Question about casting / reel / line

[RIfoosball]

I have been fishing with a 9' Salt Stick and using a Penn 5500, casting lures. I have a couple of spools of line and have been using the spool with 40# Power Pro braid.

About on 4 out of every 5 casts I can feel and hear the line getting hung up when the lure is about a third of the way out. I have checked the line with my fingers when reeling in and nothing...I have tried to observe the line unspooling and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong....I have checked the guides...I have checked the spool itself to see if there are any nicks....

Then, every so often the line will mysteriously get caught up on something at that same distance and the line will break and I'll lose whatever I'm casting along with 30 yards of line.

To you more experienced....is this a function of this being a spinning reel? Does this happen to anyone else? Is it normal? Is it my casting? What the heck is going on here?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks. Bruce.

[JohnnyD]

Do you manually flip the bail and set the line in the roller? I found this to be the number one cause of issues I have had with braid and my Penn560.

[FishermanTim]

(This is based on a spinning reel, not a bait casting reel)

With most spinning rod/reel matchups, the first guide should be as close to the size of the spool as possible. If the spool is bigger than the guide, when the speed of the line being pulled off the spool begins to slow down, the braid can/will have the tendency to loop over the first guide. This could be a cause. If the lure is heavy enough, it can cause the line to fly off of the reel in loops that are larger than the guide, causing friction/resistance, and may also be the cause of the line catching on a guide. (imaging spooling a spinning reel with 50-80lb. mono and casting a 3-5oz. jig. The line will come flying off the spool, and will eventually loop around the first guide.
One other problem would be having the braid loop over the bale while casting (I have 1st hand experience with this) and either snap your line or the bale, whichever is weakest.

I ALWAYS manually close the bale and apply tension to the line to prevent loose line from creating a potential "birdnest cast".

I hope this was helpful (to anyone).

[rwilhelm]

Sounds to me like you are getting wind knots. Try using fireline instead of powerpro.

[steve]

Do yourself a favor, get rid of the Power pro!

[bassballer]

Originally Posted by steve

Do yourself a favor, get rid of the Power pro!

I learned this lesson a while ago. Bad luck on the PP. made the switch to suffix. MMUUCCHH better.

P.S steve thanks for the HABS plug. Very nice. I appreciate it.

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by bassballer

I learned this lesson a while ago. Bad luck on the PP. made the switch to suffix. MMUUCCHH better.

P.S steve thanks for the HABS plug. Very nice. I appreciate it.

Surprised you guys don't like the PP. I've had great success with it. I also fish a sissy drag too, perhaps that accounts for the lack of breakoffs?

I put sufix on one of my spinners and it got AFU...go figure.

[piemma]

Originally Posted by steve

Do yourself a favor, get rid of the Power pro!

AMEN!!!
Power Pro is nothing but problems. Spectron or FireLine for braid. Ande Back Country for mono.

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

(This is based on a spinning reel, not a bait casting reel)

With most spinning rod/reel matchups, the first guide should be as close to the size of the spool as possible. If the spool is bigger than the guide, when the speed of the line being pulled off the spool begins to slow down, the braid can/will have the tendency to loop over the first guide. This could be a cause. If the lure is heavy enough, it can cause the line to fly off of the reel in loops that are larger than the guide, causing friction/resistance, and may also be the cause of the line catching on a guide. .

I hope this was helpful (to anyone).

Be careful here. What is happening to RIfoosball is that he is getting a guide loop 1/2 way out the rod, exactly because the first guide is too large. Guide systems need to handle braid differently than mono. Because of its memory and relative stiffness, mono needs to be gradually reduced as it travels out the rod, starting with a large first guide. Braid, however is too limp and prone to pile on itself as it meets each guide. High speed photos show loops of braid flopping ahead of the guide before they are pulled through. The goal with braid is to get it damped down and under control as quickly as possible. Hence new guide systems for rods dedicated to braid start with 1st guides about 1/2 the spool diameter, and quickly taper down to small guides (size 10 or smaller) out the rest of the rod. If you do not get braid under control quickly, as it meets a smaller guide (or even the tip top) out the rod, it overlaps the guide and breaks. That is the noise RIF is hearing, line ripping itself off the base of a guide. Switching to fireline helps because it is less limp, but the real answer is rewrapping the rod with smaller guides.

