I have a Bass Pro Shops Inshore Extreme reel that I bought from BPS about 2 years ago. If you are not familiar with this reel, it's the same as a BPS Nitro(made by Browning I BELIEVE). It worked great up until I got tangled in battle with an enormous sting ray with a wing span of at least 3ft. For about 45 minutes I fought the fish, chasing him back and forth across the river. While pumping the rod up, all of a sudden, the drag on the reel instantly released. No pressure on the spool at all. I cut the line and the fish and I parted ways; he left tired, while I left with a broken reel. When I took it home to inspect the internals, my first thought was that it was drag was worn out. A thought in the back of my head kept telling me that it was not the drag because to my knowledge, they do not just lose their grip instantly. It turned out it wasn't the drag. I checked the ratchet drag washer. Not that either. However I did notice that even with the spool tension locked all the way down, there remained a lot of slop in the spool. I took the spool out of the reel, and I came to the realization that the spool had become detatched from the shaft; it was now free-spinning. Without being attatched to the shaft, the spool will not rotate. I am not sure how this would happen. Furthermore, I am not sure WHY this would happen; how was this spool attatched in the first place? I see no remnants of glue or any kind of metal bond. It is not pressed on. I have no idea how it was held in place to begin with! Has anyone ever had this occur to them? Is this a manufacturing defect? Most importantly, how can I fix it??
Thank you for your patience,
firstcoastfisher
