Has anyone used this for saltwater fly fishing. It says it's not to be recommended but I want to use my sage flight 5wt for sea trout and only reel I use is the demon with all my lines ? Just wondering if salt will damage it.

It probably won't damage it, but will almost certainly cause the spool locking mechanism to jam.

There are two little springs which drive the locking mechanism, and they are *exceptionally* sensitive to grit/residue. What tends to happen is that all is well until you go change spool, and then the replaced spool dosn't lock in place properly, you go to cast, and the spool flies off into the middle distance.

You end up dismantling the whole mechanism and manually loosening the springs each time you change the spool.

So: if you're not changing spools, or have an allen key in your fishing vest (and don't mind the hassle), it should be ok.

And make sure you strip the whole thing and wash it afterward.

I found that even over time using the reel in calcium rich water (Rutland and Grafham), enough residue built up to cause a problem.

The demon is a cassette reel will this still have same effect.

Yes - the above was all based on the casette reel.

The little black button you you push to release the pool disengages the springs. When you put the spool back on, the springs are meant to push a small plastic bar back into place in the groove on the axel of the spool, locking it in place. Grit/residue etc jams the springs, and the spool doesn't lock. When this happens, you have to unscrew the allen nuts in the metal ring around the push-button, lift that and the button out, then prise the springs forward and clean the obstruction.

I'd recommend opening the whole lot up anyway, just so you know what it looks like in there and how it all fits together. Having had various conversations with Hardy about this (and had 2 mechanisms and a whole reel replaced), on balance, I'd say it's not a good idea to use in salt.

Having had very similar problems with the push release on my Demon 5000 I would also recomend not using in salt, Each time my Demon gets a good dunking in the river I go through the same process of cleaning and drying out to get the button to work again, I find the wifes Hairdrier works well

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Allan
Only dead fish go with the flow.