Bloody Shimano!

[Tim Kelly]

Every few years I buy a Shimano spinning reel, and every few years it reminds me why I prefer Daiwa. What is it with the bail mechanism on Shimano. If you open the bail at the "wrong" part of the rotation it will snap back mid cast. Daiwas don't do that, They just feel a bit wrong if you're at the critical spot and won't stay open, so you adjust, Shimanos just lock open but snap closed mid cast. I'm clearly the only one who finds this infuriating, but just wanted to vent. 😄

[WRB]

Honestly can’t remember a bail mis function with either Shimano or Daiwa.

The last Daiwa I owned was in the 80’s SS TD 1300 that had a manual close bail.

All my Shimano spinning reels have been Stradic’s  and Vanford with zero issues.

Tom

[Darren.]

Issues I have encountered - on one of my Stradic FI 1000s

is some grinding in the mechanism. I did a thorough clean

and it still "stuck" when flipping the bail back. I compared 

it to another 1000 FI and saw the bail was out of shape. So

I squeezed it here and there and it is much better.

 

But I do like Daiwa's air bail system. Clean, solid click when

opening, etc. Sadly, my only Daiwa is down for the count as

I cannot find any replacement parts for it.

 

I don't have any other issues with the rest of my Stradics and

Spirex reels.

[RRocket]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Honestly can’t remember a bail mis function with either Shimano or Daiwa.

 

 

Same.

 

No issues

[Tim Kelly]

Every one of my Shimano reels has the same problem. At the point where the auto trip trips the bail, if you were to close the handle, if you open the bail at that part of the rotation the bail locks open but snaps shut mid cast. The daiwas won't lock open at that part of the rotation, so it never happens.

[Susky River Rat]

I forget to open the bail sometimes. I do not have much experience with dawia reels but, would have no hesitation buying one. My current reels do what I need to do with no issues so I have no plan to look at buying a dawia.  It’s all just like ford, Chevy, dodge. 

[Reel]

No problems like that with my Shimanos

[DogBone_384]

Is you reel still under warranty?  If so, get it repaired or swapped out for another.

 

I own Diawa, Shimano, Abu, and Pfleuger reels and have not experienced any bail issues except ME not flipping the bail to cast once in a while.

 

Good luck resolving your problem.

[Tim Kelly]

It's just a design difference between Daiwa and Shimano, one which I seem to be the only one who has a problem with. I'm special.

[RRocket]

1 hour ago, Tim Kelly said:

I'm special.

Welcome to the club! LOL 😆 

[Rockhopper]

5 of my 9 spinning reels are shimano brand.  They are all solid with zero issues. My samples are 2 older navy/gold nasci, 1 stradic ci4+, 1 vanford, and 1 vanford f.  My other 4 are mitchell and pflueger brand.  Those have been super solid as well.

[FishTank]

I've been fishing Shimano spinning reels for over 20 years. I have never had this issue or even heard of it.

 

I also have not had this issue with any Daiwa reel I have.

 

I always close the bail by hand and when I cast I use the line roller as my guide. I open the bail, use my pointing finger to hold the line, I then place my finger near the line roller as it is pointing up towards the rod, and use my finger to feather the cast. I then extend my finger to stop the line and my opposite hand to close the bail. I can also do this same process with two hands to get more accurate casts. 

 

Should look something like this.

 

 

 

This guy goes a little overboard but idea

is there. His seminars are supposed to be legendary. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tim Kelly]

 

Happens with every Shimano I've ever owned at a certain point of the bail rotation

 

[F14A-B]

Just close the bail by hand, you can feather your cast this way plus stop it on a dime.. then just close the bail by hand..personally been doing it this way for 25 years. All I use is Shimano. 
 

But use Daiwa and send me all your Shimano reels 😂

[Tim Kelly]

No need to close it by hand when it closes itself mid cast. 😄

[WRB]

I always open the bail to cast using my left hand from left to right with the bail roller positioned at 12 o’clock by habit. This allows my right hand index finger tip to pickup and hold the line while casting.

So at what rotation position does the bail close when casting? Simply avoid that bail position to solve the problem.

Works in the States, don’t know about merry ole England.

Tom

PS, instead of Bloody Shimano enjoy a Bloody Mary….cheers

[J Francho]

I've forgotten to open the bail, but none of mine have ever tripped. I do know that this is why surfcasters will cut the bail off if it even has a bail wire. 

[A-Jay]

On 12/12/2024 at 5:30 PM, Tim Kelly said:

Every few years I buy a Shimano spinning reel, and every few years it reminds me why I prefer Daiwa. What is it with the bail mechanism on Shimano. If you open the bail at the "wrong" part of the rotation it will snap back mid cast. Daiwas don't do that, They just feel a bit wrong if you're at the critical spot and won't stay open, so you adjust, Shimanos just lock open but snap closed mid cast. I'm clearly the only one who finds this infuriating, but just wanted to vent. 😄

@Tim Kelly

Get a Van Staal !

😎

A-Jay

[JustJames]

I don’t wanna say it is a bad Shimano design of that problematic friction ring and yes it happens with my Shimanos too.

Most people don’t have problem because the bail design to be open to the right as Tom said roller at 12 o’clock and that make the metal piece fully engaged to friction ring.

Daiwa I open either to the right on downward, if open wrong way it would feel some resistance but no matter what the bail doesn’t close on mid cast. Kudos to Daiwa.

[padlin]

I can’t say it happens to me now but it has happened in the past. I long ago adapted where I open the bail, mostly cause I used to close the bail by cranking on the handle as opposed to by hand, if you have it open at the wrong spot it’s hard to crank, at least on the lower end reels I used to use. I don’t recall encountering either issue on the better reels.

[Tim Kelly]

Unless I'm casting really heavy weights I always touch my finger to the spool to trap the line to cast, so that I can control the line through the cast properly by feathering it with my finger, so as a result I don't need the bail to be in a particular position to hook the line under my finger, that's probably why I have the issue with shimano reels as I open the bail wherever it is when I'm ready to make a cast. I wonder if there's an easy way to remove the auto closing mechanism to make the reels fully manual closing, as I never use the auto trip. 🤷‍♂️

[Tim Kelly]

Just looked at a schematic and it looks like there's a bail trip lever, which might be removable. Going to investigate, but I don't have a torx head small enough, so waiting on Amazon. If it is possible that would be a super outcome and I'm glad this thread has made me think about this problem more than just being infuriated by it. 

[J Francho]

Do you think this would prevent the bail from being flipped by reeling? I'd do the mod to mine just to keep n00bs on the right path to manually flipping the bail closed, lol. 

[padlin]

Until I started hanging out here I had no idea the bail was supposed to be closed by hand. 50+ years to find that one out.

[dodgeguy]

One of many reasons i use bfs