Up front - magnesium. Generally, magnesium reels should be considered a no-no for salt use. That said, well-anodized magnesium forgings are more resistant - forging literally squeezes the dirt from the alloy, while in cast magnesium, the included dirt makes anodic sites for corrosion to begin. (Backing up, I'm a metallurgist, corrosion engineer, and licensed PE). All this said, I've had no problems with magnesium Steez and Vanquish in a limited shore fishing niche, and I generally don't take these reels out on a kayak.
The tell-tale corrosion sign on magnesium is white, chalky deposits. On just a 3-day trip, ZPI Alcance in my MH niche showed up white chalk at all the frame screws. Kind of a shame, because I loved it in this niche, but I removed the screws, cleaned everything, replaced them with a magnesium-specifc thread compound, and retired the reel to freshwater BFS (w/ ZPI shallow Mg spool).
if you ever wanted a hot-rodded BFS-capable Lew's, Alcance is it...
In your salt-safe aluminum reels, the first place a problem may show up are in cathodically coated magnets. After the first four salt years, my Super Duty showed onset of filliform corrosion in the coated magnets. Note that salt rust of steel is more corrosiive to the rest of the reel than the salt itself. Ferric chloride is an interim corrosion product, releasing both ferric ions and HCl, which will corrode even your brass gears. Always Remove any parts showing onset of rust.
I replaced the magnets with same-size A/E Nd magnets, and the reel is trouble free with 3 more salt years.
Noteworthy, the Nd magnets were so much stronger than the stock magnets, I had to remove 2 magnets to get my mag operating on the stand-off adjustment cam.
Bearings. Drive bearings are generally not a concern inshore, but may become a concern in surf, where full rubber seals should be considered. Inshore, labyrinth seals such as Shimano worm drive spinning reels are pretty perfect.
Shielded spool bearings, sealed line rollers. The best way to look at these, salt + moist air in, steam out - exposed shielded bearings and sealed spinning line rollers are concentration mechanisms for salt. all my Shimano spinners get MTCW dual-BB titanium line roller, which comes with a pair of unshielded micro-bearings, and can be flushed with a drop of oil.
The same applies to B/C spool bearings. Unshielded hybrid ceramic w/ salt-resistant stainless races both perform better, and are flushed with a drop of oil before and after every 2- to 5-day salt trip. The photo shows Daiwa's shielded micro-bearing, Roro Air, and KTF/IXA double bearing - I get everything I want from the unshielded spool bearings in this photo. The IXA doubles increase the bearing capacity for both casting weight and drive loads.
Here's what got me around to writing this essay. My Silver Wolf, matched with AMO spool, included AMO's double bearing copy of KTF/IXA - Except, they were not salt-resistant steel. I counted up, a total of 10 salt days last year, the AMO spool bearings showed onset of rust - didn't photograph, but extricated and threw them away instantly.
What was clear, though, the bearing rust was tossed onto my MagForce annular magnets, which sucked it up like a vacuum cleaner. It's not visually dramatic until you get the magnets removed for replacement:
ahh, clean new annular magnets installed. Also full-silicon nitride 623 spool bearings (3x10x4 - 1030).
I am loving these bearings, eventually in all my Daiwa salt reels. They spin a spool longer than anything else, cast the lightest weights, never need attention or oil, total impervium to salt, both much quieter and higher load range than zirconia.
My SLPW-Zillion w/ Ray's SV spool is also a champ with SiN 623 spool bearings.
Ima K-Ta 58 mullet
