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Posts: 247
Location: Grand Marais, MN | I am wondering if anyone out there has an active reel maintenance and servicing operation going? I used to drop my reels off with pikemaster, not sure if he is still around or doing reels. I looked into shimano servicing but they don’t seem to service my beloved 400te reels anymore.
Reply or PM me if you or you know of someone who operates on reels |
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Posts: 610
| Pikemaster passed away a few years back. Mat's reel repair in Wisconsin in where I would check. |
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Posts: 246
Location: Madison | Pike master passed away a few years ago.
Daves reel repair is in Ill or Matts reel repair is in Eagle River area. Matt is at the Musky shows and the Madison Fishing expo
https://www.davesreelservice.com/about-us/
https://matsreelrepair.com/ |
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Posts: 1350
Location: E. Tenn | Vern's Reel Repair in Hillsboro Ohio does some fine work too.
(937) 205-5946 or search for Verns Reel Repair on FB. |
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Posts: 279
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Highly recommend Mark at Dave's Reel Service. He keeps my 400TE's running great. A large inventory of Shimano parts on hand. |
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I have used Matts reel service a number of times. Excellent work. But don't wait, he is also very busy. An example of his work is an older Abu 6500 I kept in boat for guests. Right handed reel and I use left. Had a tiny noise but worked fine. When I got it back it worked better than when it was brand new, out of the box. |
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Posts: 1635
Location: Brighton CO. | Locally we have lost a lot of reel repair guy's due to mom and pop tackle shows going away. |
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Posts: 20275
Location: oswego, il | Mark at www.davesreelservice.com does amazing work. Pikemaster got some of his parts there. I do miss that guy. |
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Posts: 1287
Location: Walker, MN | Is there anyone in MN I should know about? I used to use Keith Edberg, but he no longer does reels. |
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Posts: 474
| What does it typically cost to get a reel cleaned. Tranx 400 for example? |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | First check YouTube, I bet there's a video showing you how to learn to do it yourself. m
one example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSvYaWDizs |
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Posts: 83
| Cleaning reels is easy and worth learning. I have no mechanical skills, and I can do it. Shimano has guides for it online like
https://fishshop.shimano.com/pages/reel-maintenance
If you're paranoid about it, put a big towel down on a table (so parts don't roll away), and film yourself as you do it. I fish a ton, and I normally take my reels apart about once a year. Most of the time, though, you simply need to clean and oil the brakes and level wind gear. I do this about once a week on the water. It makes a huge difference for casting distance.
Fixing reels is easy too, but parts are expensive. In most cases, it's much cheaper to ship to Shimano than to buy parts and do it yourself. These days, I think you have to pay shimano $40, but they've never charged me for any parts, including a reel cover that fell into the water. |
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Posts: 1156
| $75 each for a Tranx or Calcutta clean and lube, any parts replaced are additional cost. |
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| I bought a little kit from Abu Garcia for reel cleaning, watched a couple good videos and was pleased with the results. However, I do wonder if an experienced reel guy might see things that could create future problems, that I would miss. So far, so good,
but---. |
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Posts: 7106
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Can't say enough about the great service at Dave's Reel Service! Mark will take care of you.
And thanks for the reminder to give him a call and see when I can drop off some reel! |
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Posts: 1350
Location: E. Tenn | North of 8 - 1/27/2026 4:22 PM
I bought a little kit from Abu Garcia for reel cleaning, watched a couple good videos and was pleased with the results. However, I do wonder if an experienced reel guy might see things that could create future problems, that I would miss. So far, so good,
but---.
...yet there's still that odd occasion, when a c-clip, or spring will launch itself to the place where socks in the dryer disappear to. Also most of these gents have a good supply of parts at hand. They can replace any component that's borderline, unlike us mere mortals who would have to hunt down the needed parts and wait for them to be shipped. |
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Posts: 434
Location: MN | chasintails - 1/26/2026 1:27 PM
What does it typically cost to get a reel cleaned. Tranx 400 for example?
There is a huge variation - in the last year I have seen from $20 up to $75 for that specific reel. |
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Posts: 361
Location: Vilas County, WI | I also vote Mat Hegy in Eagle River (Mat's Reel Repair). I just dropped off 4 reels a couple weeks ago - it's an approximate 3 month wait to get them back right now, but this is the busy season.
I give him the green light to replace any broken or worn parts so they don't have to bother me with each little thing they find wrong. Mat will call you though if the service for the reel starts to get near 50% of the reel's value, which I appreciate. Then I can decide if it's worth the service or not. |
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Posts: 8860
| It's really easy to service your reels yourself. I've done this for 20 years and only one time got to the point where I was ready to send the pile of parts to someone else.
1. Leave yourself a space where you can disassemble your reel and leave the parts spread out
2. Take your time and be careful when taking your reel apart
3. Take pictures as you go along, BEFORE you take things apart
4. Place all parts in the order in which they came off the reel, facing the direction they were facing before they came apart
5. Clean each part and put them pack where they were.
6. As soon as you look at something and think "Oh #*#*. How does THIS come apart??" take another picture.
7. Anything with teeth (Main drive gear, pinion gear) gets grease
8. Bearings + moving parts get oil
9. A toothbrush and some solvent might be in order
10. Re - assemble from last piece off to first piece off
A few notes: Spool weights do wear out, most times you can flip them around and get another season out of them. Drag washers (stock) will be coated with grease and oil. They should be dry and clean. I flip them over for good measure. (not the metal ones) Yes, that stupid C clip can and will go flying off to where Jesus lost his sandals. Best to pay attention to the direction where you heard it hit the wall and look over there. If you're changing the main drive gear, change the pinion gear as well. If you're changing the pawl, you're supposed to change the worm gear. I usually just change the pawl. You can also just flip it 180 and get another season out of it. Make sure to clean all the gunk out of the pawl cap. Also make sure to push the spool weights in (not locked) when you put the reel back together: You can smash them and bend the tabs if they are extended.
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