Reel maintenance question

[BoatGuy]

My friend brough his reel for maintenance. Not sure what shape it was in or what parts it needed. He also had it re-spooled with fresh line. He asked my if $150 was expensive. I am not sure what “normal” charge is so I figured I ask here.

 

[Leprechaun]

Hi BG, Happy New Year!

You questions is a very difficult, if not impossible one to answer. What reel is it, what parts were needed, what kind of line, is it a factory refit or a local shop doing the work in-house? All these points matter and would have to be individually considered.

If its a big International-type lever drag reel, like maybe a 50W, then perhaps a charge of $150 is warranted. Heck, those reels can eat $100 worth of high-end braid alone. If however its a little 2500-sized spinner, then probably (obviously really) not - unless it was a Stella or maybe a big-ass Saltiga spinner, or something along those lines.

Even then, reels of that caliber are generally sold with a "Manufacturer's Premium Repair Plan," meaning that the manufacturer will redo the reel for a fixed cost - assuming the parts are still available. Shimano in particular does this on some of their better reels. Others may do it as well.

When I work on a reel with big problems, and I'm not thrilled to take on such work - because a beat reel is VERY tough to restore to near-new performance parameters, I generally set 50% of the replacement value as an acceptable cost threshold. More than that and its time to go new reel shopping.

Let me give you an example. A good buddy bought a gorgeous Daiwa Saltist Black Bay 4000 a few seasons ago. Jeez, what a smoooth reel it WAS. He didn't mistreat it as far as I know, but it did jam up on a big fish. And when I say jammed up, I mean it was absolutely locked up - no way the handle would turn. Despite it looking very nice externally, it was totally effed. So he gave it to me to look through to determine if it would be worth saving.

I ripped it down to the last teeny-tiny screw (and boy does that reel have a ton of parts in it) and I found that somehow the oscillating gear (which moves the spool up and down) actually broke away from the reel's frame and then bent a few other piece inside. So, this reel needed the gear, a completely new frame and a few smaller bits as well. Its a $200 reel, so maybe it was worth saving . . . Yeah, ah, nope. By the time I priced out all the parts, my bud was looking at a bit over $120 - and that's with me charging exactly zero for my time. He said eff-it, gave me the reel for parts and bought himself a new Vanford, which he is still happily using today.

So now I had a reel that would never catch again - but I had a brainstorm. I sent it to my Daiwa-source in Alabama, The Tackle Trap, to see if they could do anything. Heck, I've bought lots of parts and more than a couple of reels from them - not to mention having helped them move a bunch of those gorgeous JDM Catalina bait casting reels last Winter.

So, after giving the reel a thorough eval, the reel tech tried to put it though as a Daiwa warranty repair, despite it being well over the warranty period. Daiwa sniffed out the con and nixed the job. TTT then let me know that they would do the job at their cost - but with the labor involved, it was still right around 50% of the price of a new reel.

Anyway, long story short, I donated the reel to them so that maybe they could help someone else with its still good parts - and then ambled over to see John at Trophy Tackle in West Babylon. Ended up buying myself a new Penn Clash II - as discussed in another thread. Sometimes no matter how you twist and turn it just ain't gonna happen, and that was the case here.

So again, without knowing the particulars of your friend's reel's needs, its not a question that can be accurately answered. Plus, I'm always reluctant to throw shade at any shop without seeing the entire picture. Though I have found in my many years of travel that a certain few shops do deserve a little shade thrown their way.