Newbie - Reel Question

[Armpits]

Hey guys,

I’m new to this forum and been fishing for awhile but never took it serious until now. Now I want to gain more knowledge about fishing. I have a question.

 

1) I have a Shimano cheap spinning reel and was wondering in videos I watch how do people set their reel up where when the fish takes the bait you would hear a drag noise spinning. Usually they would be unattended once they hear the drag noise then come back to their reel to hook the fish. Anyone know how to do this?

 

Thanks!

 

[daniel ogden]

So if you are using a spin reel which i assume you are there will be a drag setting on the top of the spool. Ifyou turn this to the left as to loosen it this will loosen the drag. You can pull the line out yourself to test how loose it is and adjust it to your preffered setting, once loose enough, this sound will go off at the smallest of takes. So once you hear the fish take it you can then tighten your drag and fight the fish. Hope this helped!

Daniel.

[Gutamouth]

Look up shimano baitrunner, they have a switch on the reel that allows the reel to freespool without adjusting the actual drag. As soon as you begin to wind in, it clicks off and you're back into gear. Otherwise if you don't want to buy a new reel, do what Daniel said and just adjust your drag when you have a fish on. Rovex makes a cheap one for about $40-$50 called a Nitrium. 

[campr]

You should always have your drag set at about one third of the lines breaking strain to prevent snapping your line when a fish runs.  There are 2 types of drags on spinning reals front and back. In my opinion the best way to set a rear drag is to throw it in the bin. 

Front drags are adjusted with cross knob on the front of your spool.  Anticlockwise loosens drag and clockwise tightens it. Best way to adjust is with a set of spring scales. Tie or hook end of line to scales. Set rod at about 45 degrees to ground by placing in a holder or get someone to hold rod firmly. Start with about 3 meters of line from rod tip and drag loose enough to slip and move at walking pace holding and watching scale reading. Adjust drag knob till it reads about 1/3 of breking strain.

You can take the easy way and just loosen off the drag until it slips where you feel it is ok but do this through the rod with it hooked to something solid, dont set pulling line directly off the reel.

Ron

[blaxland]

I think you are talking bait runner which has two drag settings. you have a switch which allows the reel to run with the desired drag (usefull for jewfish and snapper and kings using live bait, I love them) and then lock to fighting drag. Some people just leave the bail arm open on egg beaters and flick the bail when they notice line peeling off as for drag settings reel size is important eg your spinning reel may only have a maximum drag of 4-8kg if you are using 60Lb line hoping to stop a hoodlum king you have the wrong reel. But if your reel and line match and your drag is set right you will not lose a fish by the line snapping unless you do not have enough line on the reel, you get reefed, your knots break, your hook pulls, you get bitten of , you tangle with prop, anchor rope, mooring, mates line, swivel fails, snap fails, leatherjacket bites, just plain unlucky. Tight lines 

[savit]

Plenty of overhead and Alvey reels have fish alarm and allow to pre-set the drag.

[blaxland]

1 hour ago, savit said:

Plenty of overhead and Alvey reels have fish alarm and allow to pre-set the drag.

Interested what is fish alarm been thinking of an overhead for line capacity and jigging

[Armpits]

So guessing from the replies my spinning reel doesn’t have the clicker alarm? But what is this button behind the reel it’s a little flick switch, if I activate it the reel will spin backwards. Not quite sure what it is for. Anyone know?

[xerotao]

Im guessing the switch behind is for the anti reverse

[Rob81]

Your reel should have the clicker. The mechanistic is usually within the spool.

I haven't heard of a spin reel without a clicker before. I do have a reel without the clicker but that is only because I lost the spring inside the spool.

As mentioned above, the top of the spool (where your fishing line is sitting), there should be a circle shape with a bar going across, different reels may appear differently. You can twist this clockwise (to tighten) and anti-clockwise (to loosen). If you make this slightly loose and then pull on the line, you should hear the clicker. If you loosen the spool too much you'll end up removing the spool itself.

[campr]

The little flick switch disengages the anti reverse and will allow the handle to spin backwards.  This has no practicle use that I can see and will only result in loose or tangled line.  This feature usually isn't on larger heavy duty reels.

Ron

[Captain Spanner]

On 12/11/2017 at 5:21 PM, blaxland said:

I think you are talking bait runner which has two drag settings. you have a switch which allows the reel to run with the desired drag (usefull for jewfish and snapper and kings using live bait, I love them) and then lock to fighting drag. Some people just leave the bail arm open on egg beaters and flick the bail when they notice line peeling off as for drag settings reel size is important eg your spinning reel may only have a maximum drag of 4-8kg if you are using 60Lb line hoping to stop a hoodlum king you have the wrong reel. But if your reel and line match and your drag is set right you will not lose a fish by the line snapping unless you do not have enough line on the reel, you get reefed, your knots break, your hook pulls, you get bitten of , you tangle with prop, anchor rope, mooring, mates line, swivel fails, snap fails, leatherjacket bites, just plain unlucky. Tight lines 

The reels Blaxland is talking about here are a specific type of reel. Not all spinning reels have this feature and it is unlikely that your reel is a baitrunner style. The little switch you are talking about on the back is for the anti-reverse and not fit for the purposes of using like a baitrunner. I really only use it when servicing/lubricating reels.

