Why Me????

[Bass Junkie]

  So I find I'm goin' fishin' last Friday, and so I start gettin' my stuff ready for the trip. I have been havin' a bit of a problem with one of my spinnin' reels, so I take it apart to oil it. NUTS!! The main gear is STRIPPED (and YES, I take VERY good care of my equipment) > That could explain a few things....... I had just re-spooled this reel and was not even at my house :-/ I run to my house, grab a back-up reel, and come back to my home base. I take the line off the broken reel and spool it onto my back-up reel. Get the rest of the stuff ready and try to get some sleep. Next mornin' I'm on the lake and start tossin' a swimbait. I got a few bites, but couldn't hook up :-[ I remember I didn't change my drag after adding a mono leader to my braid on the rod I was throwin' the swimbait on, so I check it. Hmm........Its not very tight. I crank it up and try it again. Still the same. I crank the drag ALL the way up. Its still the same :'( So I've got two broken reels, and I'm down to 1 usable rod with me ( I only took two)  . I fish all day, and end up with a total of six fish. HOWEVER, it was a great day, as one of those fish was a FIVE POUNDER!!!! I landed him on 10lb. mono, a ML 7ft spinning rod, and a whole lotta adrenilane:D He almost snapped my rod twice. He dove under the boat, and I couldn't control him!! Had to open my bail twice to keep my rod from bein' snapped on the boat, and finally landed him. I practised C P R, but the guy I was fishin' with forgot to save the pic. The fish was 19-1/4" long with a 14" girth. It had a tail stickin' outta its throut, and about every 6 seconds the fish ( the five pounder) would shake. The fish it had just eatin' was still alive!! Either that or fresh enough to have nerve "shivers". What a trip. Anyway, I found out later that my fishin' partner saw how bad the first half of my day was and prayed that I'd catch some fish and a big 'un. Prayers ARE answered!!!!

[Wayne P.]

Did you use tape on the reel spool arbor or use some mono backing with the braid?

[Koop]

oof... what a bummer.  Atleast you got a nice fish out of it in the end.  

May be a good idea to learn backreeling if your using primarily spinning gear.