Why do you want a reel to have long free spool time?

Started by Rickb, October 08, 2015, 06:00:57 AM

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Rickb

   This may seem like an odd question.  To gain a few yards of distance when casting?
    Reason I ask this is that I use abu 7000's for most catfish.
And I don't understand why I would want a real long free spool time as they don't hold a lot of line and spool emptys quick.
If I am after the larger cats and using a fathom or a makaira how does it help?
    Thanks

Jeri

Hi

There are probably two sections to this answer/question.

The first I only know by reputation, where boat fishing in Southern Californian waters, there is a need to cast small live baits away from the boat with shortish rods, and no assistance from any sinker or added tackle. Here the need for very free spinning spools is essential, as the weight of the bait during the cast is all that is available to pull line off the reel. I will stand to be corrected on this, but that is my reading of the situation.

The second is surf casting or in extreme cases, tournament casting, where a lot of folks look to what is happening with the tournament casting situation, to then try and emulate what they are achieving in an actual fishing situation – but rarely achieving the same results. In the long rod tournament casting situation, they are compressing/bending the rod to extreme angles during the cast, and then letting it all go and fly away with huge power and acceleration. During that flight the reel firstly needs very low inertia to get accelerating, and then to maintain the spin speeds achieved over a sustained period of time, while the sinker flies away – potentially as far as 300 yards.

Folks then look at these extreme situations and try and emulate the same in a fishing situation with all the aerodynamic problems of bait, hook and other bits. They see the need of the tournament casters hugely fast running reels, and follow that path. When in actuality they are not going to need such huge spool speeds to achieve fishing casting distances which are rarely more than 150 yards, only in a few extreme cases are fishing casts needed beyond that sort of distance – perhaps only in surf angling competitions.

There is also another aspect which is very relevant, in the build and design of the rod blank, as most have quite slow tip speed on release, and can be easily accommodated with standard spool speed reels, it is only when you come across rods with very high tip speed on release, that spool spin speeds need to be higher to achieve performance from those rods.

So, at the end of the day – a fast spool spin speed is not necessarily going to give more distance, and in a lot of cases causes more problems for the caster. A pet phase of mine is 'that the rod makes the cast', all the reel has to do is supply line fast enough to cope with demand. But, being a surf rod builder and designer, we do get the problem of supplying fast tip rods to clients and then they fail to use a fast spool speed reel, and the rod fails to perform to their expectations, though that is usually quickly fixed with an appropriate tune up of their reel.

How this applies to catfish I am at a loss, but then it probably has a unique set of conditions and requirements that are critical to improved performance, and will be different to surf fishing.

Hope that helps

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri



CapeFish

a slow reel can actually help you cast further, the devil ruining distance is your thumb on the spool for most people. The more you can keep your thumb away the better.

day0ne

You need small live baits to be able to pull line off the reel easily, in order to not tire the bait needlessly. If you don't fish small live baits, not as important
David


"Lately it occurs to me: What a long, strange trip it's been." - R. Hunter

johndtuttle

Quote from: day0ne on October 08, 2015, 09:55:32 PM
You need small live baits to be able to pull line off the reel easily, in order to not tire the bait needlessly. If you don't fish small live baits, not as important

This^^

On the West Coast we fish live baits and the easier it is turn over the spool the easier it is for the bait to take line off by itself. This leads to the most natural presentation possible and more bites. You are perfectly connected but the bait is still swimming freely.

It also makes kasting the very light anchovies and sardines easier.

Conversely, for artificial lures we often use brakes of various kinds to slow the reel down :D. But when the baits are extremely light a very fast spool is desireable.

All of the top reels for fishing a live bait West Coast style have the lightest possible spool turning as freely as possible.

newport

Everyone pretty much covered everything. I will add that I like my reels supertuned to cast light lures easily, as well as to drop down light bucktails 30 -50 ft down quickly and jig it off the bottom.

What lb line are you using? With the 7000 size abu, I wouldn't go above 20lb mono. That should give you plenty of capacit, as well as plenty of drag to make it fun.

Rivverrat

#6
Red brown, I fish almost exclusively for catfish. I had at one time several 7000 set up with CT frames. For most of our fishing we don't have to have a super fast free wheeling reel. We can get away with adding weight if needed to help with casting . Most cast made by catfisherman are inside 50 yards. Your 7000 is capable of putting cut bait or a harnessed live bait well past that if needed using 40 lb.test. (I would not go past 13-14 lbs.of drag on these reels. u will trash the frames at some point if you do.) You will as already stated have to drop to lighter line if you want to reach the outer limits of your skill & capability of this reel.
Also if you fish any environment like I do you dont want the problems that live lining a bait can cause. OK in some lakes but few rivers.

With that said do listen well to what's being said here. There are times when tbrowing a properly set up bait over a 150 yards will put you into a pile of big kitty's.    I find that a free wheeling, fast, reel like a Penn Fathom throws not only lighter baits but is far less fatiiguing at the end of a day spent wading & repeatedly throwing large cut bait for 6-8 hours. Salt water fishing might as well be the dark side of the moon to me. But I've learned that some of the techniques cross over very well for catfish for certain situations....Jeff

Rickb

  Thanks for answering my question.I understand when trying to toss small live bait without stunning it or lures where free spool time matters. I at times free line small sunfish for large mouth bass or stripers.
   
  When at one of the lock and dams in my area we use surf rods and four or five oz sinkers on up depending on how much water they release and smaller cut bait when throwing for distance. they don't let you use a boat past the end of lock wall.
The large live bait in closer to shore because you cannot cast very far without  killing it or it comes off the hook or hooks.
  I have to use at least 30 mono because of all the rock. I have 80 lb sufix braid and 60 lb leader of mono for the larger live baits. there are quite a few flatheads 35 lbs into the 70's and the blue catfish are larger.
The other places I fish away from the dams are either log jams,stumps or rock where you have to stop the fish before it gets into cover.
  occasionally you hook one that impresses the heck out of you and you can't stop him or get it to turn.