Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Quote from: jurelometer on December 31, 2025, 06:32:24 PMDoes the lack of a levelwind on the Target bother you much  when you are working lures? 

not oc1 but..
I have fished a modern BFS reel, and forgot to thread the line through the levelwind. at that point I'd spent fifteen minutes tying knots and threading gossamer through tiny guides, decided to fish without the levelwind rather than do that again.
This was while throwing 2g minnow lures for trout in a river. I fished the rest of the day without problems.
The narrow spool helps. Also, used to fish old Penn baitcasters with no levelwind, in the salt sea; it's possible I have an atavistic memory of that and do line lay without consciously thinking about it..

can't see it in the pic, but this is one of the fish caught without benefit of levelwind ;-)

Quote from: jurelometer on December 31, 2025, 06:32:24 PMDoes the lack of a levelwind on the Target bother you much  when you are working lures?  I guess it could depend on the fishing method used.

I abandoned levelwind mechanisms long before happening upon the Target.  It's a non-issue once you develop the muscle memory to guide line onto the spool by hand without having to look at it or think about it.  Not having a levelwind does change how the outfit is held though.  You have to either hold the rod immediately in front of the reel or palm the reel.  Holding the rod below the reel wouldn't work. 

Comfortable "palming" reels are a different topic.  Size matters, as does the shape of the tail plate. The little Target, Shakes 1740 and first-generation 100-yard baitcasters tuck nicely into the palm of your hand and allow you to level the line while gripping it firmly enough to set the hook when the time comes.  The advent of asymmetric reels (as opposed to round reels) was largely a response to the desire for a more comfortable palming reel; hence the Shimano Bantam and all the modern baitcasters that followed.  The tail plate of an ABU 5000 is wide enough and thick enough to make palming difficult.

Quote from: DougK on December 31, 2025, 07:19:25 PMnot oc1 but..
I have fished a modern BFS reel, and forgot to thread the line through the levelwind. at that point I'd spent fifteen minutes tying knots and threading gossamer through tiny guides, decided to fish without the levelwind rather than do that again.
This was while throwing 2g minnow lures for trout in a river. I fished the rest of the day without problems.
The narrow spool helps. Also, used to fish old Penn baitcasters with no levelwind, in the salt sea; it's possible I have an atavistic memory of that and do line lay without consciously thinking about it..

can't see it in the pic, but this is one of the fish caught without benefit of levelwind ;-)

Quote from: oc1 on December 31, 2025, 08:04:26 PMI abandoned levelwind mechanisms long before happening upon the Target.  It's a non-issue once you develop the muscle memory to guide line onto the spool by hand without having to look at it or think about it.  Not having a levelwind does change how the outfit is held though.  You have to either hold the rod immediately in front of the reel or palm the reel.  Holding the rod below the reel wouldn't work. 

Comfortable "palming" reels are a different topic.  Size matters, as does the shape of the tail plate. The little Target, Shakes 1740 and first-generation 100-yard baitcasters tuck nicely into the palm of your hand and allow you to level the line while gripping it firmly enough to set the hook when the time comes.  The advent of asymmetric reels (as opposed to round reels) was largely a response to the desire for a more comfortable palming reel; hence the Shimano Bantam and all the modern baitcasters that followed.  The tail plate of an ABU 5000 is wide enough and thick enough to make palming difficult.

I  grew up fishing lures with larger conventional levelwind-free reels, but some retrieve types are hard to impossible. Really fast winding, or swinging the tip to chug the lure.  I would think that going  small on both the reel and line would make it super-annoying, but I never tried it without a levelwind.

If I was slow bouncing a small jig, or steady winding a spinner, I could see it as more doable.

Thanks for the firsthand experience.

-J

Quote from: jurelometer on January 01, 2026, 01:17:59 AMIf I was slow bouncing a small jig, or steady winding a spinner, I could see it as more doable.

-J

Slow bouncing a jig is my game; pelagics are not.