I get a kick out of certain anglers who say they blew up the reel.
Can someone explain to me when its aproproiate to say "I blew up the reel"?
When I hear that term I think they out fished the reel...kinda like stripped the gears or something but thats often not the case, instead I hear that term used when a screw fell out or something stupid ,,now how is that blowing up the reel?...lol

Maybe some of these dudes are catchin 50's and and ain't sayin.


:rolleyes:

I've heard the term applied to when a conventional reel is in free spool and a fish takes a sudden, long run and almost all of the line is virtually turned into a bird's nest.

Plastic spools and monofilament. Hook a big fish and reel it in. The line packs so tight on the spool that the spool isn't strong enough and "explodes". Aluminum spools solve that problem.

When I "blew up" my VS's, the gears were stripped, the drags were warn out, and the bolts were broken. I think that classifies as blowing up a reel as they were no longer functional without sending them back to the factory for service.

Fishing the flats in Marathon, Fl A Cuda the size of my leg grabbed a pencil popper on 12lb gear and took off... the spool litterally shot up off the reel, stripping the gears and drag (Shimano reel, I forget which one) completly FUBAR... thats a blown up reel... :D

I was muscling a large shark on the fly rod when he made a final surge, I was too caught up in the moment to have thought to ease up the drag.

Can't really tell you what happened to the reel except that there was an explosion and the next thing I see is a very expensive fly reel sinking in deep water with several large sharks swimming around.

All that was left was the reel seat.

I blew up a black 6500 Nautil on Albies at the Derby - casted great and far but after about 20 some fish the pinion gear was so stripped (plastic housing? a wonder of engineering :rollem: ) that it wouldn't reel up a deadly #^&#^&#^&#^& off the sand without slipping... I had to cup the spool while fighting the last fish so it would not slip....

Clammer blows up reels about a thrid the time, he drives over another third....

YFT on a VS 150.

You can definitely "blow it up." Grind the gears down, kiss the drag washers goodbye.

Once while trolling for (ugh) Bluefish in Cape Cod Bay I had a Penn Jigmaster "blow up". It got blown up when instead of a ten pound Bluefish eating the Hootchie on 100' shot of wire a 300 lb. +/- Bluefin at the rig. Bent the spool shaft out and took the innards with it. It was cool though even if the reel was junk after. Other than that I never had one blow up, I have wrecked drag washers in a day on one but what a day with tunoids. Otherwise they just get old and wear out.:)

Had a cheap spinner (maybe a cardinal??) m blow up on me at Montauk once about !984. Not that big a fish , maybe 25 pounds but it was a mush metal reel. By blow up I mean parts from inside the reel were spewing out the front around where the spool meets the skirt. We told people it "exploded" !! :) There were screws and a big wire?? and b u s h ng materials all falling out the front of the reel.

Anyway , i just unscrewed it from the rod and tossed it in a barrel. Moved on to the next cheap reel. After that season I went out and bought some Penn SS reels. No more blow ups , just anti reverses failing!! :)

Last November I blew up a Penn GS 555 while jigging cod . . . porbeagle shark grabbed a small fish and headed to Portugal - I could smell the graphite heating up and shortly after the gears stripped clean. The body of the reel was "fused" from the heat . . . it made a nice paperweight for a while til I cleaned up this Winter to make room for "replacements" :D

When parts are flying off and hit you in the face during a fight, that is what I call a blow up.
While fishing one of my old diawa's once and reeling in a fish the entire bail flew off one side and was flopping around loose. I could not reel and had to hand-line in the fish in waist high waters at night. It was a nightmare. Never bought another diawa again.

This was more of an "implosion" : I brought in a one-season-old Penn liveliner to the shop asking for their repair guy to fix the baitrunner drag, it didn't engage and the reel was getting a little stiff. When I went to pick it up, they said that I won the award for the worst condition spinning reel he had ever seen in 20 years and it could not be repaired. Everyting inside was worn out and shot and salt caked solid. It didn't make it thru one complete surf season, and I took are of it! He didn't believe me but I did, rinsed it off each trip. That was my turning point when I said...never again...and asked for the highest quality spinning reel made.

Originally posted by Mr. Sandman
That was my turning point when I said...never again...and asked for the highest quality spinning reel made.

So what is it . . . inquiring minds need to know :confused:

spend a lot more money:(

True dat

I replaced the Penn with a Saltiga 40 . . . among others :D

No more blow ups , just anti reverses failing!! :)

I agree that ain't no blow up. I've busted a few reels and rods but never considered them Blow Ups

When parts are flying off and hit you in the face during a fight, that is what I call a blow up.

Thats some funny chit right there.

Picture this, it's a slow night you say to your self...dam I wouldn't mind getting spooled right about now,,although you don't want it to happen you realy do want it to happen. This year I'll be telling my self...DAM I wouldn't mind this reel blowing up right about now,,,on slow nights of course:hee:. I blew one a few lawn mowers in my day.:rolleyes: