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

[GaryH]

1 hour ago, Fishing_Rod said:

 

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

What could possibly go wrong….😂

[Woody B]

3 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

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. 

 

I'm not normally a hat wearer unless it's cold or really sunny, but I always wear a hat when I'm fishing with someone.  Last year my Grandson got a terrible backlash when he took the hat off my head with a crankbait.  The hat prevented the pain so we really enjoyed laughing.   

[Bluebasser86]

55 minutes ago, Woody B said:

 

I'm not normally a hat wearer unless it's cold or really sunny, but I always wear a hat when I'm fishing with someone.  Last year my Grandson got a terrible backlash when he took the hat off my head with a crankbait.  The hat prevented the pain so we really enjoyed laughing.   

I was wearing one, the DD22 hit me with so much force the hooks drove through the hat and into my scalp. I can't fish without a hat.

[Obi_Wan]

Went fishing with some friends in the Homer spit.  One guy was adamant that we needed special line to fish there.  So we stopped on the way to get some.  When we got to our cabin that evening, he stripped all the old line off his Abu Garcia baitcaster and spooled on the new line.  The next morning we went fishing.  

 

I got rigged up and made my first cast while he was still rigging.  As I'm watching my line, I hear him cast and can hear the backlash from 20 feet away.  He immediately starts cussing Abu Garcia reels as he's trying to get the backlash out.  It was pretty severe.  After about 10 minutes of trying, he just starting cutting out the new line.  He ended up cutting off about half the line.  He re rigged and made another cast.  This backlash was worse than the first.  My other friends and I had to look away to hide our laughter because he was as mad as I've ever seen a human.  

 

A few minutes later he said, "You know what I think of Abu Garcia reels?"  When I turned and looked, he had taken the reel off the rod and was holding it in his hand.  He threw that reel as far as he could into the spit and sat on the bank drinking beer until the rest of us finished fishing.  It wasn't the reel's fault.  I think when he re spooled the line he loosened the spool and never tightened it back.

 

He was my supervisor in the USAF and when he retired, I bought the exact reel with the exact line and loosened every knob.  I made a huge cast and backlashed it beyond recovery.  Then I mounted it to a plaque, backlash and all, and gave it to him for his retirement gift.  We laughed about that so many times.  Miss that guy.

[new2BC4bass]

Like others, I've had a few backlashes caused by snagging something on the back cast.  I've also forgotten to set spool tension and brakes on a new reel.  Major backlashes.

 

I once spent 2 hours working at removing a backlash.  Don't recall if I succeeded.  What I do recall is that because of my bad back, the overrun wasn't the cause of my biggest pain.

 

[Alpster]

I must say that I can't count the # of birds nests I have skillfully constructed over the years, but I will take advantage of the opportunity to pick on a Moderator. On one of the Guntersville road trips while fishing with "Roadwarrior" I was sporting my new Calcutta DC reel. Kent said "let me give it a try, these reels are supposed to be backlash proof". He took a MLB backswing and with no thumb at all launched a Rattle trap into the mother of all birds nests. I had to laugh and I set it aside to cut it off later. Great memories! LOL

[Alex from GA]

Not me but a friend was jigging for California yellowtail in Baja, got a bite and kicked the reel out of gear.  It was a Penn 4/0 full of 40 or 50 lb mono.  The reel was probably a foot in diameter.  I never have a professional override.

[Bird]

I carry a total of 15 reels on the boat, a severe backlash gets set aside.

But as a braid user, most come out in minutes, just make sure line wasn't compromised, weakened.

[Hook2Jaw]

My wife blew up a spool of 15# big game a few months ago that I invested about 30 minutes in before calling it quits.  I'm sorry for all your Sniper and Tatsu losses, fishing friends.  I couldn't be upset with her, before we had two kids I could hand her reels I'd blown up and she'd sit there unthreading the line through loop after loop until it was done.

 

While we're on the subject, there's something pretty magical about Daiwa J-Braid X4.  It's the best line I've found for skipping with a casting reel.  I think the stiffness of the stuff helps it lash only slightly when it inevitably does on a bad skip.  It's definitely not a distance casting line.

[tholmes]

I was trolling for stripers using an old Shakespeare President 1980 and got bit. I reached for the rod and accidently bumped the free spool button. Mega-backlash ensued.

 

Tom

 

 

[TcRoc]

Newer spool of Flouro. Knew it right away… milli second brain fart thumbing and knew it was gonna be a wasted spool. It was .. didn’t even bother. Cut it out when I got home.

[Bucks Bass and Bourbon]

Keep them coming (the stories, not the bird nests). This is a really entertaining thread to read.