Companies such as famous Sweedish Abu-Garcia and Japanese Diawa not only produced excellent spin-casting reels quickly on a par with Johnson and Zebco and a host of other similar designs--they also produced both true spinning reels of the under-hanging open-face varieties as well as medium to high-end bait-casting reels unlike any reels seen before. Anti-backlash designs--some harnessing the physics or controlled centrifugal force and others using the physics of magnets--began to boast simple back-lash-free operation. Some designs used both centrifugal force and magnets to prevent the crazy over-spin that had previously led to the dreaded birds-nests that could ruin a bait-caster's afternoon. However, the battle was won more by smart marketing campaigns, in my own estimation, than from truly better fishing alternatives to spin-casting reels.
Indeed, bait-casting reels were much improved over their predecessors, but they still required greater skill that came only from practice and a sensitive and well-educated feel of the thumb to quell the tangles of the bird's nest. There was even by then--and is to this day--a likelihood for having at least an occasional mess of knots in the reel even with the most-sophisticated and expensive bait-casting reel designs. They quite simply did still then and do still now--require a good measure more of operator skill to fish without handicap than did even the least expensive spin-cast reels. How bait-cast reels made a gradual but steady come-back over spin-cast reels is largely a study in how great marketing can turn negatives into positives.
Now vintage relics themselves, Garcia bait-cast reels similar to the one pictured above made following the general pattern of the famous Garcia Ambassadeur 500 series proliferated and evolved during the same years as did Johnson's Spin-cast reels. Advertisements for both types of reels are the best documentation of the competitive drama that unfolded between these fishing reel types during the reel wars. These bait-castin g reels are wonderful reels. They are not are not as foolproof to use as spin-cast reels.
There had always been a sense of pride that went with knowing how to fish with bait-casting reels. It requires skill to. The REAL fishermen--the guys who had paid their dues with a lifetime of bait-casting birds-nests and blistered thumbs (from controlling the rapidly careening spool of fishing line being driven by a big old plug or a treble-hook and a gob of blood-bait with thumb tension)--were not yet ready to concede their skills as outmoded. There was a kind of not altogether undeserved label of sissy fishing reels that developed regarding spin-casting reels. After-all, with five minutes of instruction, any child old enough to have basic major limb control--heater little boys, or girls and women--could be out casting well-seasoned macho bait-casting fishermen using a Johnson Century or comparable spin-casting reel. It didn't seem quite fair.
So, as have good salesmen and good marketing departments have likely been doing since the effective but prehistoric gorge-hook fist met the fancy curved hook with a barb, the advantages of the bait-casting reels began to be enunciated over the silly, cheap, easy, sissy spin-cast reels. It was a stretch--unless the bait-casting reel was in the hands of a highly skilled fisherman to make a case for greater accuracy. But given those parameters, greater casting accuracy could be had with a bait-casting reel.
A few years ago, one of my grown sons expressed and interest in fishing. Having more time to hone in on his needs that I did when he may have expressed similar concerns as a kid, I used his desire to excuse going out and buying him a full contingent of fishing rods and reels. This included a nice bait-casting reel--one more high-tech and better than any that I had to date. Still, I neglected to instruct him properly on the skill-set required to use the bait-casting reel. I am not sure what ii was thinking. Anyway, he told me a sadly funny story about going fishing with his more-experienced friend and his frustrations with trying to use the bait-casting reel as he would the spin-casting reel. thankfully, I had at the same time also given him one of the latter as well.
The next example was a result of a garage-sale acquired bait-casting reel I picked up a couple of years ago for a buck or two. It would be considered a vintage reel to me, but it was still kind of foreign. It was one of those sleek-looking gray bodied Quantums with a body made of carbon or fiberglass with metal flecks. It is light and pretty cool looking although now dated in its appearance. It was missing the spool-tension knob near the crank--which anyone who has used a post-modern bait-casting reel knows, is essential to the proper function of the reel to any level of satisfaction.
ZEBCO did a lot to bring cheap spin-casting reels to every one-day week-end fisherman in the world--most of them in America I would wager. ZEBCO also helped trash the reputation of spin-cast reels in the minds of many serious fishermen who might otherwise have given one of the better spin-cast reel designs such as those offered by Johnson and Abu Garcia spin-cast reels designed for serious fishermen a fair try. ZEBCO bombed out the casual recreational market with their cheap designs and made spin-cast reels synonomous with cheap, kids, sissy, and little girls. (Johnson did not help this perception with their pink Princess model of their Century reel.) Ultimately, bait-casting reels won the reel wars, with great new designs and quality manufacturing.
