What’s the Worst You’ve Ever Backlashed a Baitcaster?

[ike8120]

Snagging some tall grass on the back cast and on the forward cast it turned into such a bad back lash , ended up cutting all the braid off the spool.

[Brian11719]

My first casting reel was a black abu pro max and I was throwing a bladed jig around docks. Threw it too high on one cast and it went straight into the side of a dock at a pretty good speed and I was too much of a newbie to thumb the reel before the impact. Relatively new spool of fluoro and that rod was done for the day and I ended up cutting out the entire spool of line and replacing it all just to get it going again

[Tackleholic]

Just happened this morning....throwing a spinnerbait with 30# braid and 15# leader.  Got a backlash, looked down and picked at it a couple times, ran over my line with the trolling motor.  Wrapped so badly it stopped my Ghost, line got inside the housing, jammed the spinnerbait into the small gap between the housing and prop so hard it bent the blade.  Spent the next 1/2 hour hanging over the bow and fixing the mess.  Brought the reel home to work on the backlash, spinnerbait dropped into the lake.

[Columbia Craw]

I initiated a hard overhand cast and snagged my partner’s shoulder when he was accessing my glove box.  Blew it up so bad a redwing blackbird landed on my reel and used its beak trying to pick it out.

[GreenPig]

Made a run down the lake in 30 degree temps and got my hands good and frozen. I'd just got into big swimbaits and was excited to fish my new 8" Hudds on my only 8' SB rod and Abu 6500 spooled with fresh 65 lb braid to leader. I proceeded to launch that Hudd on a beautiful point but my frozen numb thumb slipped off the spool and the resulting backlash was spectacular. After cutting away the mess, I was left with maybe 30 yards of braid.

 

[NorthernBasser]

Don't you dare make me post that picture again. 

[Mobasser]

My first baitcast reel. ABU 5000. I was 13 years old. On the first day using the reel, I created a birds nest big enough for a condor to nest in.

[MN Fisher]

40 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

I created a birds nest big enough for a condor to nest in.

That takes skill, man...when you get one big enough for a Roc, take a pic.

[TnRiver46]

Pretty dang bad……

[bulldog1935]

When I was 14, fishing the jetties with my dad and neighbor - neighbor handed me his Ambassadeur and said try this.  I was so embarrassed by the result, it has never happened since.  

 

I did get one on a single tip wrap in 2018 - swapped in spare reel and fished a great morning.  Didn't mess with the other one, just cut it out and switched to braid.  

[Ski]

[rgasr63]

16 hours ago, Bucks Bass and Bourbon said:

In honor of me absolutely destroying a brand new spool of FC sniper on the first cast yesterday I figured it might be funny to hear the worst birds nests some of you have had. 
 

After spooling up a brand new reel I stopped at the local pond to try out a new rod and made a cast that immediately blew up the reel beyond saving. Tried for an hour to work it out but it was hopeless. Still not sure how or why I did it but upon inspection I had the brakes at 0 and the spool tension was backed way off. Don’t even remember doing it. The sound off the reel when I made the cast sounded like a car with a flat tire followed by the worst raspy sound I’ve ever heard. I smashed my thumb down immediately but it was already too late. What makes it worse is it happened on the most backlash-proof reel I own… a Zillion. So you know I screwed that up in every possible way. 
 

Anyone else??

I had the same experience with fc line the first time out but on a baitcaster and a spinning reel at the time it cost me about 40 bucks and  a day at the lake. 

[12poundbass]

At least once a year I have one so bad that I can’t pick out on the water and put it back in the rod locker and deal with it at home. This usually happens when I get a little overconfident casting into the wind. The ones that need to be cut out almost always happen when I don’t check my line, cast, line breaks, my lure goes into orbit.

[Bucks Bass and Bourbon]

These are some great examples hahahaha

[BigAngus752]

Several years ago I had just replaced a full spool of 50lb 832 on my frog rod.  It was a little windy that day but I was casting with the wind so I'm all good, right?  Turns out if it's blowing hard enough and you're casting under a small bridge there can be a significant updraft.  First cast was fine.  Second cast the frog lifted almost straight up and hit the bridge header 15 feet in front of me.  I learned two things:

1. Up to that day I had overrun braid many times, but I didn't know you could actually birdsnest braid.

2. If you birdsnest braid, it's 10000000000000 times worse than other line.  Cut that expensive line off after two casts. 

 

[FishTank]

I purchased a new Metanium a few yeas back and on the first cast this happened. 

 

 

I had everything set up the right way but unfortunately Shimano didn't install a few parts correctly. The end result was this mess. The guys at Omnia sent me a replacement after going over the bad reel and the new one has been flawless. 

[Bankbeater]

On the first two I hit something behind me when I was casting out, and on the last one I did manage to get the tangle out of the spool, but not from around the handle.

[jdr99a]

I once backlashed 2 reels on one cast. I was pond fishing with a backpack and had a combo in the rod holder. I had just done some reel maintenance and didn’t set my spool tension on either reel. I reared back and slung my lipless pretty hard…except I caught the line of combo in my rod holder. The reel in my hand blew up like crazy as you would expect but the worst part was the reel in the rod holder got all kinds of tangled as well. Not a good start to the morning. 

