Citadel

Oh wow, thanks for all of the suggestions. My notifications didn't tell me that anyone responded! Yeah I'm wondering if it is the drag, I'll mess with that tonight. At the time I was using 50lb braid. Yeah I think it is the drag because there was a time when I got the reel, I was messing with it loosening and tightening things when I noticed that turning the handles didn't spin the spool. So I tightened everything slowly until it started to catch the spool again. Maybe I need to tighten a little further. The reel is brand new. It is a cheapy brand "Sougayilang Low Profile Baitcaster" 7.0:1 gear ratio with 18lb drag. I wanted to try baitcasting this year but didn't want to break the bank and got it on sale for just under $30. IF the drag adjustment doesn't work, I do have an Abu Garcia Black Max that I can try out on next since I know those are pretty reliable for the price point. Also it was free so figured why not. As far as spooling up is concerned, is there an appropriate amount of tension I should use? I have been just pinching the line in between my fingers in front of the baitcaster but behind the first eyelet of the rod. I would say I didn't put a lot of tension but I tried not to just let it spool up without any tension. I appreciate this comment and if all else fails I will resort to this. Mono is cheap and can be good to learn on, I'm just concerned with the waters around here having all of the timber in them that I'll snap off and lose all of my baits. I saved up and spent some change on jigs and I wanted to learn how to fish jigs this year! Thanks guys! I really appreciate this and I'll let you know what happens!

Hello Anglers! I'm new to baitcasting and I'm noticing a potential problem with my reel. The other day I hooked into a fish and noticed that as I was reeling the fish in, that my reel wasn't picking up the line as I would anticipate it to. Another way of putting it would be I thought at the time that my line was slipping on the reel. Since then I have looked up ways to stop this from happening and the option I chose was to put a mono-backing then finish spooling the reel with braid. However as I was reeling in the line I got caught on something (I was in my front yard using trees and stuff to help provide tension and measurements for the amount of line to use, this detail is not important though) but I noticed that the line seemed to slip again. Now I believe the other alternative could be that the braid is digging into itself which is causing the "slip" sensation, however I feel like the slip is too great to simply be accounted for by the line "digging in" and I wonder if it is because I have a defective reel. But before I go with the defective reel explanation, I also wonder if it is because since I'm new to baitcasting, that I haven't dialed in my baitcaster properly or whatever I would need there in order for it to function properly. I can cast fine with it, I can flip and pitch alright with it, and I have few bird's nest to worry about most of the time. I tied an appropriate connection knot to the reel itself and then placed some tape on the knot to help. I tried applying a little more tension while spooling. But I just don't feel confident that if I crank that handle on the reel, that I'll actually pick up line to bring that fish in and I can't find any material online that talks about this specific problem! If there is anything you need clarification on, please ask and thanks for your help!