Even ZEBCO distanced themselves from their own cheap spin-cast brand identity with an entirely diferent label; they used the QUANTUM label to enter the high-end bait-casting reel market. Although many excellent reels came to use under the name of QUANTUM, ZEBCO also covered the low-end with cheaply priced reels such as the one pictured here.
The crank side of this QUANTUM model housed the star drag as become the convention with most bait-casting reels. The knob aft of the crank and the drag is the spool tension adjustment. The picture above showing the non-crank side of the reel shows the adjustment calibrations for a magnetic anti-backlash device. These adjustments were a complex attempt at solving the dreaded bird's nest tangles that drove so many fishermen to use the much simpler spin-cast design.
As I have come to do when I am lacking information on any subject, I went to the Internet in search of information and in this case diagrams and schematics that might aid in my efforts to make my painless financial application more than just a conversation piece. This search in turn led me to a number of user reviews with feedback as pertaining to a few similar looking, though more current models of reels that I felt might shed some light on the operation and possible repair of the reel I had in hand.
Choosing a Beginning Reeel can be Challenging when facing so many Styles without Understanding their Differences.
One consumer feedback comment was very telling. It appeared to be from a single mother who was intent on providing her young teen son the benefits of a fighting chance when it came to every manly pursuit any son who had a handy father would have. I am not being sexist here. If my experience is incorrect, I am sorry, but it is my experience, with just a few exceptions, that fishing is a male-dominated activity. It has long been a tradition that young men have been taught how to fish whether it was at summer camp or by Dad or by Grandpa. It has turned out that my daughters have both been more interested for a time than my sons were in fishing. But fishing still appear to me to be an interest fostered more for boys and men than for girls and women. This bent was also evident in the irate user feedback review offered by the lady reviewing the said bait-casting reel that had been purchased at a local department store.
This feature certainly works as intuitively as does a modern bait-casting flipping switch. And it requires very little practice. So why was this feature not a commercial success?
This mother's rant trashed the reel being reviewed, saying that neither her nor her son was able to get even one cast from the reel without it hopelessly tangling. She went on to berate the reel and the manufacturer and all of their kin for multiple generations--apparently never once considering that the reel was without fault. She even berated the comments and character of others who had gone before her in expressing their varied but largely positive reviews of the same model bait-casting reel as being rigged and conslusatory and disingenuous if not bold-face lies. This lady had a head of steam such as I have sometimes felt when I have experience multiple back-lashes wrought by my inept use of bait-casting reels. Although I felt for the lady (and the unfairly trashed reel), it was not the reels fault.
This is what happens when an inexperienced user attempts to operate a bait-casting reel in the same way that they may have used a spin-cast reel. It is an easy and I am guessing common mistake. If I recall the comments correctly, the mother had taken the reel back to the store and had exchanged it for another similar one. I am further guessing that the department store provided no guidance in what kind of reel she needed. The lady wound up with a spin-casting reel during her third acquisition, which she described and went on to extoll the virtues of the particular make and model just as passionately, which I know to be a cheap and inferior reel as far as spin-casting reels are concerned.
So, I hereby rest my case regarding the desirability of spin-casting reels, at least for the beginning angler, over a bait-casting reel for the same. Were it not for a lot of other factors--mostly issues of perception and effective marketing--I believe this could be the conclusion of many more experienced anglers as well. Now, for the specifics regarding the Johnson Accu-cast models that I felt necessitated the background information regarding the relative bait-casting strengths and weaknesses. In an effort to overcome competitive claims or those who either preferred or were marketing bait-casting reels that stressed the inherent ability of a bait-casting reel to be stopped short of its initial trajectory by using thumb pressure to slow or stop the spinning of the spool, an additional feature was tried on the Accu-cast models that offered much the same ability, albeit in a more mechanical fashion.
Back in the Day, Using a Bairt-cst Reel Required Practice. This is still True Today, although to a Lessor Degree.
One of the two old vintage bait-cast reels that I learned to cast on. It is a wonder that I bothered to learn at all, given the array of excellent spin-cast reels I had at my disposal. I think I learned as a requirement for the Boy Scout Fishing Merit Badge on my way to becoming an Eagle Scout. As I recall, the skill grew on me as does any skill. But I must have encountered a thousand tangles while learning--mostly in my backyard with different size bell-sinkers as practice weights.
