17 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

For example, you could never palm the spool for added (drag) pressure on a fish AND take in line at the same time.

I'm confused!  Thum-barring is basically locking the spool or controlling it with your thumb.  We all do that when needed.  (fish is heading around a snag) But you are not taking up line at the same time!  You would have to let off with your thumb to take up line.  It is exactly like spool palming! What am I missing?

Well, I've been a back-reeler for over 40 yrs now. Never once used drag on a spinning reel. If it were me, every spinning reel would have a reverse/anti-reverse switch, NO drag, and extra spools. Lucky for the majority I'm not in charge of such things.

26 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

Not the same in my eyes. With backreeling on a spinning reel, the drag never comes into play. With thumb-barring on a casting reel, the drag never comes into play. With your palming the spool scenario, the drag is very much a part of the process. For example, you could never palm the spool for added (drag) pressure on a fish AND take in line at the same time.

 

Palming a spinning reel for me is either to add to the

drag, or to stop the fish from taking line. When I use

my thumb on the bait caster I'm doing something very

similar, exception being ability to reel in with added

pressure as can on a bait caster.

 

Not the same, but almost the same in principal.

 

Regardless, I still see no need - in how I fish - for

back reeling. Based on how others describe it, I feel

my overall technique does the same, with drag. I.e,

being able to slow a fish down and turn it.

 

[[BTW, the video page would not load for me, security

issue apparently. Either the redirect was being intercepted,

or their security cert expired...either way, I decided not to

pursue. Chance you could embed it in the post?]]

13 minutes ago, Fisher-O-men said:

I'm confused!  Thum-barring is basically locking the spool or controlling it with your thumb.  We all do that when needed.  (fish is heading around a snag) But you are not taking up line at the same time!  You would have to let off with your thumb to take up line.  It is exactly like spool palming! What am I missing?

 

No, not the same. When thumb-barring, you are replacing the drag and deciding when to GIVE line to a fish. With your palming example, the drag is already giving line to the fish and you are deciding when to RESTRICT it.

 

And for the record, I'm not anti-drag, but I do use it considerably less with baitcasters. I just would hate to see the anti-reverse lever gone from all spinning reels 

6 hours ago, Fisher-O-men said:

One question I would ask is, how do you back-reel a baitcaster?  And if you don't, why is that not a "deal-breaker"?

I don't. I do have a casting reel with a reverse switch but I certainly don't use it. No idea what its for actually. Too risky of backlash for me. That risk is virtually non-existent with spinning gear.

 

2 hours ago, Darren. said:

 

I know of "thumb-barring"  I do it myself, but not

always.

 

What I consider the equivalent on the spinning reel is

palming the spool....

In back-reeling, I don't palm the spool (or rotor actually). No need.

 

6 hours ago, Fisher-O-men said:

But back-reelers sometimes come across as further evolved than the rest of us.

From the other side of the fence, I guess, I've always ended up feeling like I'm having to defend BRing as some kind of inferior vestige from the stone age. Which it isn't. I see a thread on BRing now and take a deep breath and wade in. Or not. I don't really care how someone else has their fun.

Backreeling was pretty much a necessity because back in the 50's and 60's and even the 70's the drag in spinning reels was crap and sucked, my very first reel was a Shakespeare spinning reel and tha last thing I would try to do was trying to fight a fish with it, minute adjustments ? Yeah, right ! Modern reels have excellent drags systems and you don't need to backreel, let the drag do what it's meant to do.

1 hour ago, Darren. said:

[[BTW, the video page would not load for me, security

issue apparently. Either the redirect was being intercepted,

or their security cert expired...either way, I decided not to

pursue. Chance you could embed it in the post?]]

 

Darren - I tried reloading a different link from a different computer back into the original post. Seems like it might be working better now from my end, but check and see. Not working like most videos, I'm guessing since it's hosted via Bassmaster's website, probably on their servers.

 

-Brian

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

 

Darren - I tried reloading a different link from a different computer back into the original post. Seems like it might be working better now from my end, but check and see. Not working like most videos, I'm guessing since it's hosted via Bassmaster's website, probably on their servers.

 

-Brian

 

Thanks, it worked this time...odd that.

 

The way he thumb-bars is what I was thinking

it was, and how I do it. So good on that. And

man did he bring in two fat bellied bass!

I centerpin for big salmonoids.  There is no drag, no gears, no anti-reverse.  Just a large arbor spool on a pair of bearings.  I'm often faced with using very light line.  I'm talking 4-6# line for 8-12# fish.  Sometimes larger - my biggest brown is 22#, caught on a 4# leader.  With back reeling you can change the pressure applied to the fish.  It helps when the odds are stacked against you.  It's also a satisfying way to play the fish quickly on light line.  I just never got confident doing it with a spinning reel for bass.  I don't feel the odds are so much in the bass's favor with all the great tackle we have these days.  It's not really old, or worse, or better.  Just different.  If you're on a hot bite while fishing for fun, I say try it.  BTW, the godfather of the drop shot, and one of favorite writers, Rich Zaleski, is a back reeler.

I back reel and use the thumb bar on the baitcasters. Drags are set for that situation when a fish takes off faster than I can react, other than that I don't use the drags.

If you've ever fished around zebra mussels, you'd understand why I'm paranoid about trusting the drag. 

Ima back-reeler.  Much happier there, never a problem.  Most of the fish I catch would never pull drag anyway.

 

 

On April 20, 2017 at 9:05 AM, J Francho said:

I centerpin for big salmonoids.  There is no drag, no gears, no anti-reverse.  Just a large arbor spool on a pair of bearings.  I'm often faced with using very light line.  I'm talking 4-6# line for 8-12# fish.  Sometimes larger - my biggest brown is 22#, caught on a 4# leader.  With back reeling you can change the pressure applied to the fish.  It helps when the odds are stacked against you.  It's also a satisfying way to play the fish quickly on light line.  I just never got confident doing it with a spinning reel for bass.  I don't feel the odds are so much in the bass's favor with all the great tackle we have these days.  It's not really old, or worse, or better.  Just different.  If you're on a hot bite while fishing for fun, I say try it.  BTW, the godfather of the drop shot, and one of favorite writers, Rich Zaleski, is a back reeler.

I'm a slime rocket fisher that never tried center pin...but you maybe just changed that! 

I like the point you made...when back reeling you not only have control, but the ability to "counterpunch", that is constantly adjust, to wear out the fish faster. That a big part of backreeling. 

On 4/20/2017 at 9:05 AM, J Francho said:

BTW, the godfather of the drop shot, and one of favorite writers, Rich Zaleski, is a back reeler.

 

I once had a "discussion" with Rich about back-reeling versus using drag. He let me off the hook reel easy.