[Putershark]

After 10 years of good service, one of my low profile bait casters (what I use 80% of the time) finally threw a rod, and another one started having major spool release bar issues so one was saved for parts, the other hit the can... For months now though, I have been looking at the Daiwa (big fan of their reels) Viento reel

with the twitching bar since I do a lot of jig and jerk bait work, but was wondering how it would hold up to salt water use but not willing to drop 2 bones to find out the hard way .

Here is a review of the reel and it's functions by the way http://www.tackletour.com/reviewdaiwaviento.html

So after hearing mixed reviews at the different tackle shops about using it in salt water and not knowing what metals were used to make the reel (some I know hate salt water) I finally called the factory to get the skinny... Come to find out that with my normal rinse and soak routine after each trip (more on that later) I should get many years of good service So now it is time to do some power shopping on the Internet for the best price

As far as taking care of my reels, I have a 3 step process that I use after each trip that you may find useful.

1. I take them off the boat and stand them up along the bushes and after the engine is flushed, I rinse them off with fresh water. This though can drive some salt water into the reel if you are not careful so afterwards.
2. I have this tall plastic bucket that I got when buying salt for my fish tank that came with a real nice lid. Some would call them a pickle bucket, but they are twice as tall as your standard plastic bucket. Inside that bucket is a mixture of salt away http://www.saltawayproducts.com/ and water filled up to the point of the handle. I then grab a hand full of rods and reels and set them inside the buck for a good soaking and since the bucket is so tall, the reels get dunked all the way under in the mixture.
3. After soaking for a 10 min or so, I then take them outside and rinse them off with the hose one last time and let them dry in my rod rack and then put the lid back on my soak bucket for the next dunking...

The system seems to work very well and once every couple of months, I take the reels off and let them soak in the sink in "hot" water to dissolve any salt that has gotten way inside the reel and then drain and re-oil them as needed.

If anybody has gotten one of these reels (fresh or saltwater use) I would like to hear how you like it or what you hate about it while I surf around for the best price

Thanks!