Do you backwind?

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

rather than hijack the shimano reel thread
do you backwind - if so when and why

I never feel the need to backwind - set the clutch right and I find there is no need - since I mostly use Shimanos with fighting drag I can use that function to let out line when needed

 

[sumtime]

Pretty much the same for me too, Paul.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

With modern fixed spool reels with their excellent drag system, and on some the "fighting drag" feature, then it really is no longer necessary to back-wind.

So personally, I rarely if ever feel the need to back-wind at all.

 

[terry m]

As above I rarely backwind. With modern FS Reel drags then why do you need to?

There is the odd rare (very rare)occasion when I realise that I have a really good fish at the net, then I may turn off the anti-reverse and use my finger to control the rotor, thus allowing line out easily if the fish takes a final lunge. Sadly these circumstances are not as frequent as I would ideally like!

 

[floatfish]

Same for me as above, just use the drag on the reel.

 

[binka]

In my early years I always back wound but these days I rely pretty much on the drag for everything, Like Terry I have been known to flick the anti-reverse off if I see it's a special fish when it's very near the net.

 

[greenie62]

Yes! - if fishing from a platform peg when the fish tries to get 'underneath' you and you need to keep tight to it to stop it going round the posts then let out line to net it when you get it up in the water OR if you're fishing across reeds and you need to give the fish some line to move away from the reeds whilst keeping tension on with a longer rod to guide it away, avoiding it diving in to them on a slipping clutch.
I probably don't trust clutches as a legacy of starting out with centre-pins and cheapo FS reels years back when backwinding was the only alternative. I also use an Abu 506mkII for trotting so the backwinding habit still comes in useful!

 

[steve2]

When I first started fishing the FS reels I could afford to use didn’t have a good clutch/drag system. When I switched over to Mitchells the drag was still unreliable so I back wound. Now no need to backwind because we have far more reliable drags, most of the time.
On the subject of drag systems I prefer the front spool drag system to the rear drag I find it gives me far more control.

 

[seth49]

No . Use the drag all the time, I like to fasten the hook to something solid and then set the drag to give line by using the rod.
Not by just pulling it of the reel.
Seem to get a better setting that way. And can always use my finger on spool if the fish is going for a snag.

 

[The bad one]

Never needed to backwind ever! Never see the need to do so. Don't get the fixation with it. And when I tell you my first FR was a 4 shillings and 6 pence Black Prince Reel that I used on the clutch set very lightly and adjusted as needed when playing a fish. I really don't get what all the fuss was back then and certainly not today.

I still have a BPR new, boxed and never used, I bought as a piece of Nostalgia some years ago at a fair. I'm confident I could spool it up today and still play and land fish off the clutch with it.

My fishing partner despite using modern Shimano reels still backwinds and his loss rate of fish is ridiculously high. I can't stand to watch him playing a fish as the moment the fish puts a bend in the rod he's backwinding. The rod's there as a bloody shock absorber! The clutch is there as the safety release to stop the line breaking. Set it correctly balanced to the bend of the rod and you should never get broken, unless the fish gets in a snag.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

My first FSR was a Black Prince - I doubt I'd want to spool one up and use it today - back when it was first new it asn't a great reel -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR4.TRC0.A0.H0.Xblack+prince+reel.TRS0&_nkw=black+prince+reel&_sacat=0

I'm certainly not pay £5 plus postage for one

 

[tigger]

I very rarely have the drag set hard/tight. Most of the time I prefer to have the clutch set at a medium level of pressure (medium for the species of fish i'm catching) that gives line under not to much pressure and use my finger to slow down the drag, slacken it off etc during the fight.

 

[Cliff Hatton]

If and when a really good specimen powers-off it's impossible to back-wind effectively; you simply can't keep up with it. A reel with an unencumbered flyer will allow a degree of finger-control but not enough if the fish is a big beast.

 

[rubio]

Can't seem to recall last time i caught anything big enough to think about back-winding!

 

[bracket]

This came up not so long ago. My comment then was this. "Back winding for me. I prefer it to a clutch. My view is that regardless of the advances made in reel design there is one unchanging constant. The force required to overcome the initial inertia of a friction clutch is greater than the force required to keep it slipping. So you can set the clutch to whatever you want but once it begins to slip the resistance to a running fish is less and unknown unless you known the material friction coefficients and can make the necessary calculations. So to my mind that is not being in control. When playing a fish by back winding I am well aware how much pressure I am putting on and what I am giving and taking. That said I am not a 'big fish" man although I have had carp to 18lb using the back wind technique no problem and truth be told I don't want to catch any thing bigger. Pete". Since offering that comment nowt much has changed. Pete.

 

[The bad one]

Paul wasn't claiming they were a great reel, only that they were usable off the clutch if you set them right.

You must also remember Paul that as a nipper the only reels there were available to us were centrepins, which you gained by swapping, trading for some item your mate wanted off you. Split the kipper knife comes to mind for one trade I made Flying goggles were always a good trade for good tackle of the day. These being liberated from Clayton Vale Aeroplane Dump if you had the bottle to brave the guard dogs and the mad bloke who owned it.
How and why there was such a place in Clayton Vale is to this day a mystery to me, but there was. And it was full of stuff post war kids wanted, and if you had it, it fetched the best trades.

A bomb-sight quite easily would get you a near new air rifle off somebody. What the crates of brand new Rolls Royce Merlin Spitfire engines would have got us is anybody's guess....probably a tackle shop! But despite our cunning and ingenuity such thoughts never occurred to us!

But when the BP came on the market it was for us kids, a step into the space age, as they could cast a float right across the canal with ease without having to pull line from every eye and every finger you had on your free hand.

 

[terry m]

Wow, calculations of co-efficient to determine the tightness required for the drag on a FS reel?

Clearly I am a Luddite. Though I would guess that my ability to 'feel' the force required to pull line from a static reel is not too far from the backwinders knowledge of the pressure they use?

Isn't it simply a case of preferring one method over another?

 

[The bad one]

If and when a really good specimen powers-off it's impossible to back-wind effectively; you simply can't keep up with it. A reel with an unencumbered flyer will allow a degree of finger-control but not enough if the fish is a big beast.

I think according to you and Eddie Martin Gay illustrated the point admirably about backwinding.

Bracket I must be some sort of mathematical genius (a trait I never demonstrated to my maths teachers or university lecturers), of the many 100s of large fish I've caught over the last 40+ years. I can't think of ever losing a fish due to the initial inertia rip, not if I/you set the clutch properly in the first instance and reset it afterwards and before you start fishing again. As to not being in control of a fish that's rubbish, you break it down as Seth's says with your finger on the spinning spool, allowing the rod to take up the absorption.

 

[flightliner]

When my old mitchell match expires under its/my lifetime guarantee then I may look closer at all the other options!

 

[Ray Daywalker Clarke]

It depends on what reel i am fishing, and how big the fish is on the hook at the time.

I don't think it matters, as long as the method you use, is the right method for you.

I would say what ever method you use, at some time or other you would have lost fish. Back winding or the clutch, neither are 100% guaranteed to land all your fish.