We’ve had several discussions on here about Reel-Magic.

 

I finally got around to trying some of the 2 cans I have.

 

A couple of days ago I was in the basement….and ran across the 1st Mitchell spinning reel I ever bought…a 324. I remember putting 10 lb original Stren on it over 20 years ago….and both the reel and rod (old Berkeley Cherrywood 6’ 6”) needed some cleanup.

 

So I took a small wire detail brush to the rig and cleaned off all the heavy external stuff….then took a rag with a little WD-40 and wiped off the rest of the stuff….NOT including the line.

 

I then sprayed a SMALL amount of the Reel-Magic on the line on the spool….and quickly wiped off any excess.

 

Then I tied on a 1/4 oz practice casting plug….and let fly. It sailed roughly 60 ft.

 

I then laid the casting plug on the ground….opened the bail…and let out roughly 100 ft of line….then sprayed the remaining spooled line again with the stuff…..and reeled in.

 

Then I cast…and hit 70 ft….and again….and again….and again….which for 10 lb 20 YEAR old Stren….and a 1/4 oz weight….is pretty dang good….considering I had trouble hitting the same distance 20+ years ago with a 3/8 oz fishing lure.

 

To me…the stuff works on mono....especially the older stuff. I have a bigger reel that was spooled with Red Cajun line 2 years ago for catfish….and that hasn’t seen water yet….so I will try the Reel-Magic on it next.

 

Mind you…I had another reel spooled with lower test Red Cajun a couple of years ago….and the stuff coiled to no end…which was surprising….since the person that spooled it for me has close to 40 years of fishing experience.

 

JMHO

Life Member David BB Linkmeister US Army '78-'85 West Central Wisconsin

Glad the stuff works buddy, but it might be time to re spool.
Lifer since 05/08....Ky....Fred

Yep, I re-spool every spring.
Always drink upstream from the herd ----- Hayward Lakes Area, Wi ----- Life member since March 1990 ---- NAHC Life member since December 1996 ----- Endowment Member NRA

Hey, Dave.  If you spray a little on each eye on your rod you will get more distance too.  I carry a can of it with me when I go fishing so my buddy can use it too.

Gary

Life Member, Retired WV State Police, Retired SFC US Army. Poca, West Virginia

Fred....

THe whole IDEA was to see IF the stuff worked....so I had to find a reel with OLD mono on it to give it a good test.

 

I no longer make the kind of money to respool reels every spring.....but for that matter...I don't actually believe that it needs to be done on a "time" basis. If it works for you Badger...that is all "well and good".

 

THanks to goinfshn (Gary) for your thoughts and your experience too

 

Life Member David BB Linkmeister US Army '78-'85 West Central Wisconsin

I agree with you Dave. I don't restring unless the line is showing that it needs it. I've got spiderwire on a reel for ten years and it preforms just fine.
Lifemember and Bushwacker SMF upstate NY

braided line will never get old. You can have it on your spool for as long as you like.

I've seen a LOT of good comments about braided line on spinning reels....but I've had 3 of them get some nasty knots in the middle...and all 3 had different MFG's / "weight test" line on them....so I don't know IF I'm doing somethng wrong at some point....or else the line was just bad.

 

From what I've read on the 'Net though....you can't use the Reel-Magic on the braids.

 

More thoughts from you MORE experienced folks?

Life Member David BB Linkmeister US Army '78-'85 West Central Wisconsin

I never get the chance to "choose" to re spool. Between all the hang up's, and bad casts, I'm putting line on once a month!
Lifer since 05/08....Ky....Fred

According to BPS, there Premium Excel Braid fishing line is ideal for baicasters and spinning reels. I have not tried it. But if you don't like it, I'm sure you could send it back. I personally use Stren on my baitcaster and really like it, but Stren has now stopped making it. I haven't used braided line on any of my spinning reels, but I have a friend that uses braid on his spinning reel and he likes it alot (he uses stren and has had no problems either).

When braided line first came out I bought some as did a friend of mine. I had spiderwire he had gorilla braid. We both tried them on the same trip. What a nightmare. We spent more time trying to get the knots out. One we spooled it the wrong way and the other I was told the knot to tie to the reel should either have 15'of mono on first or tie a clove hitch to the reel. This is to prevent the line from slipping or moving on the reel.  So I tried it again and this time I strip the drag out of a brand new reel. Basspro made good on the reel that is when I bought a Mitchell spidercast reel. End of problems I've use it ever since without a problem. Not one knot and have caught  a boat load of fish.
Lifemember and Bushwacker SMF upstate NY

When braided lines were first introduced, I tried some on a spinning reel. What a mistake! I took the recommendation of a freind not thinking that he fished with baitcasters. The newer superlines are vastly superior to what was available 15 yrs or so ago. With the newer braids and fused lines most of the downside is gone. I fish almost exclusively with Fireline and PowerPro with no downside. Tom
Fishin' fool in NE Illinois

Well there's a time a place for everything and after hearing so many people using line conditioners, I've decided to spend some time on it. Well first thing first was to test it on my ice fishing lines. We have 2# Gamma ESP and 4# Microice Fireline Crystal. First impression on spraying onto my lines were that they both got more slick. I notice a slight discoloration that both lines got a sligh brown tint to it. No big deal, I was excited to give it a try.