I had an old tire set up as a target. Eventually I took the rig to nearby ponds and lakes and used them to catch fish. By then, the mid-sixties, it was rare for anyone of my age to know how to use such antiquated bait-cast reels with much skill. I dreamed of owning a nice shiney red Garcia Ambassadeur 5000 or 6000.
After I went into the Navy, I never picked up another bait-cast reel for at least a couple of decades. I don't know whatever happened to my old bait-cast reels, but I never missed them. When I did eventually take a renewed interest in bait-cast reels they had evolved into another demension. I had heard how much easier they had become to use. But when I eventually got one, I still found the skills I had learned by thumbing those old reels as a kid very useful. Old spin-cast reels like the Johnson's and Abu Garcia's still showed much greater versatility and utility then and now.
In the final analasis, whether you should spend the time untangling or fishing is up to you. But as a general gem of hard-won wisdom, I offer the idea that tangles and untangling and hooking and hooking and unhooking, and knotting and unknotting, and cussing or not--is just part and parcel to the sport of fishing. If it drives you crazy--then fishing is probably not for you. I use to beleive that such incidents decreased with experience. Then age-related handicaps such as deceased vision quality, decreased manual dexterity and feeling in the fingers and hands and arms, increased hand and finger tremors, and generally decreased endurance--all which are taken for granted in your youth--can contribute to a decreased fishing enjoyment and increased incidence of events that work against keeping your hook in front of fish--such as bait-casting tangles and terminal bird's nests. On the otherhand, many of these unpleasant events may well be avoided by using spin-casting reels. Just saying
The Following has been Posted Previously, but it is also Pertinent Here.
Okay, now the crux of the Accucast's unique major difference. the center of the bell is about three times the diameter of most spin-cast reels of this era. It has been made smooth with a big sort of gromet which is not readily apprent as to its purpose until the bell is removed. The underside of the gromet is recessed just inside the outer parameter of th eline exit hole. Still, the purpose is not apparent until you look at the line spool cover. The smallish nut that is usually found holding the spool cover in place has been replaced with a larger nut that is also recessed as a perfect compliment to the inside recess of the bell. The function of this male-female fit of this over-sized hollow spool cover nut is to apply pressure to the line as the line-release button pushes the spool assembly forward and into the recess of the underside of the bell--right where the line exits the inside of the reel. Walah. This is how Johnson's designers met the bait-casting reel's competition regarding greater accuracy. The idea was to enable the user to push the line-release button a second time after the initial cast had been made. This second depression of the line-release button was intended to slow or even stop cold the forward travel of the lure--just as a bait-casting reel can do.
So in one fell swoop, this Johnson reel design nullified a major competitive advantages of bait-casting reels--all with none of the negatives associated with a free-wheeling spool found on bait-casting reels. The distance advantage of bait-casting reels is mostly marketing BS--given a cost-for-cost reel comparison. This is not so hard to understand without ever even trying one of these two models out in a side-by-side comparison with a comparable weight and size bait-casting reel--to say nothing of comparable cost. A spin-cast reel is sometimes called a closed-face spinning reel by old-timers although you seldom hear this label anymore. It is actually a more accurate label because the action principle that allows a spin-cast reel to work is just like a true spinning reel--also sometimes called an open-face spinning reel.
I offer the idea that tangles and untangling and hooking and hooking and unhooking, and knotting and unknotting, and cussing or not--is just part and parcel to the sport of fishing. If it drives you crazy--then fishing is probably not for you.
An open-face spinning reel has virtually no friction resistance to limit its reach even when using a very light lure. In conjunction with a long limber-action spinning rod, the forward motion of the cast propels even light-weight lures very long distances because the line is simply unwinding from the spool with hardly any restrictive friction from what little it touches the edges of the spool. This same principle is used with a spin-cast reel with only slightly more resistance as the line touches the center of the line exit-hole in the reel bell.
Furthermore, an open-face spinning reel does not do so well with heavier lures, due to the delicate operation of the method of release and also due to the line's tendency for uncontrollability because of no method for constraining the target of the line's exit. A spin-cast reel's bell itself with the line-exit hole solves this problem. The net result is that a spin-cast reel can handle a much wider range of lure weights with no adjustment or hassles.
