When I used to fish mostly with multiplier reels (known as conventional reels in the US), I would basically never get birds’ nests as those horrible blow ups are often called, and it wasn’t remotely amusing to push the magnetic setting to “fast” on a mate’s mag-braked reel and watch their next cast with tears rolling down your cheeks (I am eternally sorry Andy!). I had made up my mind fairly early on that I would far rather fish with reels I knew would never misbehave. I had learnt how to set the reels up to run safely with a combination of lower line level, the right brake blocks, and thicker oils in the bearings. As per the photo below of a Daiwa SLOSH 20 I used to fish with so much, you can see that I was fishing with what a lot of anglers would call a lower line level. But I was fishing and never having to sort birds’ nests out whatever the strength of the wind I might be casting into or the size of the bait and so on……………..
I can’t recall ever worrying that I might technically be losing a few yards of potential distance on my cast in a few situations. I trusted my casting instead of worrying about a few extra yards of line on a reel. But I do recall fishing with plenty of anglers who got plenty of blow ups on their multipliers because they couldn’t control them properly. I used to do a bit of tournament casting many moons ago, and I learnt very quickly that casting over grass with no bait, plain leads, and the wind behind bore little to no correlation to real life fishing. It was fun and all that, but tournament casting was just that - tournament casting. It wasn’t fishing and I ended up losing interest in it. I refused to use a full pendulum cast for my bait fishing because I thought it was bloody dangerous with wet, slippery hands especially. Instead I took what I learnt and taught myself a sort of “fishing power cast” that could put stuff out just fine. I trusted my casting instead of worrying about a few extra yards of line on a reel.
And I guess that mentality came over to my lure fishing as I started to fall into this world of addiction. I don’t remember worrying about whether my spinning reel was full to the brim with a modern braided mainline or not as lure fishing started to take hold of me. I do know that the only time I have ever cried literal tears of frustration when fishing with braid was over on Alderney in the middle of winter in a good bit of wind. I literally could not thread my braid up through the tiny guides on a mullet rod because it was so bloody windy, my hands were freezing cold, and my eyes were watering up both with tears of rage and because of the cold. I can still recall the torrents of appalling language which poured forth from my mouth that winter morning, and it didn’t bloody help that there were mullet everywhere as well!
I would imagine that many of you here trawl the YouTube beast on the hunt for exciting fishing videos from all around the world, and for the life me I can’t recall watching anglers casting from the shore for somewhat larger striped bass or redfish or jacks or snook and so on who mention anything about the line levels on their spinning reels they might be using (which so often look to me like they are not remotely full up with braid or indeed mono in the first place). But they are often catching some pretty impressive fish and I wonder if the whole distance thing with us tends to come over from the bait fishing side of saltwater fishing where distance admittedly can sometimes be important in certain locations? I would also argue that a lot of bait anglers might often be casting straight over feeding fish, but that’s another matter entirely and it also translates to our lure fishing. I know I am guilty of this at times and I tend to prefer lures which cast well over others which don’t.
You will note that I am not talking about specific spinning reels or fishing tackle brands here, because that’s not the point. I talked about specific reels and line levels the other day - check here - but I was on a dog walk early the other morning and I got to thinking about a reel I needed to fill up because that’s the sort of thing I think about in the dark when it’s bloody cold and I am walking Storm with a headlamp on. Hence this blog post.
Would you rather fish with a spinning reel that you didn’t have to worry about blowing up on you but you might lose a tiny bit of distance - debatable anyway because it doesn’t take into account casting ability - or would you rather fish with a “twitchy” reel which is full to the brim with braid but which you can’t completely trust? As I alluded to in that blog post the other day, there are various quirks to different spinning reels, but what about if you just forgot all about filling your spinning reel right up and instead spent the time on improving your actual casting ability and not worrying about a few yards here and there which I don’t personally subscribe to anyway when out fishing in the real world? I think about the lads I fish with the most who happen to catch plenty of bass in all manner of conditions and I look at their spinning reels from Shimano and Penn and so on. I often see what some anglers would refer to as low line levels on their reels but I see these lads fishing away without any line management issues and I wonder where the fuss with full reels comes from.
Proper casting……..
Might there be an argument for learning to cast better before worrying about the line level on a fishing reel? Would it not be better to fish with a completely “safe” spinning reel which technically might be a bit underfilled but which keeps you fishing trouble-free? Would a completely “safe” reel not be better for experimenting with your casting to see if you can make it better and more efficient? Obviously we are mainly blokes here which means we are obviously never at fault anyway, so please excuse my thinking aloud on a rather cold Monday morning…………….