[kenyee]

Originally Posted by numbskull

rods dedicated to braid start with 1st guides about 1/2 the spool diameter, and quickly taper down to small guides (size 10 or smaller) out the rest of the rod.

Does that mean that if you fill a spin reel w/ braid, you can use it on a conventional rod if the 1st guide is half the spool diameter?

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by kenyee

Does that mean that if you fill a spin reel w/ braid, you can use it on a conventional rod if the 1st guide is half the spool diameter?

Sometimes. The longest casting guide setups are called Lowriders used on rods 11 feet and up, and the largest guide is often a 25mm, that typically is mounted more than 47" from the spool lip. These rods can be fished dual use (conventional or spinning). Most rods, however, use a shorter distance to the first guide, in which case elevation above the blank to prevent line slap becomes an issue. Also, the next two guides after the collector guide usually step down to smooth the transition to the first small guide on the rod (called the choke guide), so a spinner set up for braid is not the same as a standard conventional with a large first guide. In RIF's case, it is likely that the spool diameter is too small for the first guide, so the line sails through the first guide without being restricted, and collides with the second or third guide at high velocity and overwraps.

[ReelinRod]

Going smaller is the answer but it's not just the size of the guide, an even greater factor in eliminating guide wraps is distance of the first guide from the reel.

Moving the first guide out uses the effect of the payload straightening the line (and decreasing the contact angle of the line to the guide) to smooth line flow. Because the "coils" are smaller in diameter and longer in length the further from the reel, one can use smaller guides.

So, I am a big proponent of smaller guides on spinning rods using braid when matched with reels with the proper spool profile. Again it is best to be smaller rather than bigger; for top braid performance reels should have a small diameter (and in a perfect world, long and shallow). RIfoosball is in a better position to eliminate guide wraps with the use of the smaller diameter Penn 5500 then if he was using a big Greenie.

Casting performance is a fluid effect dependent on each component, reel, line, rod and guide design and layout and the interaction between them. If one wanted to build a drag racer it seems pointless to me to do the frame, transmission and engine work and then put a UPS box body on the chassis. Point being, blaming RI's problems on PowerPro is misapplying blame. Everything needs to work together and while a change to Fireline might lessen frequency the fundamental problem remains.

To the OP; if you would like to be even further confused there is another discussion of guide wraps on spinners and guide design and location over in the Rod Building Forum; check it out . . .

[Pt.JudeJoe]

All good points above. I think a 5500 is a little small for a 9 ft rod.

[Crafty Angler]

An old 650SS or a 6500SS might be a better match - I use a 650SS on a 10' Lamiglas 120-1L for plugs and it works pretty well

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by RIfoosball

I have been fishing with a 9' Salt Stick and using a Penn 5500, casting lures. I have a couple of spools of line and have been using the spool with 40# Power Pro braid.

About on 4 out of every 5 casts I can feel and hear the line getting hung up when the lure is about a third of the way out. I have checked the line with my fingers when reeling in and nothing...I have tried to observe the line unspooling and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong....I have checked the guides...I have checked the spool itself to see if there are any nicks....

Then, every so often the line will mysteriously get caught up on something at that same distance and the line will break and I'll lose whatever I'm casting along with 30 yards of line.

To you more experienced....is this a function of this being a spinning reel? Does this happen to anyone else? Is it normal? Is it my casting? What the heck is going on here?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks. Bruce.

Check the line roller and make sure the braid isn't getting scraped up or wedged on your retrieve. It sounds like the line is getting damaged somehow. Its possible your line roller may not be working at all, thus putting excess twist in the line. I had this problem with an older reel I owned and found the line roller to be the problem. At that point I discarded the reel.

[JohnnyD]

That is more than likely your issue right there. Whenever I use a pencil popper or any other lure that is worked similarly, I pinch the line between my thumb and index finger to give a little pressure to ensure the line is going on relatively tight.

You don't even think about it after a while.