backreeling

[SenkoSam]

I couldn't have discussed the importance of backreeling any better than Rich Zaleski.
http://www.richz.com/fishing/fishtips/backreel.html

Drags are an aid, but not the primary way I control the give-and-take of line.

Sam

[BIG PAPA]

Sam I am surprised to hear that back reeling is that important with the new high performance spinning reels we have today, especially with the new smooth drags that are available. But I do not use a spinning reel much in Bass fishing. What situation do you use the technique?
papa

[SenkoSam]

Most of the newest baitcasters and all spinning reels have an anti-reverse. For lakes that have toothy critters, back reeling allows you to control the surge far better than most drags and I feel, allows you to fake a fish into believing it's won it's freedom every time it surges to make a leap.

Some anglers like the constant pressure that their equipment maintains with rod tip position. Unfortunately there are too many friction-points built into rod-and-reel systems, from the internal drag plates to outer reel parts to the rod guides. Most people never open up their reels to clean and oil all internal friction areas or even loosen their drag after every outing. This usually results in unexpected changes in actual drag-poundage. It is recommended that one should set the drag to 3/4's of the line's pound test. Unless you've done a load-test with equipment, you don't know if it's set too tight or too loose. This applies especially to mono that has been nicked or abraided or that has a loosened knot or a defect. For example, if the actual test of a 14# lline has been reduced to 6lb test by a small cut and you've set the drag to 10#s (or 75%), the drag is now over 100% of the line test. Crying over that lost, winning fish, still won't get it into the livewell after the line snapped from 5 yards out. 

Braid is great stuff, but it causes the most friction of any line coming off the spool and passing through guides. It adds drag, but an indeterminate amount. If your using 30# test, most likely a good braid will not be much reduced in test by abraision or even toothy critters. But you never know!

Backreeling is like insurance against the unexpected factors mentioned above. It applies to freshwater fishing using lighter tackle versus that of saltwater fishing and fighting brutes over 20 pounds. It does not apply to horsing fish out of heavy cover on heavy line. It is an open water technique to artificially and instantly reduce the pound test force to less than 25% on initial surges, coupled with bowing to the fish (following the direction of a surging fish, down or to the side, with  rod tip position). It does not apply to panfishing unless your using 4 lb test through the ice.

What follows works for me:
1. A fish strikes but stays down and won't allow you to see it's size. [what seem's like a cookie cutter bass could be a plus-6.]
Don't assume anything until you've seen it's head or body! The longer the fight, the greater the assumption that this could be a hog!
2. If that assumption is made, but while the fish is still a distance from the boat, flip off the anti-reverse. (The drag can always stay at 90-100% for the hookset, all of the time.)
3. Backreel and bow to the fish when it makes it's most powerful runs, keeping contact-pressure constant. The less and more controlled the contact-pressure, the less panic-surges or their duration.
4. If you have someone to net the fish, no need to flip the anti-reverse on. But, if your're very sure that, by keeping the head out of water the fish has lost it's fight, flip it back on, reach for the net, and scoop the fish up from the tail. (A run-away bail makes for a big mess!)

Modern techniques require less line diameter (crankbaits especially), as well a ultralight. Braid is great in this area but may not be desirable over flurocarbon or good mono, when a little stretch is needed. Any line can benefit from backreeling and hogs have a way of slopping you in the face when you least expect it! 

Sam

   

[BIG PAPA]

Very interesting Sam. thanks for the great explaination! Glad to have someone with your technica lskills on the board.

papa

[mudd_4_ur_eyes]

now this was an intresting post and its somthing that has never even crossed my mind of trying much less doing think i am gona have to try it next time to practice it  :Dbut i dont think i will manage it too well though much less remember to try it out once i got a fish hooked on my line

[MotherNature]

The right amount of drag can be the difference between getting a good hook set and not. I try to check my drag through out the day. I have noticed that after sitting in the rod locker the drage that was set on one trip is not going to be the same on that rod the next time you go out. I may be due to the temperature or from ridding around in the rod locker but it changes. If when you get your rod out to fish with it you make a habbit to check it you will see that some days it is much tighter than you left it and it will need adjusting.

My adjustments are not nearly as technical as Sam's, bit I am going to keep that in mind the next time I get out to fish. I usually just grab hold of the line and give a pull, if it comes off the reel with too much tension then I know I have to loosen it and if too easy I tighten it.

Not sure what deems too tight or too loose it is just a feel ...

Laurie

[DAWG]

I never really thought much abiut checking the drag before starting to fish. But it makes sense because of the poles getting knocked around in the lockers. Will have to remember that along with the other 500 or so others.

         dawg

[MotherNature]

DAWG,
I really think that it has more to do with temperature than anything. Around here we go from very hot nd humid to dry and them cold in a matter of minute so I think that has an effect on the drag. The other thing is that while I am in here typing away at the computer mike is usually the one that rigs my rods and takes care of those kinds of things so when I get to the lake he might have had to loosen the drag for one reason or another and it is just policy (Mike taught me that) to check the drag. There is a little ritual that we go thru. I dont think he realises it but he checks the drag then the line and then the hooks and the knot. I watch him do it almost every time he picks up a rod... I guess I learned form the master 

Laurie

[Fishaholic]

Great topic...all I can say is this, around 12 or 13 years ago, I was watching an InFisherman Special on TV and they were explaining the pluses of backreeling, and the negatives of only using your drag...at the time, I really didn't think it made that much difference...then a friend of mine asked me to go to the big pond (Lake Michigan) and fish for skammania...first fish I hooked hit the lure so hard that it snapped the bail on my spinning reel; the second fish I hooked peeled off 50 yards of line like a runaway freight train and in the process of fighting the fish near the shoreline, I learned that my drag simply couldn't handle the explosive runs of these fish...lost number two too. On the third fish, when it felt like the fish was going to make an explosive run I tried backreeling to assist the panic attack my drag was having...wow, that helped alot...did it a few more times and this time, I land my first skammania a nice 14 pounder...because I learned from my initial fear of using this technique, I managed a nice limit (at that time) of 5 fish the smallest one being the 14 pounder. [in case you don't know what a skammania is, it's a hybridized rainbow trout that gets upwards of 29-30 pounds]

Whenever I have a good size fish on and I'm using spinning tackle I always backreel...never, and I mean never put all your trust in the drag system alone.

[SenkoSam]

Fishaholic,  nice post and a good example. 
A friend of mine went for upstate salmon on medium spinning tackle and learned the hard way how a 15lb river running fish will destroy a reel or line when not made for the heavy action of salt water. His reel was useless after a few minutes of tying on to a freight train.