The addition of the Johnson Accu-cast feature to these models of spin-cast reels only enhances the capability of the spin-cast reel. I can see no downside to this feature. The drawback is that it doesn't work very well intuitively--or did not for me. I am sure I could get use to it. The only time I really might use such a feature is if I see that I am going to wind up on the bank or in a tree. When I use a spin-casting reel, I intuitively grab the line with my non-casting hand where it exits the reel and squeeze it against the rod. So it is not like there are no alternatives with a spin-cast reel. This feature certainly works as intuitively as does a modern bait-casting flipping switch. And it requires very little practice. So why was this feature not a commercial success?
Again, I don't know for sure why the Johnson Accu-cast feature was not a commercial success. But I have my ideas regarding this. I think the users of spin-cast reels typically did not see the need for this feature. There were not looking for this level of sophistication. Since the advantage of the bait-casting reel's supposed greater accuracy was largely fluff--thought up by marketing people after-the-fact to justify the extra cost required to build a comparably performing bait-casting reel. It did not really matter to the fishermen who wound up wanting the easy-to-use spin-casting reel. The manufacturers of the main bait-casting reels of the era were already beginning to win the reel wars when it came to more experienced and serious anglers. These anglers simply did not want to identify with stereo-typical spin-cast reel user who included inexperienced casual fishermen, kids, girls, and women. It was becoming more macho to use bait-casting and/or spinning reels. No one wanted a sissy-reel no matter how well it worked.
So in one fell swoop, this Johnson reel design nullified a major competitive advantages of bait-casting reels--all with none of the negatives associated with a free-wheeling spool found on bait-casting reels.
[May I here interject a tribute to my own dad's wisdom and practicality. Dad was a man's man. There was no question regarding his macho. He was tough as nails. I am sure it likely never entered his mind to be put off by such nonsense as how it might appear that he used spin-cast reels to do most of his fishing with after Johnson changed the fishing world with their designs. Dad grew up fishing with whatever tackle was available--including his hands. Dad knew how to make his own fishing nets as was passed to him generationally. He ran trot-lines regularly on the Arkansas river. He speared fish and gigged frogs. Fish was a good part of his family's diet during the Great Depression. It was consequently a good part of our family diet growing up. Although Dad was a consummate outdoorsman and adventurer who loved the recreational aspects of hunting and fishing--to him fishing was mostly about catching fish.]
[Dad could handle a fly-rod or spinning rod or bait-casting rod and reel with the best of him. That he had fairly-well settled on Johnson and Abu Garcia spin-cast reels for virtually all of his fishing pursuits for the last half of his life--which incidentally was filled with crazy-wonderful fishing all over the Arctic and the Bush of Alaska--say much of the true utility of those quality spin-cast reels. It is also largely to blame for my exuberance stance regarding these reels. Me? I love fishing for the sport. I love spin-cast reels for their ingenuity, utility and historicity. But I know that Dad shaped a lot of my preferences.]
Bait-cast fishermen's irrational preference for lousier reel designs probably also had roots in savvy old-timers' resistance to change after a lifetime of earning their wings using bait-casting reels, spinning reels, and fly-reels. But this unfounded or at least shallow basis was seized upon by the bait-casting reel manufacturers who by-the-way also had excellent spin-cast reels to offer. They did not feel that they could win the reel wars on the spin-cast reel inventors turf, but they could ride the spin-cast wave with their own models while simultaneously improving their more expensive bait-casting reels. There also may have been inherent preferences for using bait-casting reels for these old-time main-stay reel manufacturers who had been around much longer than the upstart inventor-manufacturers of the spin-cast reels. this could have been for all the same reasons previously cited for old-timer fishermen preferred bait-casting reels.
I also believe that ZEBCO's efforts specifically targeting the low-end of the market with their cheap (and in my estimation, inferior) spin-cast reels further muddied waters when it came to serious fishermen preferring spin-cast reels. This was likely the same phenomenon that causes me to have an irrational disdain for ZEBCO reels. Johnson themselves tried to distance and differentiate themselves from ZEBCO. And after ZEBCO had trashed the perception of all spin-cast reels as being cheap and unreliable and the kind of reels that kids, girls, and women used--and made a gazillion dollars in the process--they then distance themselves from their own brand and got into the bait-casting and open-faced spinning reel market with their own quality reel product offerings.
