Reducing Backlashes

The dreaded backlash in a baitcast spool can quickly end the use of that reel. Whether it is an errant cast into the wind or a skip cast that didn’t go as planned, a nasty backlash can require scissors to get you up and operational again. This video quickly shows you how to dial in a baitcast reel to help you prevent this from happening. No matter how good you are, that errant cast still happens to even top-level tour pros. Protecting your line while removing a backlash will help your fluorocarbon last longer and prevent critical break-offs.

Anglers choosing to use fluorocarbon line with a baitcaster reel may experience backlashes or loops in their lines during use. Those errant casts cause the spool to overrun, creating loops, kinks, and tangles in your line. Those overruns can cause a kink in the line when they occur or when an angler is working to remove them. You pull on the line when it is stuck, and a kink is created in the line in that spot. Those kinks can damage your fluorocarbon line and lead to failure later when using that reel and line. The more kinks you cause in your line, the more damage you are doing to it, and the more likely it is that your line will break when casting or during hooksets.

Line Kinks Impact on Breakage

You take the kink like the one above out of your line, and it may seem ok, but the damage is often done by then. Sunline has 15+ employees working in their R&D Department and spend their days studying line and factors that impact the line performance. The Sunline R&D team examined the impact that kinks can have on the performance of fluorocarbon line on a bait cast reel.

Below, a cross-section image of two lines is seen under an electron microscope. Line A is a normal fluorocarbon line that you can see has no defects. Line B shows an image of the same line that has been kinked. You will see in image B that micro-cracks are now visible inside the line at the spot where it was kinked. Those micro-cracks weaken the line and lower its overall performance.

These lines were also tested for straight-breaking strength before and after the kink. The line that was kinked showed a measurable decrease in breaking strength. The micro-cracks from the kink had caused the line to break at a 5% lower strength on average after repeated testing. More kinks will only continue to weaken the line, causing it to fail below the rated level.

This can often be seen when fluorocarbon line unexpectedly breaks in the spool on a cast. The kinks from backlashes in your spool have weakened it so that it breaks inside the spool on a random cast. The line damage from kinks is also magnified on powerful hooksets where higher stress is placed on the line, and it breaks at the weakest point.

Having your reel dialed in with optimum settings for that lure and technique is the best way to avoid backlashes. No matter what, backlashes and tangles happen when using baitcasting reels; make sure to remove the tangles as carefully as possible to avoid any kinks in the line, which will decrease the breaking strength.

Sunline has a Fluorocarbon for any situation. Click here to shop our entire selection of Fluorocarbon lines.