Reeling Slack Line - knots?

[MSBruno]

HI All,

 

I just started fishing again this year after a many years of not fishing and I have been using x-raps with my spinning gear and braided line.

 

For me to get the most action, it's a viscous jerk, jerk, jerk and then pause. When the pause is on, I'll reel in the slack line. This seems to capture my line loose on my reel, so I then tried to rell with each jerk, but then tha action died down and became more of a sweep, sweep, sweep.

 

With Bas season upon us, I'm going to try and focus of plastics which is a lot of action and reeling in slack or semi-slack line.

 

So I'm looking for help as I don't want to keep stripping line off.

 

Would a baitcaster fix this?

 

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[Raf]

yes

[Garry2Rs]

It sounds like your working pretty hard to get the action you want. That suggests that your rod is too soft. The X-Rap is a jerkbait, and I feel that jerkbaits work best on a stiff rod. Soft rods are like shock absorbers and cushion the hard snap out of the presentation. A stiff rod will let you make small hard jerks, and have the bait almost dance in place...

 

With any jerkbait, to get the right action you need to start with slack line and end with slack line. The rolling, darting action comes from the bait turning, on slack line, at the end of the first jerk, and then changing direction on the following jerk.

 

I don't know what size baits you're using. I fish jerkbaits on MH baitcast rods, but I don't own any that are light enough to be cast with any spinning rod that I own. There are medium heavy spinning rods out there, and I suppose they would do the job...The magic is in the rod not the reel.

 

Regardless of reel style, I think you are going to have to run the line through your fingers at least some of the time, to get the tight spool you want. The first thing I would look at is getting the reserve line good and tight on the spool. You need a firm foundation to build on. I run the line through the middle of the phone book, then put a big Dictionary on top for extra tension, when I re-spool. Even after that I will let all the line out behind the boat anytime that I'm not satisfied with the tightness of the spool.

 

With spinning reels I always close the bail by hand and place the line on the pick-up roller. This helps to keep my line tight and reduces line twist.

I hope this helps.