Hello all,

 

I have a question (probably a dumb one) but why does my spinning reel make a buzzing noise when I'm trying to reel in a fish or anything else that's "heavy"? With a normal cast there is no noise when reeling back in but the minute I hook something the buzzing noise starts and it seems like the line is easier for the fish to take and it takes me longer to get the fish in. What could be the problem? Thank you to all that respond!

Sounds like you need to tighten down the drag. 

8 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Sounds like you need to tighten down the drag. 

^^^^This.

If your drag is slipping while reeling, you will also end up with some nasty line twist.

Another thing that helps is to learn how to fight a fish with the rod, instead of the reel.

29 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Sounds like you need to tighten down the drag. 

Will do! Thanks!

16 minutes ago, Russ E said:

^^^^This.

If your drag is slipping while reeling, you will also end up with some nasty line twist.

Another thing that helps is to learn how to fight a fish with the rod, instead of the reel.

Thanks for the tip! I'll work on that too!

Everyone has their own ideas as to what is "enough" drag and what is "too much".  Me, I fiddle with the drag quite a bit.  The goal is for the drag to give just a little bit on a strong hook set, or a strong sweep set, for that matter.  That is stronger than many guys set it.  Once in a while, you get a big fish that takes quite a bit of line out.  If you're in an area where you can let it run, let it run.  Always remember that you have two drag settings - the one you set using the dial on the reel and your finger can apply pressure to the skirted spool of the reel for additional fine tuned drag.

 

Some Shimano spinning reels of the past had the "fighting drag" feature - a fairly large lever that let you fish with your drag locked down and when ever you wanted to you could move the lever and go to your pre=set drag on the reel.

Some other Shimano reels (and I guess a few other brands, I don't really know) had a rear drag feature without the fighting drag lever and this made adjusting the drag when you had a fish on easier than messing with the front drag with a fish on.  Down side was that rear drag reels weighed a little bit more - pick your poison.