Okuma CW 453D and 453DS Reel Service - Full Tear-Down and Reassembly Including Drag

The Okuma Coldwater series of fishing reels is one of the most popular on the market. We love these reels because they are priced right, perform well and have a loud clicker. With a little bit of service and/or a drag upgrade, these reels rival the performance of units that cost 3-4 times the Coldwaters. In this video, Steve tears down the Okuma CW 453D linecounter, an extremely popular trolling reel in the Great Lakes fisheries. Mechanically, this reel is identical to the CW 453DS, with the DS being the high-speed version of this model. The typical complaint about these reels is that the drag "freezes" and is reluctant to start paying out line, causing the user to have to manually start it by pulling line off the spool by hand or backing down the drag force until the reel starts to give line. This is mainly caused by factory-applied grease on the drag washers. It's a fairly sticky grease and, more often than not, too much is used. The easiest fix for this issue is simply to break down the reel, remove the drag system, degrease the drag washers and reinstall. If you're using this reel in saltwater, we recommend you use grease on the drag washers, but you can use a lighter-duty grease or you can upgrade to carbon fiber drag washers as well. For freshwater, the drag upgrade is optional, but does provide better performance overall. It's also important to back down your drag when you're done fishing because the constant pressure on the drag system can cause deformation and sticking. This video shows step-by-step instructions to take the reel apart, service it, clean the drag system and reassemble the reel. If you feel confident enough after watching the video, try tackling this service on your own. If you'd rather send your reels in to us for service and upgrading, we're glad to help. You can message us through the store "Contact Us" feature at https://naturalselectionangling.squar... or by email at [email protected]. Be sure to check out our other videos on our YouTube channel, ‪@NaturalSelectionAngling‬ or our Facebook page at NaturalSelectionCL. Please be sure to like and subscribe to get our latest content and to help us establish and grow our community. Thanks for watching and tight lines, y'all!

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