Most rank-and-file fisherman cannot tell you that Quantum bait-casting reels are ZEBCO products. This is no accident. ZEBCO has kept this new brand identity entirely separate from their spin-cast reel fame. The quantum brand is regarded as a decent quality bait-casting reel. They are certainly players in the bait-casting reel market. This whole story is a fascinating study in human nature, consumer preference, brand identity, and both good and bad marketing. this is a case where very literally, the market has driven inferior designs ideas over superior designs. I am saying the spin-cast reel was initially and always has been the best value, offering the most versatility and ease of operation, greater reliability, and fishing time productivity--for less money than any other design. Of course spin-cast reels are still being produced sold and used--but their hay-day as used by serious fishermen is now past and their future evolution has probably been stunted because of inaccurate consumer demand.
I hope my own kids forgive me for any oversight in teaching them the finer points of fishing. I am trying to mend that lapse with my grand-kids. But most kids today just seem to have a lot more options than I did as a kid. they don't all like to fish. If they do, I am ready and willing. But this whole confession also serves to point to the fact that spin-casting reels are good enought o satisfy the needs of all but the more hard-core if not hardy fishermen.
A few years ago, one of my grown sons expressed and interest in fishing. Having more time to hone in on his needs that I did when he may have expressed similar concerns as a kid, I used his desire to excuse going out and buying him a full contingent of fishing rods and reels. This included a nice bait-casting reel--one more high-tech and better than any that I had to date. Still, I neglected to instruct him properly on the skill-set required to use the bait-casting reel. I am not sure what ii was thinking. Anyway, he told me a sadly funny story about going fishing with his more-experienced friend and his frustrations with trying to use the bait-casting reel as he would the spin-casting reel. thankfully, I had at the same time also given him one of the latter as well.
The next example was a result of a garage-sale acquired bait-casting reel I picked up a couple of years ago for a buck or two. It would be considered a vintage reel to me, but it was still kind of foreign. It was one of those sleek-looking gray bodied Quantums with a body made of carbon or fiberglass with metal flecks. It is light and pretty cool looking although now dated in its appearance. It was missing the spool-tension knob near the crank--which anyone who has used a post-modern bait-casting reel knows, is essential to the proper function of the reel to any level of satisfaction.
As I have come to do when I am lacking information on any subject, I went to the Internet in search of information and in this case diagrams and schematics that might aid in my efforts to make my painless financial application more than just a conversation piece. This search in turn led me to a number of user reviews with feedback as pertaining to a few similar looking, though more current models of reels that I felt might shed some light on the operation and possible repair of the reel I had in hand.
One consumer feedback comment was very telling. It appeared to be from a single mother who was intent on providing her young teen son the benefits of a fighting chance when it came to every manly pursuit any son who had a handy father would have. I am not being sexist here. If my experience is incorrect, I am sorry, but it is my experience, with just a few exceptions, that fishing is a male-dominated activity. It has long been a tradition that young men have been taught how to fish whether it was at summer camp or by Dad or by Grandpa. It has turned out that my daughters have both been more interested for a time than my sons were in fishing. But fishing still appear to me to be an interest fostered more for boys and men than for girls and women. This bent was also evident in the irate user feedback review offered by the lady reviewing the said bait-casting reel that had been purchased at a local department store.
This feature certainly works as intuitively as does a modern bait-casting flipping switch. And it requires very little practice. So why was this feature not a commercial success?
This mother's rant trashed the reel being reviewed, saying that neither her nor her son was able to get even one cast from the reel without it hopelessly tangling. She went on to berate the reel and the manufacturer and all of their kin for multiple generations--apparently never once considering that the reel was without fault. She even berated the comments and character of others who had gone before her in expressing their varied but largely positive reviews of the same model bait-casting reel as being rigged and conslusatory and disingenuous if not bold-face lies. This lady had a head of steam such as I have sometimes felt when I have experience multiple back-lashes wrought by my inept use of bait-casting reels. Although I felt for the lady (and the unfairly trashed reel), it was not the reels fault.
This is what happens when an inexperienced user attempts to operate a bait-casting reel in the same way that they may have used a spin-cast reel. It is an easy and I am guessing common mistake. If I recall the comments correctly, the mother had taken the reel back to the store and had exchanged it for another similar one. I am further guessing that the department store provided no guidance in what kind of reel she needed. The lady wound up with a spin-casting reel during her third acquisition, which she described and went on to extoll the virtues of the particular make and model just as passionately, which I know to be a cheap and inferior reel as far as spin-casting reels are concerned.
