spinning reel bail removal

[dan hufferd]

I have a friend who still uses the the old mitchell spinning reels. He has taken the bail off of every one of them. He fishes them this way by simply grabbing the line with his finger after a cast hooking it under the "bearing line catcher thingy".

He is so good at it one would not know that he has modified the reel.

Anyone else do this and why?  

[rps]

His method prevents line twist. The one or two revolutions required to click the line catcher down and get it going has unfortunate effects on the line. If you read serious spinning posts you will see the recommendation that you close the bail manually quite often.

I quit fighting years ago. I have found ways to make and use bait casting gear for all but the lightest applications (crappie jigs, 1/8th ounce spoons, etc.)

[Dutch]

I've heard of it but never tried it or saw the need for it.  I seldom get line twists with my Shimano spinning reels and I do manually close the bail.

[MOPanfisher]

Honestly I have never even heard of it.  I do get some line twist but it's not a big deal and a couple times a year I "untwist" it.  I do use braid.

[dan hufferd]

I guess  I have always closed the bail by hand. It was the way I learned when young. I never knew why other than more control while casting. 

It is good to obey your teachers....sometimes

[Al Agnew]

Yes, I used to do it to all my spinning reels years ago.  Once you get in practice doing it, it has a number of advantages, the two biggest being that you don't have to worry about bail springs wearing out, and it does eliminate the snarls you get from line twist.  It does NOT prevent line twist, nothing does.  But it is the surest way to avoid those loops of line that result from line twist when you close the bail, and which cause all the problems with line twist.

However, I stopped cutting the bail off because it just doesn't work well on a lot of present day reels.  On most of them, it seems to throw the spool housing out of balance and it wobbles.  You can fix that on some by adding some weight to the screw where the other end of the bail fastened (the opposite end from the line roller).  But the other problem is that, for me at least, a lot of reels don't fit my hand quite well enough.  Your index finger must be perfectly positioned to pick up the line at the end of the cast and let the bail roller come around and take it off your finger.  On too many of the recent reels I've tried it on, I had to reach too far with my finger, and it was less efficient.  Also, on some of the newest reels, there is no way to switch off the anti-reverse, and you MUST have the anti-reverse off so that you can turn the handle backwards.  

So if you want to try it on an old reel, have at it. You may just love how it works...I did back in the day.  It's so simple once you get your finger trained.  You simply pick up the line on your index finger, back off very slightly on the reel handle, which removes the bail roller from the line, and cast.  At the end of the cast, you lift up slightly on the rod to tighten the line a bit (it actually makes a bit more line come off the spool) and the line comes around and hits your finger and you pick it up.  Then you just start reeling, and the roller comes around and takes the line off your finger.  Your other hand never has to leave the reel handle to close the bail by hand.  You can easily feather line with your finger on the cast and stop it and pick it up at the same time near the end of the cast, and you're ready to reel.  Because the line is always tight when you pick it up at the end of the cast, there are no loops to cause trouble on the next cast.

(However, it also doesn't work well on the old Mitchell 308s unless you're a left-handed caster, because the line winds on the wrong way.  When you back off on the handle to take the line off your finger, instead it pushes the roller toward your finger, so you have to actually forward reel to take the line off.  And at the end of the cast, you have to backreel to get the line back onto the roller, then start your retrieve, which is very counter-intuitive and inefficient.  So check any old reel you have to make sure the bail turns the correct way.)

I think there are some Youtube videos about cutting off the bail.

Edit...I looked through Youtube.  Seems that bail-less spinning reels are getting very popular with saltwater anglers because the fixed roller is so much stronger than a normal roller attachment, and they've found it to be very efficient.  Saw one video with a bass fisherman who used one with the bail cut off, but he didn't operate it quite the same way I do.  At the beginning of the cast, he picks up the line with his other hand, removes it from the roller, and places it on his index finger.  He's fast and efficient doing that because he's obviously had plenty of practice.  But I think my way of simply turning the handle backwards slightly and letting the roller remove itself from the line is better.  

[Gavin]

Close the bail manually and don't look back. Usually unravel the twist issues from the previous trip in the yard before a trip. Braid helps. It still twists but very manageable.

[RSBreth]

Ned Kehde  (of Ned Rig fame) does this - but his gear is a little more "seasoned" - with modern spinners just use superlines and skip the fuss with mono.

[Al Agnew]

Back in the old days when I did some tournament fishing, I was always looking for ways to be as efficient as possible in my casting.  And I found that going bail-less was far more efficient than anything else, including closing the bail by hand.  It solved the problem of loops from line twist even better, and was a whole lot faster.  So while I agree with Gavin that most people should just close the bail by hand and be done with it, you might want to experiment with going bail-less on some old reel you have lying around, just to see if it works for you.  It's especially advantageous if you're fishing buzzbaits, because you can start the retrieve before the lure even hits the water.  Even if you close the bail by hand before the lure hits, you still have to move your hand from the bail to the reel handle before starting to reel, which gives a second for the buzzbait to sink before you can begin reeling.  With bail-less, the line pickup with your index finger is simultaneous with starting to reel.

[fishinwrench]

I cast and switch (reel with the same hand I cast with....the same as I do with baitcasting gear), so I just close the bail as I'm switching hands.   I don't even realize that I do it unless someone mentions it.  It's all fluid and I seldom have any snarling issues.

I don't understand why most people cast/retrieve differently with spinning gear than they do with casting gear.   Makes no sense to me. Keep all of your reel handles on the same side and you won't cuss spinning gear all the time.