10 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

He also sets his tension so that the lure falls pretty slow and the spool stops as it hits the ground. 

So a lot of brake then. A lot of our older conventional surf reels only had spool tension (and thumb) as brakes. I have set some of my BCs to cast with no brakes other than a more viscous bearing lube (which is also a brake) for certain long casting lures.

If you want to fish with no brakes, all I can say is practice,practice, pratice.

 

1 hour ago, ike8120 said:

If you want to fish with no brakes, all I can say is practice,practice, pratice.

 

And bring a crochet needle...

18 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I got my reel back from a pro cleaning and such.  (see my defunct "brackish water" thread).

 

I got back from a work event, and saw the box!!  I put it on a rod and tightened up the spool and "let it rip tater chip" and sent my practice plug across the street.  there was no saving it...that BLLRRRRRPPPFT sound of line embedding within itself.  FACCCK!  I just started laughing.  

 

In my youthful exuberance, I forgot to double check everything.  mainly the brakes.  hahahh..everything was at ZERO!  I fix everything.  AKA, new line and all is good in the world again.  wow.  set the brakes to "rookie".

 

is it possible to cast with Zero brake?  before brakes (any type) what was life like?  the reels must be so much free spinning now right?  

 

can you cast with Zero brake?

Yep. With a very educated thumb control.

3 hours ago, Deleted account said:

And bring a crochet needle...

 

For a couple of the backlashes posted you would need a hedge shear. ✂️  

5 hours ago, Deleted account said:

So a lot of brake then. A lot of our older conventional surf reels only had spool tension (and thumb) as brakes. I have set some of my BCs to cast with no brakes other than a more viscous bearing lube (which is also a brake) for certain long casting lures.

 

Not if people are separating brakes from tension.  That's what I read it as at first.  Sounds like I misread the original post and it was no brakes and no tension, not just no brakes (as I read it).

 

Funny enough, I was surf casting this summer just as you note- no brakes, no tension, just total freespool.  The first cast was interesting but I got the hang of it after a couple.  This was throwing 4 and bait, so not anything exceptional.  It was my buddy's rod (that I had built for his uncle almost 20 years ago).

personally I paid for the brakes.  I am using them.  haha.

 

I got nothing to prove.

12 hours ago, Ski said:

 

It's a challenge, but I think I can pick them out. Just give me like a couple months?

 

10 hours ago, Deleted account said:

And bring a crochet needle...

 You're not wrong. I just don't know what size is best so I resort to other implements of destruction, like o-ring picks.

On 1/4/2023 at 5:07 PM, NorthernBasser said:

We all feel your pain. Line sure isn't cheap nowadays.

 

My most impressive bird's nest this past year came when, during mid-cast, my braid to fluoro connection knot decided to fail (my fault), causing the spool to go from having x-amount of weight at the end of the line to zero weight. Ouch. The braid loosened up almost all the way down to the spool. 

 

That one is impressive. I've had a couple like that myself thanks to unnoticed overhead tree branches. As a side note, your rod choice in that pic is 100% T-Billy approved.