So, I hereby rest my case regarding the desirability of spin-casting reels, at least for the beginning angler, over a bait-casting reel for the same. Were it not for a lot of other factors--mostly issues of perception and effective marketing--I believe this could be the conclusion of many more experienced anglers as well. Now, for the specifics regarding the Johnson Accu-cast models that I felt necessitated the background information regarding the relative bait-casting strengths and weaknesses. In an effort to overcome competitive claims or those who either preferred or were marketing bait-casting reels that stressed the inherent ability of a bait-casting reel to be stopped short of its initial trajectory by using thumb pressure to slow or stop the spinning of the spool, an additional feature was tried on the Accu-cast models that offered much the same ability, albeit in a more mechanical fashion.
[Lest I shortchange the bait-casting reels in their proponents claims for greater accuracy, this ability to stop the travel of the lure with the thumb is but one of the features that potentially provides greater accuracy with a bait-casting reel. There are other features that contribute to accuracy; for one, the ability (also the absolute necessity) to precisely adjust for the weight of each individual lure, makes predicting its flight distance with a given casting effort contributes to this accuracy claim. This ability is controlled by properly adjusting the spool tension control which determines how freely a line is allowed to strip from the reel under the gravity of the lure as aided by the forward thrust of the attached rod and its associated action. A secondary control offered by most modern bait-casting reels controls the spool from going faster than the line can be gravitationally stripped from the reel.]
[This feature may sound very similar to the spool tension adjustment's purpose, but when properly used, the feature is really only activated by the speed of the spool. It is intermittent. This control is usually found on the side opposite of the crank-side of a bait-casting reel. In older reels and in current finely made precision bait-casting reels, it is found under the cover of the side opposite the crank-side of the reel. This type of control employs a clever series of tiny counter-balancing weights that can be positioned according to a known pattern estimated to kick-in at predetermined spool spin accelerations. Positions can be changed according to a predetermined pattern in order to prevent a spool from spinning beyond the uniform constant caused by the forward motion of the lure--thereby preventing the spool from running ahead of the line.]
[Back-lashing happens when the natural acceleration of the line spool caused by the forward momentum of the spool itself becomes faster than the lure and the line is driving it. When the spool''s momentum exceeds the speed at which the line is driving it, the resulting slack excess line has no where to go. The loose line is then actually trapped and wound back over itself and becomes tangled and is often knotted in the proverbial bird's nest (called so because the tangle resembles the organized chaos of a real bird's nest). These weight-controlled anti-backlashing devices have long been available on the most expensive bait-casting reels. These are usually referred to as centrifugal anti-backlashing controls after the centrifugal force employed to signal the spool resistance to be activated in order to brake the spin. These devices are also sometimes referred to as brakes.]
[I am not sure that I fully understand all of the minute nuances of why this feature works--although I do know how to adjust them in order to arrest more of less spool over-spin. There are other types of anti-backlash controls that are adjusted with a knob on the outside of the reel that uses magnets for the same purpose of arresting similar spool over-spin. I have myself now intrigued to the point that I will have to examine one or more of these magnetic devices and learn why they work. However, since such understanding is not much necessary to the proper use of such devices, I will not attempt such an endeavor just now. Suffice it to merely explain that a knob or similar rotary control often with positions calibrated from zero to ten will increase the amount of spool braking that is applied and/or at what speed the spool spin it is automatically braked. To me, such inventions are extraordinary feats of mechanical engineering. They attest to me of the overall inventiveness of fishermen as well as engineers.]
[Yet another of the requisite design features that may make some bait-casting reels potentially more accurate than other types of reels is the ability for the spool to spin freely forward in order to facilitate very long casts. These reels try their best to defy physics as friction is minimized by employing quality and very small ball-bearings that both limit the surface area of the line spool's inner core that comes into contact with the spool and reel frame sides. Generally, the more ball-bearings used to evenly distribute the weight over the surface area of the points of contact, although the quality of materials, the design, and the kind and amount of lubrication of the overall reel also plays a big role. While less and more uniform resistance affect the potential distance of the cast, it also further enhances the spools possibility of out-spinning the line--thereby creating its own set of back-lashing problems that has to be adjusted and controlled.]
