This little write up is mainly geared for the new anglers that have been in touch with me on how to’s and cheaper ways to fish, but it can be applied to all.
There are probably a lot more mistakes in how to use a spinning reel than these 5 personal ones, and you will note that having the reel upside down is not one of them. Why? Because you are smarter than that.
The first mistake anglers do with a spinning reel is to either fill the spool with too much line or not enough line. Over filling the spool causes loose line around the reel, knots and or clumps of line feeding off the spool all at once. Not enough line on the spool causes lack of distance in your cast, due to the line hitting spool on the way out, and it takes more effort to get the bait out there. What you should do? Fill your reel to about 1/8th of an inch before the edge of the spool. This will insure that you have the proper amount of line on it and casting will be easy.
The Second mistake is not setting your drag properly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen anglers set a hook and hear the drag scream. To be honest I have done this myself, and have now got into the habit, when I pick up my spinning rod, that I pull on the line to feel the drag and make sure it is set where I want it. You want to set the drag to where when you do a hook set, there is no drag sound, but loose enough to have the fish take the drag if needed. If you have it to tight, chances are you will break the fish off. Play with it, as conditions change, such as line weight for the application you are using, then your drag weight should change too.
The third mistake I see is not setting your bail manually. It’s always tempting to cast out and just click the bail by reeling the handle, but in most cases that causes the loose line to wrap up in and around the reel, and in some cases even inside the spool. Unless it is a pretty heavy weight that you just casted out, which will take up the loose line, hand set the bail back with your off hand, and at the same time grab the line and pull it toward the tip of the rod, to insure that there is no loose line to wrap. This only takes a second.
The fourth mistake, and this is my choice, is not using braided line. Braided line lasts forever, and with the cost of line today, especially fluorocarbon, can you afford to fill up the Spool? Most times I tie on a 10 foot leader of fluorocarbon, depending on what type of fishing I am doing and what color the water is. The braid I use is also fairly light in weight, a 10 to 15 pound weight, as I use it for finesse fishing.
Finally the fifth mistake is not feathering your line as it goes out with your offhand. Like when you use a bait caster, your thumb is always on the spool, to be able to feather the distance if needed and to finesse the approach, so the bait slips into the water, not making a cannonball splash. You really only need your offhand to be opened palmed to feather the line when needed. The other perk is your offhand is right in position to manually click the bail and pull the loose line.
There you have it, it’s on our YouTube channel, go and subscribe. Hopefully this will help you young anglers not to get so frustrated and get more fish. Go have fun!
RB Angler
Mike Rogers
