I am boatless and require an enormous amount of spinning gear to keep my kids fishing on family beach trips. I have a fully disassembled Battle 2 in a Plastic tray box that I cannot figure out how to properly grease and put back together. Every Battle that I have owned has taken a dump on me. I have multiple Spinfisher reels that are hanging in there. I have finally figured out that it is sand and full submersions in saltwater that are wrecking my spinning reels. In particular, the fine "sugar" sand of the Northern FL Gulf Beaches. I have had recent luck with Diawa BG reels. I would buy nicer reels but fear that they would meet the same fate as moderately priced reels. One day I will have a saltwater boat. When this happens I will invest in high quality spinning reels. Until then I am convinced that there is no reasonable way to keep a kid, of any age, from getting sand in a reel. Kids also cannot help themselves from submerging a reel in saltwater, regardless of the fishing situation. Realize that this is a departure from the original post and a specialized application, but my point is that all moderately priced saltwater spinning reels are fallible. Not sure about the fancy ones as I have never had the courage to risk the purchase of any. If I am allowed to saltwater fish on my own, I almost always use a fly rod. My main saltwater fly reels are Tibor reels that I bought over 20 years ago. They never have let me down.