I am not sure that I fully understand all of the minute nuances of why this feature works--although I do know how to adjust them in order to arrest more of less spool over-spin
[Other factors that may offer advantages to the versatility of bait-casting reels in the hands of a very savvy and experienced angler is that the open-spool nature of a bait-casting reel allows a much wider range and kinds of fishing line that can be used with them. This can potentially be a clear advantage. Incidentally, pertinent to the discussion of casting accuracy, this variable of line type, size, and texture also futher affects the behavior of the reel--adding to the complexity of its use.]
[One more inherent design feature found in most bait-casting reels that can affect its application and performance is that the construction generally lends itself to a stronger design--translating into the ability to fight bigger and tougher fish--although this claim to has its qualifications and its caveats as well. Most big, particularly salt-water sport fishing, is done on bait-casting reels. I must also add that both spinning reels and fly-fishing reels are used to take all sizes of large fish--pointing up the fact that skill and finesse is equally important as is reel design. I here concede that with truly big and hard-fighting fish spin-casting reels probably should give way to reels available in beefier designs. It is not that spin-casting reels could not be designed on a scale with other kinds of reels--it is that the evolution of spin-casting reels for a lot of other reasons stopped short of reels being introduced to the market and accepted by the users. Such big reels, as far as I know do not exist. Maybe this is a thought that should be explored further. ]
[This is probably the most that I will ever refer to bait-casting reels in this weblog. I should therefore take opportunity to add my take and my experience upon how to deal with the inevitable back-lashed bird's nest condition so often wrought by their use. Whether one can recover from a backlash situation depends in large measure on the amount of time and patience one cares to devote to the problem. How much money you are willing to justify losing is also a factor. If I was a professional bass tournament fishermen in competition, which I will never be, I would deal with a backlash by picking up the favorite similar reel and continuing without missing more than a beat or two. I have certainly done this.
Short of that, I might whip out my razor sharp knife and cut the back-lashed bird's nest into a bunch of pieces, which will usually allow it to be quickly stripped off and retied onto a lure onto good line underneath the tangled part. I have also done this. There is a reason that spools usually hold way more line than is necessary to make even the longest casts possible. this is reality. Using this remedy be careful not to pick the good portion of line up while overlooking an underlying cut in the line that may not be readily evident. You can usually spot these by taking a very close and careful look and by discarding enough line ot make sure that you are past all of these cuts.]
[Another remedy,,which makes perfect sense, but which I have never seemed to have the forethought to try, is to have ready alternate spare reel spools that are pre-threaded with line. It may be that a tangled spool can be freed sufficiently to remove it entirely from the frame and replace it with another ready one. It has been my experience that the tangles exceed the clearance or interfere with the removal of the reel without also cutting a bunch of line. I have sometimes wound up removing a spool in order to remove the tangle. but not without a lot of line slashing to get to that point. If I had another ready spool full of good line, it might make sense at that juncture to replace the other one. I can't really see that it would, but it might.]
[I am sometimes accused of being stubborn. I prefer to call it doggedness. Whatever it is, I have sometimes, more often when in was young and had fewer alternative resources and options, chosen to untangle and thereby salvage, if not all, at least some of my fishing line. My success at this varied, but I am glad that I have this experience however unpleasant and time-consuming it may ahve been at the time. I must have seen no good alternatives. But in the process I discovered that if one holds his temper and calmly approaches the problem at hand rationally and with the knowledge that at least some of these bird's nests are not terminal. they can be untangled fairly quickly. Even now after more than a half century of fishing experience, I experience occasional birds nests when using bait-casting reels. This may be in part because I am constantly fiddling with, fixing, and trying different reels. But regardless of why it happens, I confess that it does.]
[this is how I now deal with my back-lashed lines in bait-casting reels. the minute the backlash occurs, I try to answer the question as to why--with a mind of not repeating the mistake or malfunction with that reel subsequently. This done, I then quickly assess the degree of the problem. If it is just a small backlash, then my odds of a quick recovery are enhanced, though not a hundred-percent. I will usually decide at this point to test how badly the tangle really is. This mostly depend upon how tight the wrap has become. If I have not tried to reel it in, thereby tightening the wrap, the wrap can often be undone fairly easily by making sure that the spool is released to spin freely and then gently pulling at wads of the tangled wrap to loosen it. I then may reverse the turn of the spool, free-wheeling it by hand in reverse in an effort to uncover and thereby release the main point of tangle.]
This is probably the most that I will ever refer to bait-casting reels in this weblog. I should therefore take opportunity to add my take and my experience upon how to deal with the inevitable back-lashed bird's nest condition so often wrought by their use.
