Fishing reel (6.4:1 gear ratio) spins too fast on cast, jams on excess line?
| 
Author:
I have a Bass Pro Shops Extreme baitcast reel and rod. upon casting, the reel unwinds so fast that it spins faster than the line is going out, and eventually gets caught on itself. having more weight on the line obviously helps (because it helps bring the line out faster), as well as holding the reel with my thumb. However, medium/long casts are impossible. What can I do?
Tags: 3 Responses to “Fishing reel (6.4:1 gear ratio) spins too fast on cast, jams on excess line?”
Leave a Reply
- Don Barone: A Field Of Tears
- KVD's World: Building positive attitudes
- Elites make first-ever stop at West Point Lake
- Practice and you can cast inaccuracies aside
- Brandon Palaniuk on small river fishing
- Charlie Hartley: Crawdad Eating Awards
- Elite anglers collect bonus awards
- Jones' West Point attack strategy
- Missouri floods dangerous to boaters
- Corkran returns as B.A.S.S. Federation director
Casting has nothing to do with gear ratio. You should have a tension knob on your reel. Hold your rod straight out and adjust the tension to where when you release the spool, the weight/lure will smoothly go to the ground but the spool will no longer overspin once it hits. It sounds like you don’t have much experience casting. You may want to tighten it up just a bit more than that until your thumb gets a little better. Then you can start loostening it more and more for longer casting.
The gear ratio has nothing to do with your problem, the gear ratio is only how fast it reels back in once its cast.
You should have two knobs on the side of your reel. One for the drag for when you pull on the line, and the knob to help control that casting.
The knob for the casting adjusts the speed of the reel when you cast it out to help keep backlashing to a minimum. If you tie a lure on and let it hang from the rod tip and push the button to cast, it will fall, you can adjust the speed with this knob but seeing how fast the lure falls.
A good rule of thumb is to get it exactly where when you push the button to let line out, it doesn’t move, then slowly loosen it so the lure will start to slowly fall. Its best to do this every time you tie on a differnent lure/rig dependin on the weight you are using.
Also be sure the lure/rig you are casting isn’t to light for the rod you are using. The rod will say on the side of it just about the handle the lure weight it was meant for. Its best to stay in that weight range for best casting. If the lure your using is to light for that rod, then you will backlass alot more.
Another thing, make sure you are using good quality like. Cheap lines like Eagle Claw, are worthless for casting and will backlash on you more often, rather than a better quality line like say Berkely.
I hope this helps, and practice with that rod and reel. It takes some practice to get it down right, but most people once they get it down rather have a baitcasting reel over a spinning reel.
Get your centrifigal brakes adjusted properly as the others have stated. Turn the magnetic cast control up all the way (10+) and cast it hard (turn mag setting down as you gain confidence). If you continue getting birdnests you might be better off with a spinning rod/reel. A good quality baitcaster set up with correct brake and magnet setting along with a well educated thumb should cast a 1/2oz lure a good long distance without problem. Make sure you aren’t using too light a weight (3/16 oz is minimum with that reel) and have line in the 14+ (preferably 17-25) pound test mono. Small diameter line is hard to learn with and nearly impossible to clear backlashes. No braided lines until you get the hang of it.