[ironbjorn]

I fish from the banks a lot. Anytime I have ever gone to bomb a cast and caught something (bush, tree) it's an entire blown up spool that needs to be cut out. I feel like when you get into scissor or knife territory it's all the same. Can't really backlash worse than that. It's not like the reel disintegrates and the rod explodes on a backlash. 

[Bankc]

A couple of years back I tried resurrecting an old Abu 5000D.  The old green round reel where when you cast, the line guide rolls back and forth.  I had just spooled up a bunch of fresh mono and decided to give it a try in front yard with a 1 oz. weight.  Being the idiot that I am, I decided to bomb it to see what the freshly oiled and cleaned reel could do.  But the worm gear was worn out, and after about a half second of clean cast, the pawl jammed just enough to create the biggest backlash of my life.  I spent an hour trying to clear it out and had line strewn all over the yard before I gave up and decided to cut it out.  And I had to cut out almost the entire spool.  I tried to save as much as I could, thinking it's an old reel that I wouldn't use often, so I wouldn't need much.  But there wasn't hardly any to save.  

 

I later replaced the worm gear and it works now.  But it's still the most backlash prone reel I've ever used.  The centrifugal brakes are pretty much useless, so it's all thumb.  A real challenge.  But one that'll teach you how to use a baitcaster quickly, as it'll punish the tiniest mistake pretty harshly.  

[Kev-mo]

After my initial what the.... i just laughed

[Bluebasser86]

I wasn't the caster but the cause of the backlash, Dad snagged me in the top of the head with a deep diving crank and blew up his baitcaster. So I kinda did backlash the reel, even though I wasn't casting it. That would be the worse one for sure, it was really painful. 

[gim]

On 3/30/2024 at 2:03 PM, A-Jay said:

and the bait clipped one of the Talons. 

 

On 3/30/2024 at 2:03 PM, A-Jay said:

Morale of this story is, stay on the bow. 

 

I've never actually clipped mine but I frequently bring someone with me and they are always in the stern while casting.  I always remind them to "watch the talon and outboard back there" and no one has ever clipped them.  But on occasion someone will say that the talon is in the way while trying to make the perfect cast.  My response is "you can come up here and run the bow mount, watch the graph, and position the boat instead of you want to."  The conversation usually ends at that point and we continue fishing.

[A-Jay]

29 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

 

I've never actually clipped mine but I frequently bring someone with me and they are always in the stern while casting.  I always remind them to "watch the talon and outboard back there" and no one has ever clipped them.  But on occasion someone will say that the talon is in the way while trying to make the perfect cast.  My response is "you can come up here and run the bow mount, watch the graph, and position the boat instead of you want to."  The conversation usually ends at that point and we continue fishing.

I hear ya - But YOU KNOW if you offered me that option, 

you might not have much to cast to for the rest of the day !

A-Jay

 

[Fishing_Rod]

Greetings All,

 

Thank You for all the contributions to this topic and thread! Golly, I'm feeling better as I am really trying to put an honest effort to develop skills using bait cast reels. In the multiple decades of angling adventures I'd simply started with spincast and migrated to ultra lite spinning gear. That was my recreational angling ambition covered nicely with the UL spinning gear. 

 

Today, with the availability of more affordable bait cast reels, under $50, I decided I might give it a try. Then of course the lure of the of more advanced options such as shallow spools and BFS compelled me to investigate bait casting as it was more supportive of the UL angling I prefer.
 

I can totally relate to each and every associated image everyone has posted on this discussion. @Ski Top marks for best representing my recent experience. Sorry no salt water angling here, I am empathetic to that situation in the photo.

 

I made the over 3 hour drive to BassPro in Mesa to check out and eventually purchase a Micro Lite glass casting rod. I figured the glass rod action would be helpful for my BFS ambitions. Just for the occasion I also spooled the BFS reel with a fresh load of 4 pound mono. Of course when you buy something new you're motivated to try it out as soon as possible. Just down the way in Mesa are the canals which do have a variety of fish to include largemouth bass. I quickly setup the new rig and did what I could to toss that 3 inch worm on a 1/16 oz jig. The canals are not wide so you simply make angling or parallel casts. I did not welcome the over 20 mph winds with gusts greater than 30 mph.

 

It is really windy when the long handled landing net is sliding across the dirt. Of course you know where this is going, what could go wrong. A relative new guy to bait casting, a new load of line, on a new slow action rod, and terrifically windy conditions casting a ultra lite soft plastic, all the makings for an "interesting" time. Yup, I did not dial in enough compensation, and I just went for it. I spent the next 15 - 20 minutes dealing with the line explosion. I was there and it happened to me.

 

I did learn from it as it only consumed a portion of the new line load. Evidence old dogs can learn. There was a graceful conclusion to the day. I did eventually get things dialed in and was successful in making casts in those conditions and I did catch fish too! All that after paying my tuition price in wasted fishing line.

 

Thanks to each of you for contributing to this enjoyable discussion. Be well and cheers!