If you worry about dust, your not using them often enough...lol
Next, your going to tell us you've not had the boat in the water in 6 months.....lolI know but it's just to darn hard to cast into those little holes in the Wisconsin ice!
That suxs. Get better soonNo, had the boat in the water just the other day. That's how and when I hurt my back!
regarding casting into holes in the ice, a small jig rod and you should be able to cast into a 6" hole with just a flick of the wrist. any more movement than that and you will spill your beer.
Now explain how to do that with a 7' casting rod n reel! Suppose I could just skid the jig along the ice until it falls in.
Soaking reels and using brasso and armoral on rods is tackle abuse. If I caught one of my customers treating their tackle like that they would get a good talking too.....lol A freshwater rinse immediately after each use eliminates the need to do much of everything.I had three reels at they were used in salt water and on the beach on The Outer Banks last week. ( We left the morning of Hurricane Arthur ) Sand and salt water got in them. As soon as I got home I soaked them in the sink in warm water with, spools, side covers off in dawn dish liquid as I would use for doing the dishes. Rinsed them out, patted dry and let them out on the porch in the sun for a little while to dry out any more moisture. I had a tube of 2-4-C grease that I had been using on outdrive parts and applied that to any gears I could get to. They seem quite happy now. My poles just got a rinse off but I plan to use some barsso and armor all on them. My tackle was washed in dish water too, rinsed and lay on a paper towel o the counter til it dried. No way am I going to put gear away with salt water dried on it.
Re: tackle cleaning
The same stuff but it does evaporate within a short period of time... I just wipe them down and use a Q-tip to clean the eyes on the rod. If there is some really serious buildup on the rod eyes, I'll switch to Lacquer Thinner to clean them with a Q-tip and then follow that up with silicone wipe on the eyelets. Helps with casting for sure. One other thing I learned how to do that really does help. About every other outing, I tie off the reel fish line to some post in my yard and walk out unreel all the line to the end and then rewind it back on the reels using a rage soaked in silicone spray to both remove the crap on the line and apply some lubricant. It really helps release the coiling effect and makes them cast so much further and smoother too... Try it out.