[this works probably a third of the time. If it does not fix the tangle or only partially fixes it, I will then lightly pull the line forward on the lure side of the tangle very lightly--with increasing tension to see if I can pull the tangle out from the now-loosened coil of line. Using these two maneuvers alternately will free the backlash entirely about two-thirds of the time within five minutes or sometimes much less. I begin to get antsy at this point and will usually resort to more radical measures. But as a kid, I am sure that I sat down at the fishing bank and used up most for my fishing time by meticulously untangling the line. If you do this, our success ultimately depends upon your ability to loosen the upper wraps so that you can eventually reach the one or more main binds that originally started the whole mess. My guess is that if you cannot do this within fifteen minutes you may never be able to do it. Sometimes, without any help on your part, the back-lashed line underneath gets way too tight and ties the hardest and most complex hard knots sufficient to tiny any sailor--even lifers. But sometimes your effort first, helps you understand the mess for dealing with the problem the next time and second, salvages at least some of your fishing line--if this priority exceeds the value of your lost fishing time.]
[In the final analasis, whether you hould spend the time untangling or fishing is up to you. But as a general gem of hard-won wisdom, I offer the idea that tangles and untangling and hooking and hooking and unhooking, and knotting and unknotting, and cussing or not--is just part and parcel to the sport of fishing. If it drives you crazy--then fishing is probably not for you. I use to beleive that such incidents decreased with experience. Then age-related handicaps such as deceased vision quality, decreased manual dexterity and feeling in the fingers and hands and arms, increased hand and finger tremors, and generally decreased endurance--all which are taken for granted in your youth--can contribute to a decreased fishing enjoyment and increased incidence of events that work against keeping your hook in front of fish--such as bait-casting tangles and terminal bird's nests. On the otherhand, many of these unpleasant events may well be avoided by using spin-casting reels. Just saying.]
Okay, now the crux of the Accucast's unique major difference. the center of the bell is about three times the diameter of most spin-cast reels of this era. It has been made smooth with a big sort of gromet which is not readily apprent as to its purpose until the bell is removed. The underside of the gromet is recessed just inside the outer parameter of th eline exit hole. Still, the purpose is not apparent until you look at the line spool cover. The smallish nut that is usually found holding the spool cover in place has been replaced with a larger nut that is also recessed as a perfect compliment to the inside recess of the bell. The function of this male-female fit of this over-sized hollow spool cover nut is to apply pressure to the line as the line-release button pushes the spool assembly forward and into the recess of the underside of the bell--right where the line exits the inside of the reel. Walah. This is how Johnson's designers met the bait-casting reel's competition regarding greater accuracy. The idea was to enable the user to push the line-release button a second time after the initial cast had been made. This second depression of the line-release button was intended to slow or even stop cold the forward travel of the lure--just as a bait-casting reel can do.
So in one fell swoop, this Johnson reel design nullified a major competitive advantages of bait-casting reels--all with none of the negatives associated with a free-wheeling spool found on bait-casting reels. The distance advantage of bait-casting reels is mostly marketing BS--given a cost-for-cost reel comparison. This is not so hard to understand without ever even trying one of these two models out in a side-by-side comparison with a comparable weight and size bait-casting reel--to say nothing of comparable cost. A spin-cast reel is sometimes called a closed-face spinning reel by old-timers although you seldom hear this label anymore. It is actually a more accurate label because the action principle that allows a spin-cast reel to work is just like a true spinning reel--also sometimes called an open-face spinning reel.
I offer the idea that tangles and untangling and hooking and hooking and unhooking, and knotting and unknotting, and cussing or not--is just part and parcel to the sport of fishing. If it drives you crazy--then fishing is probably not for you.
An open-face spinning reel has virtually no friction resistance to limit its reach even when using a very light lure. In conjunction with a long limber-action spinning rod, the forward motion of the cast propels even light-weight lures very long distances because the line is simply unwinding from the spool with hardly any restrictive friction from what little it touches the edges of the spool. This same principle is used with a spin-cast reel with only slightly more resistance as the line touches the center of the line exit-hole in the reel bell.
Furthermore, an open-face spinning reel does not do so well with heavier lures, due to the delicate operation of the method of release and also due to the line's tendency for uncontrollability because of no method for constraining the target of the line's exit. A spin-cast reel's bell itself with the line-exit hole solves this problem. The net result is that a spin-cast reel can handle a much wider range of lure weights with no adjustment or hassles.
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