I need answers.  haha..

 

I used a borrowed reel.  from a company called Accurate. it had a lever-drag which I thought was cool.  It was made to simply drop baits/lures down.  I dont think it's made for casting.  (maybe I'm wrong).    I you lever up and full-lock the drag.  

 

here is my question.  why do saltwater reels NOT have line guides.  I had to use my thumb to move the line left-right to lay it down evenly on the spool.    the reel had the best feeling drag ever.  it made ZERO noise.  none.  I had to look at the reel sometimes to make sure the line was coming in, when I was horsing in a fish.  

 

my bud says he is constantly buying old discontinued Accurate reels.   the new ones are crazy money.

 

why dont some saltwater reels not have line guides.  I dont see the downside to having one.

@bulldog1935can do a great job explaining this one.  He runs a lot of NLW (non level wind) reels.  I'll admit, he makes it look easy, but I'm still intimidated.

A lot of it is history, it's what was always used. I know that years ago it was looked down upon and was only used by the "unskilled".

Offshore saltwater is a whole different ballgame, using Penn Internationals where fish can go over 1,000 lbs.

Inshore wire line trolling was pretty popular with 40 lb monel stainless wire pulling bunker spoons and umbrella rigs for striped bass.

That's what I know and did here in the Northeast, not the offshore stuff.

Partly tradition, partly reliability.  Round reels started out not having levelwinds (bass, saltwater, etc).  Then the levelwind was invented for convenience but not all reels added them.  And in saltwater where everything gets covered in salt and corrodes, having a levelwind is another point of failure.  I think that was accurate’s reason for not adding one.  It isn’t needed for what their reels are designed for and adding one is another point of failure.  

I was brought up on the west coast fishing a lot of offshore and never used a level wind reel.  The less crap on the reel the more reliable it is.  I have about a dozen salt water convenional reels and none have level winds.  Your left hand goes above the reel and your thumb guides the line as you're reeling.

I used a Shimano Tranx 500 offshore. 

I'm casually shopping.  Avet, Penn, Okuma, and Shimano all have options.  very interesting!!

 

right now off my kayak, I am running a Lexa 300 with the big single handle.  seems okay.  but I will need a second rig one day.

After telling myself I wasn't going to post on this thread, here's my kingfish trolling rig.  

Seigler SGN on TackleDirect Platinum Kingfish.  

My lever drag, USA-made, has a beautiful spool design - it always lays a tight LW to the left by itself - all you have to do is push a fast LW to the right with your rod-grip thumb.  

It will do this for 350 yds.  I have it backed with 300 yds 40-lb braid and 50-yds 30-lb fluoro leader on top.  Set-drag at 8 lbs. (35 lbs possible)

The main reason saltwater reels do not have level winds is because they will not hold up when line is running off of the reel extremely fast, for long distances.

 

When trolling in saltwater the boat speed is usually between 6 MPH and 9 MPH, add to that a fish hits and runs the opposite way, and hundreds of yards of line may be taken off the reel at blazing speeds.  The level winds can not keep up causing them to break.

 

Even on reels that are made more for dropping straight down, a fish can go on a blistering run, causing the level wind to freeze up.  Some Saltwater reels made for bottom fish such as halibut, that don't make long runs, and are not trolled for, do have level winds on them.

35 minutes ago, king fisher said:

The main reason saltwater reels do not have level winds is because they will not hold up when line is running off of the reel extremely fast, for long distances.

 

When trolling in saltwater the boat speed is usually between 6 MPH and 9 MPH, add to that a fish hits and runs the opposite way, and hundreds of yards of line may be taken off the reel at blazing speeds.  The level winds can not keep up causing them to break.

 

Even on reels that are made more for dropping straight down, a fish can go on a blistering run, causing the level wind to freeze up.  Some Saltwater reels made for bottom fish such as halibut, that don't make long runs, and are not trolled for, do have level winds on them.

thanks.  i am taking this as gospel, and the solution.   great explanation.  

8 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

After telling myself I wasn't going to post on this thread, here's my kingfish trolling rig.  

Seigler SGN on TackleDirect Platinum Kingfish.  

My lever drag, USA-made, has a beautiful spool design - it always lays a tight LW to the left by itself - all you have to do is push a fast LW to the right with your rod-grip thumb.  

It will do this for 350 yds.  I have it backed with 300 yds 40-lb braid and 50-yds 30-lb fluoro leader on top.  Set-drag at 8 lbs. (35 lbs possible)

What does LW stand for when you say “it lays a tight LW”? So as you’re reeling in you have to push the line left to right like a levelwind would?

@woolleyfooley Level Wind, in this case, hand level wind.  Since we're talking about NLW (non-level-wind) reels. 

 

this was caught off the far beach - 200' retrieves were totally mindless - threadline with a good base wrap takes care of itself.  

22 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

@woolleyfooley Level Wind, in this case, hand level wind.  Since we're talking about NLW (non-level-wind) reels. 

 

this was caught off the far beach - 200' retrieves were totally mindless - threadline with a good base wrap takes care of itself.  

Ah, ok! I saw LW and thought Levelwind but then figured since these reels don’t have a LW it meant something else. My mistake!

 

 

22 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

@woolleyfooley Level Wind, in this case, hand level wind.  Since we're talking about NLW (non-level-wind) reels. 

 

this was caught off the far beach - 200' retrieves were totally mindless - threadline with a good base wrap takes care of itself.  

Looks like it’s missing a frying pan in this picture 😁 that water is very shallow, what’s the vegetation? 

If you notice, I'm wading on a natural island shelf with turtle grass.  

There's a cut channel for a boat pass through the island - we're fishing across the pass - fishing both channel slopes doubles your fish chances.  

Dredging the channel makes wonderful hard-pack that we call shellcrete.  

Big Cut is the current boat channel - Little Cut was last dredged 60 years ago, and it makes great fishing structure.  Trout Bayou Cut was the boat channel last dredged 100 years ago - it makes great fishing structure on NNE wind and high MWL (fall tides).  

We hit a good September tide fall a few years ago and found stacked snook at the outside of Little Cut.  (my buddies across the pass)

 

 

2 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

If you notice, I'm wading on a natural island shelf with turtle grass.  

There's a cut channel for a boat pass through the island - we're fishing across the pass - fishing both channel slopes doubles your fish chances.  

Dredging the channel makes wonderful hard-pack that we call shellcrete.  

Big Cut is the current boat channel - Little Cut was last dredged 60 years ago, and it makes great fishing structure.  Trout Bayou Cut was the boat channel last dredged 100 years ago - it makes great fishing structure on NNE wind and high MWL (fall tides).  

 

 

Nice!