confusedSea

Well, with very patient help (and a few pictures) I think I can say that I've proved Murphy right again. I'm relatively certain that I spooled the line against the bend it had while on the storage spool. So I'll be trying a few things... 1.) removing at least some of the line so it's not full right up to the edge of the spool - a rookie mistake and I'm guilty as charged. 2.) trying the "let the line out behind the boat" trick and seeing if re-filling the reel without forcing the curve the "wrong way" doesn't reduce the tendency for the top three layers of line on the spool to just "fluff" as was described by Raul 3.) If that doesn't fix it... then I'll have to try respooling the correct way from scratch. After making these changes, I'll let you know how it works. Thanks again for all the patient advice. jtz

Thanks for all the feedback so far. So lets try to answer some of the questions that were raised. Not quite sure what that means... if you're asking is the line level on the spool higher than the levelwind eye, the answer is probably yes (I'll double check). Otherwise, I can't envision what it was you asked. The reel has primarily been tried on a Fast Heavy 7.5' rod (Cabelas ProGuide) with a 5" YumDinger and 1/2 oz bullet staked to the front of it. It has also been tried (much less time) with a Fast 7' MH rod (again Cab's ProGuide) with a one oz sliding weight C-rig. I was also hoping to run that reel on a 6' MH rod with a walk-the-dog presentation since I had read somewhere that the heavy mono tended to "push" the bait side-to-side after each twitch. Regarding the process for setting the spool tension and mag brakes... did that just as Bassn Blvd described. Don't know if any of that helps or just confuses the issue more. Again, I appreciate the collective wisdom (and occasional controversy)! Regards jtz

Guys... i have two of the new black max compact baitcasters. One of them is spooled up with 30lb PPro line, while the other has 17lb test Trilene XT. I've done pretty well managing the backlashes with the braided line, spooled up pretty full on the spool. However, I have had a devil of a time with the mono :-[ even with going through adjustments on the spool tension, the mag braking, and being sure to thumb the spool prior to splashdown. When it goes wrong, I get a huge "expansion" on the spool while the bait barely on its way. I am looking for some expert advice. Do I have too stiff a mono on this reel (is there a more limp line to use instead)? Do I have it spooled to full (pretty much up to the edge of the spool flange)? What else might be going on here. Primarily, I planned to use this as a flipping/pitching reel (I've had decent luck practicing this after turning "off" the mag brakes and loosening the spool tension), but it would be nice to be able to really cast a Trig worm with it without spending 10 minutes to repack the reel! Thanks jtz