If you want to fish that style of having a light drag with the rod in the holder you are best just to set the drag light and then grab the spool to set the hook and then tighten the drag to fight the fish. The best way to do this is to set the drag to how you want it to fighting tension and count the number of turns (eg 2.5) you changed it down to the light setting. That way when you hook the fish you know you just have to turn the dial 2.5 turns and you are at the setting you want. It is difficult to reset it by feel when there is a fish helping you pull line off and  you are trying to wind.

[Armpits]

Ok that’s a shame it doesn’t have the alarm clicker feature.

So the only way is to make my drag loose so I can hear the drag going off when a fish is on when I leave the rod unattended. Once a fish is on I will hear the drag go off, after that do I need to tighten the drag up and then yank the rod up to hook the fish? 

[xerotao]

I think you are getting confused

it does have a clicker. Hence why you hear the clicker when a fish takes line

what you do NOT have is a bait runner system

[Captain Spanner]

It is highly likely that your drag will have a clicker in it permanently unless it has broken. It will be click no matter how tight or loose the drag is. The clicker will most likely be a tiny metal flap on a spring on the underside of the spool, there is a spiky cog on the base of the spool shaft that the little metal flap will click over and make a "ting, ting, ting" noise. The volume will depend on the reel. I would strongly suggest that you are watching your rod to see if the tip bounces indicating bites. Unless you have something else you need to be doing you are better off holding the rod.

If you are trying to fish the method of light drag for the fish to swallow the bait then the idea is minimal resistance on the bait. If you are leaving you rod unattended in the holder you should definitely have the drag backed down so you don't lose your rod (unless you have a serious rod holder). You should still watch your rod because if you get a bite and don't see it you might be waiting for nothing with no bait. Do not strike just because you have had or are getting a bite. Often with livies and big baits the fish grab the bait, swim a little bit and re-grip or turn it around to swallow it. So i would wait until the fish has steady momentum or is accelerating before attempting to set the hook. You can carefully pick the rod up and point the tip at the fish to minimise resistance. When you decide to set the hook i would not strike back aggressively, i would have the rod lowered and either quickly do the drag up the 2.5 turns or grab the spool. Either of these tricks will cause the rod to load up with pressure as the belly is pulled out of the line. As the rod loads up, smoothly raise the rod to increase the pressure on the fish and the hooks should find their way into something solid. If you are on the beach you can walk backwards instead of having to wind. Then you can adjust the drag quickly, remembering that if you let go of the spool it may start spinning quickly and release pressure (bad). One bonus of this method is you are less likely to rip the bait out of the fishes mouth and spook it or rip the bait off the hooks if you don't hook up.

Fishing for jewies these days i use a skinny squid strip and two octopus circle hooks with plenty of hook point exposure. I have the drag set to fighting even if it is in the holder (on the beach this is a picket driven in with a mallet). Small livies same deal. Big livies i would hold the rod and have  a baitrunner reel or would have the drag in fighting tension and the bail arm open and hold the line lightly with my finger, to let it go when he grabs it. Then flip the bail arm shut to strike. For kingies i would have one livebait hook through the nose of the livie and use the free spool method or a squid strip with the drag in fighting mode.

Most importantly, be prepared for many many trips without a decent bite, let alone catching a fish. We don't get a decent bite or fish on a lot more trips than we do. I had about 20 trips to wanda beach before my first jewie down there and almost another 30 before the second fish. I probably had almost 150 hours fishing specifically for jewfish out of the boat before i caught my first one and that fish was because someone came out on my boat and taught me how to. Even fishing for bream and flathead most people do not catch keepers all the time.  

[Nolongeramember]

6 hours ago, Armpits said:

Ok that’s a shame it doesn’t have the alarm clicker feature.

So the only way is to make my drag loose so I can hear the drag going off when a fish is on when I leave the rod unattended. Once a fish is on I will hear the drag go off, after that do I need to tighten the drag up and then yank the rod up to hook the fish? 

You could do what you are saying but it won’t work as well as a proper bait runner reel. 

Reasons are that if you loosen the drag right off, it will not be as light as a bait runner and the fish will feel some resistance. Also, tightening up the drag to set the hook is impractical and again not as good as flicking a switch like on a proper bait runner. 

But as I said, you could still do it if you wanted.

Personally, I don’t let any fish run.