A controversial topic in fishing is, can you Use WD-40 on a fishing reel? Everyone has a different answer to this question, and both sides have some truth to their arguments. What does WD-40 do, and is it harmful to use on a fishing reel?
You can use WD-40 on your fishing reels for your annual maintenance. WD-40 will not ruin your fishing reels, and it can be used in place of a cleaner, degreaser, or to get parts un-stuck. However, WD-40 should not be used for regular maintenance.
There are two schools of thought on cleaning your fishing reels. One includes using WD-40 as a cleaner, degreaser, and then applying lubricants/grease. The second school of thought on cleaning your fishing reels is not using WD-40 and using a different degreasing agent such as Simple Green to clean, washing off the degreaser, and then applying oil and grease to the necessary parts. We’ll explore both schools so you can feel confident in your choice.
Can You use WD-40 on a Fishing Reel?
While WD-40 is not harmful to your fishing reels, it is also not suitable as a stand-alone treatment. Wd-40 should be applied to clean the fishing reel, and then a standard lubricant (such as Ardent’s Reel Butter Combination Pack – Amazon link), should be used to finish your annual maintenance on your fishing reels.
WD-40 has a degreaser and water displacement formula. WD-40 will get rid of grease, grime, dirt, rust, and other hard to clean elements that accumulate onto your fishing reels. Wd-40 can be used to clean the fishing reels but not to lubricate them. WD-40 also puts a protective water coat over the area in which it was applied.
The primary school of thought is that you would use WD-40 to clean the outside of the reel, and then grease the gears and oil everything else. Putting too much grease can slow down the fishing reel just like not putting enough reel grease can do.
You do not want to use Wd-40 as a stand-alone treatment or as a lubricant for your fishing reels. Bassmaster also recommends that you wash off the film that Wd-40 leaves with soapy water after applying the degreaser. (You can read more about that here).
For another perspective on WD-40 and fishing reels, check out this video by Aliex Folgueira.
What is WD-40?
WD-40 stands for Water Displacement Formula 40. While most critics claim that WD-40 is not a lubricant, the company that makes WD-40 breaks down precisely what type of oil they use on their website. They claim that their product can be used to help protect fishing equipment from rust and corrosion.
WD-40 has a list of over 2000 uses, and while some outrageous claims are made every year with the use of WD-40, it remains just a lubricating solvent. You can find a complete list of what WD-40 can be used for here.
WD-40 does have several specialty products made for various reasons, some with different specific uses, such as electrical contact. None of their products are specific to fishing. Also, despite popular opinion, WD-40 does not contain fish oil, nor does it attract dirt.
Although WD-40 themselves does not recommend using their product for catching fish—would the taste even appeal to fish?–they do recommend its use to maintain your fishing reels.
What is Better Than WD-40
While WD-40 is a phenomenal cleaner and lubricant, it does not specialize in fishing gear specifically. A lot is going on inside of a fishing reel, and you need those parts to work correctly. Grabbing a good maintenance kit, such as the ABU Garcia Maintenance Kit (see on Amazon), will provide everything you need to perform the routine maintenance on your fishing reels.
The Simple Green method consists of the same elements that the WD-40 process contains. You clean with Simple Green, then grease and oil the expected parts. You can also use penetrating oil, such as Liquid Wrench (click to see on Amazon).
After using a degreaser, you follow it up with a lubricating oil for the bearings, and some gear grease for the internal gears. Hoppes Number 9 lubricating oil (found here on Amazon) is an excellent sportsman’s lubricating oil, primarily used on guns. This formula also works excellent on fishing reel bearings.
You would then need to follow up with some gear grease similar to the Quicksilver (link to Amazon) marine gear grease that most people would have on their boats.