Well went fishing and the Gamma Line seemed to work better than prior. In fact the Gamma ESP line got more stiff and felt thicker. A total opposite of the product's claim, but hey the line is appearing to work just fine. After about an hour of fishing, I notice the line wanting to kink. I did not bring the Reel Magic out in the cold, so no reapplication of it would be possible. I kept fishing with the line and then strangest things start breaking. I thought it was a fluke, so I fished some more. Sure enough hooked up with another crappie, pulling fish up the hole and line breaks again. Another fluke, perhaps? Retied new lure, caught a few more fishes and then suddenly the line breaks again. Okay, there's a pattern here. The first day's trial was over for the Gamma ESP Line. This line has never broke for me in prior two seasons of ice fishing and now this? Did some line pull test on the treated line and it sure enough broke easier than expected. Compared to another rod, with same line, it was more limp and held up stronger.

Now for the Microice Fireline Crystal. It seemed to work better as the start as well. However, after my first fish, I dropped the line back down the hole and noticed way too many air bubbles. Now it's a common problem for this line, but now the air bubbles are like three to four times more numerous. I didn't know anybetter, but now it would make sense. The Fireline Crystal seemed to start out slick and slightly more stiff, but after some use it seemed to feel more soft like a well worn out line. Being that the line had too much trouble with air bubbles, it was basically useless to fish with it.

Spring fishing testing time. I had applied Reel Magic to 4# Yozuri Hybrid, 6# Excalibur Silverthread and the same 4# Microice Fireline Crystal. Again I notice the brown tint discoloration, but the lines seems to show improved slick feeling results. The

Fireline Crystal seemed to cast further and I really felt that it did. It was a joy to get improved casting distance, but then for some odd reason the line started to break on some trout. Now these are pond stocked trout and no bigger than 12 inches, so there wouldn't be much of a fight to them. Even with a loose drag, I was got another line break. Then I started to get some really narly bird nests. That was terrible as I picked out one. Fished a couple of casts later, then had to pick out another bird nest. A few more days of fishing and line treatment until then eventually one bird nest so bad I had to cut the line. I had to strip off near 20 yards of line to get to the more fresh stuff that hasn't been nearly as treated to get some decent fishing out of it. Eventually I had to junk the line.

The 4# Yozuri Hybrid never fair well in early cold spring fishing. It was always coily from lower temperatures. The Reel Magic didn't take out any of those coils, but it did make the line feel more slick. Well as it appears the Yozuri Hybrid seemed to also have lost line strength. It was breaking a lot more often. I've never experience line break on the Yozuri Hybrid except for hanging up. A few more days of walley, crappie, and white bass fishing and then getting white bass to snap the line so easily, convinced me to junk the treated line as well.

The Excalibur Silverthread line had the most brown tint discoloration that I noticed. The line felt slick and stiffen up more. It's a slipper bobber fishing for this line on a previous outing I noticed that the line was beginning to develop some serious line memory coils. The Reel Magic treatment did nothing to take out the line memory coils and now being more stiff, it's less likely to clear out as well. This line however did not lose line strength, it maintained all of it. I had though the line casted better, but the slinky line would occasionally knot so that didn't help in the end.

As so far the lines that I choose to test Blakemore's Reel Magic on, did not fare well at all. The jury is still out on the product, since all I hear is positive things about it. I will say, it does a wonderful job at reel surface cleaning, but so do a lot of other products. It also seems to discolor gold color anodized parts on the the reels I've tried it on. I've used it to clean a pocket knife and had great results initially. Until it corroded the plastics detailing on the handles and then attracted lots of pocket dust into all very hard to clean out places.

So I will have some use for this product, but I'm finding lots of bad symptoms with the after effect of it. It's an expensive product and the lines that I've never needed conditioner on, didn't give me usable real world results. So the rest of the spray can will be used for cleaning the snowthrower. Still didn't get any improved snowthrowing distance but that was not what it was intended for.

In the end, I would not recommend it to a friend. If you have to come back and tell me it's terrible product, I would not know how to answer to you.

As for myself, I would not buy again. It's better to spend that $10 on some new lines. Over the summer I have been very hesitant about using it.  I'm sure if I spray it on silicone skirts they would just dance in the water, but I don't want to find out how it will eat away at my jig paint.

The good and bad...

Sorry to hear about the bad experience. At the same time though...I would not have tried the stuff with the newer lines that you mentioned.

I didn't recommend that either....and I HOPE that you read my earlier post about mono lines.

JMHO...there's NO product out there that is a "blanket fix-all" for fishing situations of ANY kind.

Now I know whats wrong with you. Huffing too much of that reel Magic. lol

Just seems that too much claims bout this product's application are too much on loose grounds. Was really hoping to see improve result especially for ice fishing, but it just seems like to get one thing, you give up another. There's no point for me to test out cheap mono lines to see the promised claims. I can see the how this product thrives on it's claims. Just seems like omission of the bad things.  There are other uses, but line treatment will be very low on the list of uses for it.

Folks I would give KVD line conditioning a shot if I were you, For one it's not flamable  and I use it all the time and have never had any of the problems you have talked about.

I have KVD line and lure conditioner as well. It hasn't gone through the ice fishing test yet so I won't comment on it until further testing.