ANTI-spinning reel line twist theory....could it work??

[Nick]

As far as the spooling process, there is no correct way to put "non-braid" spinning line on unless you take the reel spool off and then get the spool to rotate just like any baitcaster spool which never has line twist when spooling.

To accomplish this you can rig up a spooler at home with a varialbe drill, a drill bit and some shims to place around the bit.  Depending on what size spool hole diameter you have, you'll have to play around with the size of the bit.  I often wrapped some tape around the bit to thwart any damage to the reel spool. The shims, bit and tape hold the spool in place while the drill is turned on forward.  Slowly fill the reel spool with line that comes of the bottom or top of you new line spool. Placing a bit of weight from a book or magazine over the line between the spools may help you along the spooling process as well. This process works and will never result in any line twist whatsoever.   HOWEVER, inherent in the casting process with spinning tackle is the dreaded spiral created by the casted lure flying  without much resistance, or the twist caused by some lures such as spinners underwater. For this ascquired line twist, one has to pay attention, allow the lure to spin a couple of times after each cast, and always close the bail by hand. Last, for spiiners use a quality swivel.

[scrutch]

After reading your original post Rooster, a thought (or two) came to mind.  What are you planning to do to control the speed at which the spinner blade turns?  Is this what you mean by tweaking the blades?  It seems to me that there's a point at which the spinner blade turns faster than the bail and actually "overtwists" the line.

In theory, the perfect setup would be a spinner that twists line at the same rate that the bail is coiling line.

Could it be that some spinner blades are turning in the correct direction already but are pitched to spin at too high an rpm?  Could it be that the cheaper in-line spinners that are notorious for line twist are pitched in the backward direction and magnifying line twist?

I think it will be a challenge controlling the speed due to all the different blade and lure sizes.

Maybe there's an optimal pitch that all blades could be manufactured to that will provide the correct spin direction AND speed.

Will that pitch provide a good pulse in the water that attracts fish?  Maybe there's a "natural frequency" for spinner blades.

Interesting topic.  Good luck.

[The Rooster]

On the Roosters I've been used to using I've noticed they spin in both directions. It's a toss up which way they turn when you start the retrieve.

And they also do not spin anywhere near the speed of the rotor on the reel. I'd say they are as much as 5 times slower at least.

My only intention was to try to make the bait turn in the same direction as the rotor. It won't fix it all, but at least it would undo some of it, and also by not turning in the opposite direction at least it won't be compounding the problem. I don't think I could make it spin at the same speed as the rotor though.

Spinning reels are going to have line twist no matter what. I've experienced a severe amount in my estimation though. The type where it jumps off the spool and wraps around itself as soon as you open the bail. It ends up wrapped around the shaft under the spool and requires removing the spool to fix. It coils on itself out on the water and tangles all over the guides. Those sort of problems. I don't remember having them so much in the past, and it could possibly be just from the way I've been putting the line on too. For years I always laid the spool on the floor, label up, and wound line on. I had line twist but never so bad I couldn't manage it, and back then I never used a swivel with the baits either, just tied straight on. Then I started reading all these alternate methods of putting line on and began trying them all. Since then it's been a nightmare, and even using a ball bearing swivel on the baits doesn't seem to help that I can notice. I'm going to try the method I saw in the youtube video someone posted earlier to see how that goes, maybe that's all I need to do to fix it. But I'm still going to experiment with the direction of turn on the Roosters too.

[The Rooster]

OK, final post here. Last night I put some new Berkley XL, 8# mono on the Symetre reel using the method shown in the Youtube video link, having the line come off the spool and onto the reel in the same direction. Then I respooled the Pflueger Trion reel with what was left on the roll.

Within about 30 cranks on each reel I had line twist so bad it was wrapped up on itself hanging out in front of the reel, and then around the reel too when I had to let go of it to attempt to fix the loose wraps. So, that method doesn't work any better than any other I've tried.

I ended up just holding it tightly, winding it on, not caring if it twisted or not, and then liberally soaking the spool with KVD line treatment. As far as I know, there's no fix for this, it's just going to happen.

**EDIT** I said that was the last post but that wouldn't be very fair to Mr. KVD to try his product and not give any kind of report of how it affected this.  After I made the above statements I tried the rod out in the back yard just practice casting. 

Today is a very windy day here where I live. Probably about 15 to 20 MPH winds. I had a 1/4 oz lure with the hooks removed tied on and tried some practice casting. The line does seem to have relaxed some since last night. There's none of the jumping off the spool that I've seen in the past. I know line can conform to the spool as it sits but it's only been about 15 hours since I put it on and it seams very relaxed more than what I would have thought it would be after only that short a time.

It does try to coil on itself some but it's very weak and falls out easily when I straighten it up as far as I can see. I did have one fairly bad wind knot but I contributed to that by TRYING to make it coil so I could see how badly it would do so. I wound a loop up into the spool by not holding the line tight, then casted it out. The cast didn't make it all the way down to the loop so I pulled line off until the loop fell off the spool. Then tried to make it coil around itself with all that slack line. It did, but not bad, so I started winding it up and since I had so much out I ended up with a tangle that pulled tight before I could fix it and had to cut it off.

I had wound just a little extra line onto the spool last night so I could make practice casts with it so now that it's cut out I'm down to a full spool now.

So far I'm pleased with the KVD stuff, though I have not used it beyond just about 20 minutes of practice in the back yard. That doesn't tell me anything much other than that I can spool fresh line and treat it with this stuff and expect it to behave a lot better than before, but that's the whole point to me so I'm happy with it. Being so windy I feel like I did get to see how it will work a little better than if I had just been out there on a calm day.  I was hitting 60 to 70 feet casts by giving it all I could into the wind.  The lure would land and the slack line would be in the wind and still didn't go crazy trying to twist. 

The KVD stuff does leave a little film on the line though. Feels almost like soap residue. But that's OK, if it helps it cast and doesn't tangle like crazy I can live with that just fine. Maybe I put too much of it on the line?? I don't know. All I can say is I saturated the spool with it and let it soak in. I had tried to wind it on through a soaked cloth at first but it was not working at all and line was coiling all over the place and tangling so I gave that up and treated it after I was done loading the spool.

[BassThumb]

When you pick up to move to another spot, let out 75 yards of line behind the boat and tow the line without a lure. If you bank fish, stretch the line out on the ground and reel it back up through pinched fingers. It's the only thing that works. The line WILL twist, so you have to un-twist it. JMHO

Ronnie

I'm with him on this one.

For those that wade, walk to the riffle at the head of a large, deep pool in relatively fast water, face downstream and let the current pull out 40 or 50 yards of line. Let the line unspin in the current for a few minutes and reel it back up SLOWLY thru pinched fingers as Ronnie described. It's a easy fix and it works wonders.