problem i had was, the end line guide, would ice up.. a few taps, and ice would fall out.. caught lots of sauger.. a few walleyes... an occasional crappie..
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Hey there lonehunter,

Thanks for the most excellent post and that very interesting idea(s). If it works, it may belong on the 'tips' board too.

JapanRon
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[size 3]Well I took apart my shimano T120 like I said I would. a two day project for me. by the time I got it all a part completely bail clutches barring - every thing, I could see why my reel would stiffen up, the grease had harden to a point it had almost a crust on it. any way I could not see the parts well enough to attempt putting it back together.[/size]

[size 3]Using a quality paper towel. I wiped clean all the parts and re-assembled the reel the following day, took me forever, I could not remember how it came apart. [/size][url "javascript: addTag('blush')"][blush][/url][size 3] I placed a drop of gun oil on the baring because it was dry and I did not want any thing heavy on it, shook them off well and reassembled every thing several times before I figured out where every thing went. And lost the bail release spring. I flew up in a direction undetectable by my eyes. I figured it was lost for good and it would go in to my scrap reel pile till I get a mate with spare parts. As luck would have it, I came across it several hours later. Took the reel apart and put the final piece of the puzzle back together. Before closing every thing back up I placed a drop of gun oil on each of the gears for lubrication. Since I did not use a degreaser I figured this would be think enough. [/size]

[size 3]Looking in the lower corner of my computer it said that the temp was 18* out side. I set the reel on the hood of the truck for a couple hours. This would be enough of a test since before when I took it out side in the cold it would stiffen up in just a matter of moments.[/size]

[size 3]I picked up and gave the handle a spin and it spun like brand new. I even got rid of the squeaky and the slop that was in the spool that was wobbling up and down a bit.[/size]

[size 3]**** Note the shimano has a stable spindle that dose not spin. it passes through the center of the gear that dose spin the bail housing. you need to use a pipe cleaner to clean out the old grease from there, take the time to make sure each tooth of every gear is spotless and not chipped or worn. As Al mentioned earlier there are tension clutches behind the knob of the drag dial. Pay close attention to how they come apart. These clutches are a combination of 8-12 washers of different types, each has a certain way in which it must ne facing in order to work properly. Several are rubber several are bowl shaped and others are keyed to keep every thing in its proper place. When the bowl shaped washers are squashed they crush the rubber washers and slow the stroking action of the piston that runs through the entire reel and connects to your spool. [/size]

[size 3]Remember to not use any oils that will freeze and if you do not have the proper lube for reels then petroleum jelly will work in a pinch but will break down faster that the correct lube. a tinny drop of gun oil will keep you for a short time but will require more maintenance than I am sure you want to spend.[/size]

[size 3]The lube is only a couple bucks and a quarter teaspoon will do 20 reels.[/size]

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