Cleaning the Shimano Calcuta Reel

Unlike a lot of anglers I've always enjoyed tearing down and cleaning my reels. I will admit that until the Shimano Calcutta 200 came out, my reel cleaning was limited to the Ambassadeur and Daiwa reels and I had heard horror stories about tearing down one of the Shimano bait casters. Those stories were just that and after my friend Jonathan Seiler and I sat down at the Shimano booth during a fishing show a few years ago we learned just how easy it is to disassemble and clean these fantastic reels.

The first thing you'll need is a clean place to work and I suggest that you spread a white towel out to place everything on. You'll need a pair of pliers, a Phillips and a flat blade screwdriver or a combination thereof, some drag grease, reel oil, reel grease and some Q-tips.

While you are removing items from the reel, place them on the towel you're working over in the order that they are removed. This will help you keep track of where things are and also will help you when you reassemble the reel by knowing where and how things fit.