One of the most expensive parts of your fishing tackle doesn’t always have to be, though sometimes it should be, depending on the intended application and who’ll be using it.
Fishing reels come in a set variety of configurations each designed to meet a different need. A well-rounded angler should make sure he’s familiar with and can use them all.
Some drive the fishing, some merely contain the line, and some fall somewhere in between.
The baitcaster, well known for its adaptability to any situation on the good side, and its ability to throw a world-class, trip-halting backlash on the bad, is one every serious angler should make sure they’ve learned to use.
With a baitcaster, the spool holding the line turns on both the cast and the retrieve. It determines the fisherman’s ability to cast for accuracy and distance, its finesse is elemental to the bait’s presentation, its gear ratio determines how and whether a lure can be made to run as deeply as it’s meant to go, and its strength is how a hooked fish is ultimately brought in, or not. In the case of the baitcaster, you may not always get all you pay for, but you definitely pay for all you get. It’s a piece of gear best purchased after research, then put into practice long before approaching the water’s edge.
Lash it back
Learning to cast a baitcasting reel has long been a rite of passage for youngsters growing up in the outdoors, and the point of learning boils down to figuring out how to cast without creating a backlash. A backlash happens when the speed of the spool turning after a cast exceeds the speed of line going out of the rod. Baitcasting reels are built to allow the caster to rest a thumb on the spool before and during each cast. Too much pressure results in a short cast. Too little pressure results in a backlash. Learning to live in the margin between, applying how much pressure at what point of the cast, is what learning to use a baitcasting reel is all about.
All baitcasters have knobs allowing for adjusting internal tension on the spool in efforts to reduce backlashes. On the more expensive baitcasters, the knobs actually work. Internal magnets are suspended closer to or further from the spool to keep acceleration under control but, no matter how it’s set, the human element of pressure on the spool with the thumb of the casting hand determines the outcome.
The knobs are meant to set spool tension – how freely the spool is allowed to turn when unlocked – and spool braking – slowing the spool after a cast. If you’re getting backlashes at the beginning of the cast, adjust the knob on the handle side. If you’re getting backlashes at the end of the cast, adjust the knob on the other. The weight and aerodynamics of every lure make for slightly different conditions lure to lure though, and the fiddling hassle of trying to adjust knobs for each takes time. The best solution is generally to adjust both knobs to as little tension and braking as you can learn to manage, then leave both alone all the time and learn to manage each cast with varying tension from the thumb you put on top of the spool. This will let you fish and not continuously fool with the reel, and it will give you a more natural feel for what’s going on as well.
Making a cast with a baitcaster is best done in a long, smooth swing, like swinging at a baseball sitting on a tee with the bat held in one hand. Deliberate force is necessary, but quickness is counterproductive. To swing faster and cast farther, start from further back.
Spin it up
Spinning reels are the baitcaster’s alternative option. Most anglers begin their fishing life with a closed-faced spinning reel that, while not completely backlash-proof, simplifies such matters to a great degree. Open-faced spinning reels have come a long way in recent decades and are often preferred to baitcasters in many situations. Both styles of reel store line on a stationary spool, then recover it with a spinning mechanism that guides the line back onto it. This is much more stressful to the line in the long run and even high-quality line will need to be changed more often. With both operated properly, the baitcaster takes much better care of the line, presuming the line is not often being crimped and knotted along its run with regular backlashes and the disentanglements that have to result.
High-quality spinning reels do their best work in casting situations that call for distance, but that don’t depend strongly on the reel for finessing the presentation of the bait. Casting live shrimp under a popping cork for red drum is just such a scenario where a high-quality spinning reel is ideal. Casting and working a crankbait for bass is one where it’s not. In both cases, the opposite reel will work, but it’s not ideal.
On the fly
Fly reels serve mainly, almost entirely, to neatly store line. In fly fishing scenarios, the playing of hooked fish is best done by hand, recovering line into a puddle at the angler’s feet, giving line back under tension supplied by fingers alone. When a fight on a fly rod gets down to the reel, smooth bearings and a workable handle are what remains. Streamers and other fly fishing lures meant to be presented to fish with motion aren’t meant to involve the reel at all. Fly-style reels are often found on jig poles as well as fly rods but, in both cases, the line and pole work together to haul in fish. The reel on a jig pole would come into play retrieving a big fish, or any fish at significant depth. It works strictly as a manner of setting fishing depth and then taking up line with a fish on.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 24 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
