The Best Fishing Reel Grease (For Saltwater and Freshwater)

Last Updated on February 12, 2020

(Top Pick)

The Best Fishing Reel Grease For Saltwater and Freshwater

Maintaining your fishing reels and keeping them clean and well lubricated in extremely important for all your reels. But it’s especially important to routinely lube your saltwater fishing reels. Unfortunately, I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way. *a moment of silence for my Shimano Stradic*

With frequent care and maintenance, not only will your fishing reels last much longer, providing the confidence you need in a reel, but they’ll also perform better each time you’re out on the water.

Which Is The Best Reel Lube?

The question is, with so many fishing reel lubricants out there, which is the best fishing reel grease?

In this article, that’s exactly what I’m going to cover.  I’m going to provide you with the top 4 fishing reel lubricants that I’ve found to work best on my saltwater fishing reels. Yes, I use these same lubricants on my freshwater gear too. After telling you all about them, my goal is to help you decide which is the best one for you and your situation.

First, lets go over what I’ve found to be the best fishing reel grease and oil.

Product Review Quick List

The Best Fishing Reel Grease For Saltwater and Freshwater (Reviews)

Below you’ll find in depth descriptions of each of these fishing reel lubricants. Keep in mind that even though the purpose of this article is to show you what I’ve found to be the best fishing reel lube for saltwater gear, all of these products are excellent for both saltwater and freshwater fishing reels.

1. YamaLube Multi-Purpose Grease (Top Pick)

Yamalube multi-purpose marine grease is one of the best fishing reel lubricants for saltwater reels on the market.  And in my personal opinion, it’s the best saltwater reel grease for the money. Yamalube multipurpose grease is an Aluminum Complex grease that contains a PAO synthetic oil, which is very similar to Mobil 1.

Aluminum Complex type grease is my personal preference because it you’re going to find the highest percentage of oil per unit volume when compared to other types of fishing reel grease. This grease won’t bleed out, has excellent corrosion properties with respect to Aluminum, Bronze, and steel as well as a very high thermal stability.

Yamalube multipurpose grease provides superior lubrication in many applications, including inside the gears of your fishing reel. Because it’s and aluminum complex grease, it’s highly resistant to water, including saltwater. This is going to help protect those intricate and expensive reel gears that are highly susceptible to the corrosiveness of saltwater.

Yamalube multi-purpose marine grease will adhere to the gears and any other surface where friction occurs.  Even more, the Yamalube grease has a blue colored tint to it, so you can easily see where you’ve applied the grease.

The quality combined with the affordable price is what makes Yamalube my top pick as the best saltwater reel lube. This is definitely one thing that you should definitely have in your tackle bag.

2. Corrosion-X 77000 Reel-X Lubricant

Corrosion X Reel X Lubricant is a very popular hi-tech, extreme-pressure lubricant that’s sole purpose to exist is to stop and prevent wear, corrosion and rust. Even though Reel X can be used on any kind of fishing reel, it’s really great for spinning reels, making it one of the best lubricants for saltwater spinning reels.

Since Corrosion X contains zero wax, tar, silicone or any other solids that some of the other lower quality fishing reel lubricants contain, you won’t have to worry about this lubricant “gumming” up inside the gears of your fishing reel or damage your fishing line.

3. Interflon Fin Super

If an oil that doesn’t drip or stain is what you’re looking for, whether it’s for your fishing reel or another item around the house, then take a look at Fin Super by Interflon.

Fin Super is an incredibly clean general lubricant that not only lubricates, but penetrates, cleans and protects those intricate parts of your fishing gear. It does a great job of repelling dust, dirt and moisture. And it actually has proven to protect against rust and corrosion. Those are some pretty important things to consider for those of us that fish in saltwater.

Fin Super is a true multi-purpose, dry lubricating spray that any other penetrating oil that you might be accustomed to using. In addition to using this great product on your fishing reel, you can use it to clean and lubricate your firearms, hand tools, bicycles, and essentially anything else that has moving parts.

4. Ardent Reel Butter Grease

Ardent Reel Butter Grease is a high performance synthetic product that’s specifically designed for lubricating fishing reels. As a high quality fishing reel grease should do, it prevents corrosion while easily bonding to all the working parts of any fishing reels.

The viscosity of Ardent Reel Butter is one of the things that I really like. Since it’s a lubricant that’s specifically designed to be used on fishing reels, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it is almost an exact match to the kind of grease that the factories use inside the reel when they’re made. This ‘perfect’ viscosity makes it so Ardent Reel Butter stays exactly where it’s supposed to; the brass, steel and plastic parts of the reels gear housing.

Another things that make this one of the best fishing reel greases for saltwater reels is that it’s 100% full synthetic and acts as a rust and corrosion inhibitor, which is great for those of us that enjoy saltwater fishing. This grease works excellent on both freshwater reels and saltwater fishing reels.

What To  Look For In A Quality Fishing Reel Grease (Buyers Guide)

1. Lubricating Properties

Since the oil does the lubricating, look for a grease that contains a soap that holds the highest percentage of oil as possible.  This amount is usually measured per ml of grease.

2. Low Oil/Soap Separation Rate

The old school style of Lithium soap grease will eventually bleed out all the oil while the soap can harden up in position if allowed to sit without frequent use.

3. Corrosion Inhibiting Properties

Fishing takes place in a wet environment where corrosion is always a possibility.  This is especially true for saltwater anglers. Salt is extremely corrosive and can wreak havoc on our fishing reels if not properly cared for.

4. Water Resistance

You want a fishing reel grease that will stay in its place even when introduced to water.  Quality grease will not be easily washed away.

5. Thermal Stability

Warm water anglers don’t necessarily have to worry about this one, but for anglers who fish during the winter, you don’t want to use a grease that will harden in the cold.  Regardless of the weather outside, all of us want a nice free running fishing reel.

What To Avoid When Greasing Up Your Fishing Reel

Always follow these rules concerning fishing reel grease :

1. Never mix different types of grease, especially Aluminum Complex grease. The reason is because the soaps that make up the grease will react with each other and . When this happens, the grease can harden up or even cause the metal parts of the fishing reel to corrode.

2. Don’t use silicone grease or oil. Silicones are designed to be used in highly corrosive environments and they don’t have the lubricating properties of a PAO synthetic or even mineral oil. They’re simply just not the best for fishing reel lubrication and best to just stay away from silicones.

3. Don’t use greases fortified with TFE. In my opinion TFE greases are a waste of money and are prone to solidifying and causing the components inside your reel to gum up.

Final Thoughts

The key to applying grease to your fishing reel is to make sure the reel is absolutely clean and free of any other types of lubricant.  The truth is that there’s no special magic grease or oil that is perfect for all situations.  As a matter of fact, individual brand is secondary to good over all fishing reel maintenance.   I’m 100% confident in any of the products that I mentioned in this post and know that they’ll work on your fishing reel, especially if you’re a saltwater angler.  

With that said, I’ve found that the best option for a grease to use on your saltwater fishing reel is the Yamalube Marine Multi-Purpose Lubricant. You can learn more about it and read more reviews by clicking the image below.