Shimano reel advice

[Paul Gaynard]

Hi guys looking for a bit of advice for the use of Shimano 5500 lc medium bait runners.
The troublesome plastic line guards on mine don't seem to last long before I need to replace them but they are becoming hard to find so since the beginning of the season I have been using the reels without them resulting with the line going behind the spool only once but have been told that without these fitted and with the resulting void on the spindles without them there is a danger of damaging or twisting the spindles, personally I can't see this happening but would like advice of fellow anglers with more reel savvy than I . In my opinion Shimano dropped a clanger when producing these excellent reels with these troublesome plastic guards that could have been made of aluminium maybe. cheers

 

[David Craine]

I have a pair of Shimano Ultegra C14 Beach reels, they have similar guards fitted , a friend saw my reels and bought himself a pair, and promptly took the spools off, removed the plastic guards and put them back incorrectly and broke them both .

He never replaced them, and uses the reels regularly, they have far more wear and tear inflicted upon them than any freshwater reel, and both perform as well without the guards as mine do with them, he has not suffered with the lines going behind the spools, and just plods along using them.

As far as the void behind the spool is concerned, I suppose you could fabricate a plastic collar, or indeed use the collar from the guard after it has been suitably trimmed to size .

David