Okuma Baitfeeder Grease Replacement

Well got my Baitfeeder in the mail (size 30) and it was pretty stiff out of the box after spending a few days in the cold on a delivery truck. Normally I have no apprehension about taking a normal spinning reel apart to replace the factory grease with hot sauce, but I’m a little scared to take this one apart with the rear tension knob and feeder switch.

Anyone know of a good video for this specific reel or feel like talking my through it? I found one reel on youtube but it wasn’t very good.

Have you ice fishers had to replace the grease on these puppies? I do plan to use mine in the cold.

I’m in the same boat. Got my 20 today, gave it the old freezer test and was pretty stiff. Cannot figure out how to get the plate off. I think I need to get the baitfeeder drag clicker off, but don’t want to break it. I also planned on using it in the cold, I’m not much of a ice shack guy.

This seems like a good IDO Insights episode.

Just watched a good 24:00 minute video on YouTube.

(Okuma Avenger ABF 30 Reveiw & Disassembly)

The guy seems to know what he’s doing.

I watched that video – and it was fine – but it’s not the same reel model. I was able to get the rubber part off the baitfeeder clicker, but still couldn’t get the cover off the reel to get into the reel. I know I need to get the cap off to access more screws to get it off, but it wouldn’t come off. I didn’t want to break it on day 1 of owning it, so I gave up last night. I might just take it into my local Okuma Service Center and see if they’ll re-grease it for me with some lube that won’t gunk up in the cold. I’ve actually had my best results cleaning out reels and using hot sauce oil on the gears (yes I know, you’re supposed to grease gears). I know the oil won’t gunk up on me. I’m not thrilled about taking it in and spending $15-20 just to get it re-lubed.

I am still waiting for my backorder to show up. But this sounds like it will be something I will have to do right away before putting line on it. Hopefully the IDO group will be able to help before I rip into it. Thank you all for the replies.

What we need is for Okuma to come out with a line of “James Holst – Ice Series Reels” that are ICE READY!!!!!!!!!! New reels that don’t need to be torn apart and relubed to be “winterized” would be VERY popular.

And toss the IDO logo on it

Just had mine apart, way to complicated to work on. I got it stripped down to the rear cover and could not get that off. There is one last screw under it to remove the side plate. Since I had it apart I oiled what I could get to with Quantum Hot Sauce oil. There are 6 very tiny screws you have to remove to get the side plate off, I got all but one. Also had the anti reverse spring pop off. It took 30 minutes to get it back on. I wouldn’t recommend taking his reel apart.

Dang glad I didn’t try. Suppose I’ll have to take it in and have a pro do it.

Got mine apart lubed and back together. When you take it apart look at the picture on the parts list. Part 108 (CAP)

There is a screw in the front of the stem that is hard to see unless you are looking from the front. Once I removed that screw I had to force the cap back by sticking something small into the screw hole and push the cap back far enough to get a small flat blade screwdriver between the cap and the reel body to pry the cap up and back. There is a small rectangular tab inside the cap at the top of the reel body. Once you free that tab the cap will slide off. There are 2 more screws holding the side plate under the cap.

One more thing be very carful with the Anti Reverse Spring, it will slip off the post very easily and is very hard to get back on. Don’t ask me how I know.
Sweat was dripping off my forehead while trying to pry the cap off.

Hope this helps

We need a video made for us slow people. Thx

Vexman wrote:

We need a video made for us slow people. Thx

Yep like I said it would be cool if IDO did a video on their YouTube channel. Come on guys you sold em.

Had this reel out this morning in the cold and it performed flawlessly on its 1 and only try of the day. Had it set up in the ifishpro for pike. Only one flag but it worked as it should with the factory grease. Not a big fish only 28″ but still.

shamus wrote:

Vexman wrote:

We need a video made for us slow people. Thx

Yep like I said it would be cool if IDO did a video on their YouTube channel. Come on guys you sold em.

To be honest I haven’t seen any reason to replace the factory lube. I have 4 of the okuma abf reels and haven’t experienced any stiffness and I’ve fished them in some very cold conditions.

Yep like I said, she was stiff and slow after 3 days on a delivery truck so I jumped to conclusions thinking the grease should be replaced. Performed flawlessly this morning after many hours in the cold though.

Mark Rasmussen wrote:

I might just take it into my local Okuma Service Center and see if they’ll re-grease it for me with some lube that won’t gunk up in the cold. I’ve actually had my best results cleaning out reels and using hot sauce oil on the gears (yes I know, you’re supposed to grease gears). I know the oil won’t gunk up on me. I’m not thrilled about taking it in and spending $15-20 just to get it re-lubed.

Mark, I don’t own the Okuma ABF-20B, but I’ve been working on my reels for the last 3 years. If you de-grease and re-lube any fishing reel with only oil on the gears it will still function but they will wear very quickly resulting in a rough retrieve. If I could recommend a product called Cals coldweather grease, also called cals light or cals purple(all the same stuff). It was made for smaller spinning reels and also for guys fishing in Alaska under extreme cold weather. Can use it on gears and also carbon drag washers. I’m going to do some snooping on other cold weather greases used in reels.

Thanks Crawdaddy. I understand, and for the most part, my reels are designated ice reels and the reeling I do is very minimal throughout the ice season. I’ve been doing this for about 5 years with some of my reels (sienna’s for pannies) and so far so good. I’ve been doing it for about 3 years with my saharas/symetres (small to medium sized eyes with one Erie trip), and they’ve stayed smooth as well. I fish with a couple guys that actually have been running their reels dry and swear by it. I figured the oil couldn’t hurt, and so far it hasn’t. I might be a little more hesitant if it was my Supreme XT’s or Stradics. I do have the Cal’s drag grease – I’ve upgraded all my drags to carbon fiber. I’ll take a look though at the coldweather grease and maybe try it next year on some of the nicer reels. Thanks.

crawdaddy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mark Rasmussen wrote:</div>
I might just take it into my local Okuma Service Center and see if they’ll re-grease it for me with some lube that won’t gunk up in the cold. I’ve actually had my best results cleaning out reels and using hot sauce oil on the gears (yes I know, you’re supposed to grease gears). I know the oil won’t gunk up on me. I’m not thrilled about taking it in and spending $15-20 just to get it re-lubed.

Mark, I don’t own the Okuma ABF-20B, but I’ve been working on my reels for the last 3 years. If you de-grease and re-lube any fishing reel with only oil on the gears it will still function but they will wear very quickly resulting in a rough retrieve. If I could recommend a product called Cals coldweather grease, also called cals light or cals purple(all the same stuff). It was made for smaller spinning reels and also for guys fishing in Alaska under extreme cold weather. Can use it on gears and also carbon drag washers. I’m going to do some snooping on other cold weather greases used in reels.

Mark, I see what you’re saying in that an ice reel doesn’t do much reeling/casting so the gears see much less wear than an open water reel. I’ve fished in a lot of cold weather and never had problems with factory lube in my reels. But I’m guessing you’ve fished in some weather a lot colder than me, so I appreciate you sharing your findings. Keep us posted if you learn anything new.