Those of you who spend as much time reading the advertisements in fishing magazines as you do the text will have surely noticed by now that ‘the next big thing’ in fishing reels is ball bearings that don’t corrode as easily as they used to.

Fairly mundane stuff to many, but actually worth keeping an eye on if you’re in the market for a reel. There are duds to be had these days, and amongst them are reels that would have been called revolutionary only a few years ago.

But on to the good stuff. Shimano call their new bearings, introduced in 2003, A-RB, for Anti-Rust Bearings. Daiwa advertise CRBBs, which stands for Corrosion-Resistant Ball Bearings. Abu are calling theirs high performance corrosion resistant bearings (they’re not into capitals), and their first range using the new technology ball bearings was a range of Saltwater Cardinal spin reels.

Now I’ll admit that when I first had this advertising land in my lap, I was dubious. I already knew the difference in ball bearings as far as fishing reels went, I thought. There were three kinds: Class 5 ABEC stainless bearings, which some flash and expensive reels had in them; then there were ‘regular’ stainless ball bearings, and lastly plain steel ball bearings, which were pretty much the domain of sub-$150 reels.

Most reels worth their salt had regular stainless steel ball bearings. Some tinkerers fitted ceramic ball bearings into their Ambassadeurs for some casting benefits, but most people expected their reels to work fine straight out of the box.

In fact, as far as the bearings are concerned, they all do work fine straight out of the box. The problems always begin when people take them fishing.

Plain steel ball bearings are more common in fishing reels than you might think. Lots of cheap reels have them, and they are almost tolerable around fresh water for a little while. Given that in Western Australia fishing basically means salt water – even the fresh water is pretty salty – plain steel ball bearings have no place. Buy any reel with plain steel ball bearings, and you waste your money.

So most people who will spend a few dollars ona fishing magazine will spend more than $100 on a reel, and they’ll get one that probably has stainless ball bearings. Stainless means they’re corrosion proof, right? Well, if you take care of your reels quite well and don’t use them too much, fairly corrosion resistant might be a better description. But if you’re not into regular tackle maintenance, maybe not.

It’s a bit of a standing joke in the tackle trade about the number of ball bearings in reels these days. Penn Spinfishers and Daiwa BG reels used to be the best of the best in spin reels, because they had three ball bearings – one everywhere that ‘mattered’. In the rotating head, and then one each side of the main gear. The little Abu Ambassadeurs also had a ball bearing everywhere that ‘mattered’ – one each side of the spool. Big game lever drag reels had four ball bearings. High-tech.

Then line rollers in spin reels started to get ball bearings, and then oscillation systems, and sometimes handle knobs, and then spools, and in only a few years we had spin reels with up to 15 ball bearings. Baitcasters peaked at about 14, and many of them were tiny, and hence very expensive.

We’d see “14 stainless ball bearings” printed on the box, and go looking for a packet of spare ball bearings in with the spanner and oil in the box, figuring they couldn’t possibly fit that many into the reel. Many an hour has been spent poring over parts diagrams, trying to figure out where all those bearings went in.

All those ball bearings do help a reel feel smooth straight out of the box, but pull out the credit card the day you ignore the maintenance. Drown a reel in salt water, leave it for a week, and then get it serviced, and you might have a bill for replacement stainless ball bearings that approaches the original purchase price of the reel.

If that reel was one of the many ‘cheapies’ with half a dozen or so plain steel ball bearings, it’s definitely a throwaway. This is something to beware of, seriously: there are reels on the market, new this year, that sport lots of plain steel ball bearings – and they’re not worth buying at any price (you won't see them on this website anyway), because they will die a rapid death around salt water. 

When the advertising of stainless ball bearings that were more corrosion-resistant than other stainless ball bearings began, I wasn’t alone in thinking this sounded a bit dodgy. But there is real science to it.

CRBBs, A-RBs and others are all claimed to be ‘exclusive’, but I’m told the technology is all much the same. It begins with a regular stainless steel ball bearing, and that bearing is called ‘stainless’ because the steel has lots of chromium in it (between 12 and 18%, tending towards the higher end). It could be made with more chromium and be even more stainless, but there is a downside to durability when that path is followed.

Instead, to become an A-RB or a CRBB or whatever, the bearing goes through a manufacturing process that pulls the chromium within the steel closer to the surface, making the bearing surface more ‘stainless’ without losing the strength, smoothness and durability of the material.

This is apparently fairly high-tech – you won’t be able to go down to ABC Bearings and pick up a handful too readily, at least not for a while. It really does work. Shimano claim a ten-fold increase in bearing life around salt water. Daiwa say it’s 12 times. Despite the bearings themselves costing more, manufacturers are pouring them into reels quite happily, because it makes their products stand out in the marketplace and will no doubt reduce the incidence of disputable warranty claims, saving the misuse and abuse arguments.

One significant difference between Daiwa and Shimano in this latest bit of reel one-upmanship, is the style of bearing used. Reel technicians always seem to have a firm opinion on this (and they vary), but it seems not even manufacturers can really agree.

 Daiwa have gone for sealed ball bearings, which have a plate either side that keeps the grease in, and the grunge out. Shimano have gone for open ball bearings, no shields, that are easier to lubricate and spin more freely. Don’t ask me which is better.

They’re all a lot better than what was around four years ago.

© Hal Harvey