Top Maintenance Kits
Kits are a great option—you pick one up and have everything you need. However, not all kits are the same, as you can see from this table.
| Abu Garcia | Ardent Reel Butter | Ardent Reel Care | PENN Reel Oil and Lube Angler Pack | CLENZOIL Marine & Tackle Fishing Reel Oil | |
| Tools | X | ||||
| Grease | X | X | X | X | X |
| Carrying Case | X | ||||
| Lubricating Oil | X | X | X | X | X |
| Cleaner/Degreaser | X | X | X | ||
| Line Conditioner | X |
Will WD-40 Ruin my Fishing Reel?
WD-40 will not ruin your fishing reels at all. Quite the opposite, WD-40 will prolong the life of your fishing reels. Some people even claim that WD-40 is a good line conditioner as well, even though the manufacturer doesn’t recommend using it as a Line Conditioner.
WD-40 works by breaking down rust and corrosion molecules and then applying a protective lubricating film over the affected area. This protective film also displaces water, making it a great anti-corrosive agent.
The reason that you need to lubricate after applying WD-40 is that the formula cleans off the other lubricants that were on the bearings. Over Time, if you do not consistently use WD-40 every trip, then your bearings could rust. An easy way to prevent this from happening is to lubricate your fishing rod bearings with a lubricant in conjunction with using Wd-40.
How do I Lubricate my Fishing Reel
There are several steps to take to perform maintenance on your fishing reels. Depending on the type of fishing reel that you have, you would follow separate disassembly instructions; however, the process is the same.
How to Lubricate your Fishing Reel:
- Clean the outside with a solvent/degreaser such as WD-40.
- Spray the rag and wipe the outside of the reel down, careful enough not to get water or degreaser on the inside parts.
- Start disassembling the fishing reel.
- Grease the gears and oil the bearing on the inside of the case.
- Put it all back together again.
Here is an excellent video that shows you how to clean your spinning reels.
How Often Should I Lubricate My Fishing Reel
Performing annual maintenance on your fishing reels is standard care. The consensus is different for every person. Some people prefer to clean them every time they go fishing, others only clean their fishing reels once, maybe twice a year.
The only wrong answer is not cleaning your fishing reels. If you do not do any maintenance on the fishing reels, then they will inevitably fail at the worst time. Most fishing forums when asked this question, everyone has a different method and time frame for taking care of their fishing reels.
Some people prefer the Simple Green and Toothbrush method, others the WD-40 and lubricant method. Either way, as long as you are doing the maintenance on your fishing reels, they should last a long time.
The Bass Resource fishing Forum (here) is an excellent resource for you to get in touch with other anglers, or even skim through to see what other people are doing as far as their maintenance goes on their fishing reels.
Reasons Not to Use WD-40
It comes down to your personal preferences for cleaning your fishing reels. WD-40 is not harmful but is also not explicitly meant for fishing reel maintenance. Some people claim that WD-40 dries out their fishing gear, and this may be their experience.
WD-40 is a lubricant that leaves a film to displace water; however, it is a solvent-based degreaser that happens to be safe on plastics and other metals. Some websites claim that WD-40 is not a lubricating agent–this is a myth. WD-40 contains a mixture of lubricants that deflect water, soil, grime, and other harmful components.
WD-40 also needs to be applied regularly to be as effective as providing a silicone-based lubricant to the bearings. One thing it is not suitable for is the monofilament fishing line as it will cause early aging of the line. You don’t want to apply anything except line conditioner to your fishing line anyway.
Also, WD-40 does not contain fish oil. Nor can it cure arthritis!
Final Thoughts/Conclusion
At a minimum, you need to use a degreaser at least, and then apply an oil-based lubricant, as well as some gear grease to the internal components annually. Soutdoors has a complete guide for the different types of fishing reels, and how to disassemble them. One thing that all of them have in common is a specific method in which to follow.
Having tried both methods, neither one gets tremendously better results than the other, which is why it is such a controversy. There is no one way to clean your fishing reels. There are several ways, and you need to find what works best for you.
“Fishing is a discipline in the equality of men – for all men are equal before fish,” Herbert Hoover.