Fishing Gear Fails

[foakes]

Well here's a new one:

Messing around with a cheapo Quantum Optix spinner. I was doing the ritual of spinning the handle fast then letting it go, observing the quite-impressive free spin...when out of the blue it goes "clackety-CLACKETY-clackety! clunka-clunka-GrrRRRRR!!

Tear down revealed a completely grenaded oscillation gear; not stripped, just somehow turned into grey powder and bits of shrapnel. Managed to salvage a couple bearings and drag washers out of that scrap heap.

Another reason to appreciate manufacturers that used top quality and rugged lifetime+ materials —- instead of cheaper materials that just disintegrate for no reason except cheaply made crap.

Kind of a joke...

Best Regards, Fred

 

[Reels_penn4life]

Mostly line issues. Couple snapped poles. Or surfcasting with pole up in a sand spike. Take your eye off. Fish hits. Drags the pole in the sand. And it's frozen solid. Only happened once. But it feels like it's happened more. Very traumatic. 😊

[UKChris1]

Some years back and I was near the end of a few days sharking from Devon, UK. I'd caught a few over the previous couple of days and had had a great trip when I mentioned to the skipper that it was funny the only rod that hadn't had a take was the - and at that moment the line started to pour off that very reel on the close-in rod.
Could be a good 'un, he said as I waited for all to come tight and pull the circle hook home.

Yup, it was a decent fish that pulled hard and fought well against a decent amount of drag on 50lb line. And at that moment the anti-reverse pawl decided not to engage any more, meaning I had, in effect, a 'knuckle-buster' reel and it was only my hand that stopped the handle turning backwards so that the drag could operate.

Twenty minutes or more of this and we were able to unhook and release a pretty decent blue shark whilst my sore wrist began to swell and complain. It kept that up for several days 

It transpired the pawl had been incorrectly seated at some point and had worn down unevenly so that there was now not enough metal left to engage the cogs on the drive gear. My fault for fishing a lovely-looking second-hand reel without first completely stripping and servicing it beforehand. Lesson learned!

That reel has performed flawlessly ever since I replaced the worn part.