Bassin in South Florida

Hey guys! New member but this is my second topic, thought I should drop a line over here (no pun intended!) I just recently graduated from Florida State and split time between South Florida and the Florida Panhandle. I grew up in the Palm Beach area and always fished the local lakes, but didn't get serious until my last two years of college. The fishing in and around Tallahassee was great, but nothing like what we have here in South Florida! I do miss going after redfish and sea trout in the gulf, the beaches south of Tallahassee are absolutely loaded with them, can't say enough positive things about the coastline along the panhandle. I'm looking to learn as much as I can from the members here, and hopefully I can pass some information along to others! I'm looking to get involved in some amateur tournaments sometime this year and really dive into the greater fishing community. If anyone in the state of Florida would like to get together and get some lines wet or just want to talk a little about fishing in this great state shoot me a message! I'm always down to do something or hear something new! Looking forward to my time here on the forum! Mike

Hey Guys, Thanks for the warm welcome, much appreciated! The dowel idea is a great one! I pretty much exclusively use braid, so pulling it out by wrapping it around my hand wouldn't end in my favor. It must be the spool shaft, I didn't lose too much line when I pulled it off and I re-spooled it this afternoon just in case. (BTW glad I stocked up on the braid during a clearance sale!). However, I noticed a pronounced wobble with the spool when I was spooling it up with the new line. If it is the spool shaft, it must have been a very slight bend or was overlooked when I took it to the shop. I'll go over that and the spool bearings and let you guys know what comes of it! If they're damaged I assume I can order replacement parts from Lews, hopefully they're not too expensive! Thanks again for all the welcomes and helpful replies, I really appreciate them! Mike

Hey guys, new member here! I've searched through the forums but I didnt find any concrete answers, so if you don't mine sharing some of your wisdom with the new guy... Recently I purchased my first baitcaster reel, a Lews TLZ1SH, and fished with it for several weeks with no issues. One cold day I decided to fish a rock/concrete pile and got snagged, I held the spool and proceeded to pull the lure off of the snag, inevitably losing my lure. I noticed that the line had dug into itself and pulled it back out and basically re-spooled it to avoid any crows nests or other issues. After retying an identical lure to the line I noticed an extreme difference in my casting distance. I re-tensioned and dialed in the reel to be sure, and the lack of distance was still an issue. I took it into a local bait and tackle shop thinking perhaps I had damaged the integrity of the reel while attempting to pull the lure free and they gave me the all clear. Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do to remedy this issue? Is there something either myself or the shop overlooked when going over the reel? My apologies in advance if this topic has been posted before and I overlooked it in the search function, I know how annoying us forum newbies can be! Thanks! Mike