Today I put on the Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon 12lb test fishing line on my Quantum Smoke baitcasting reel. I thought i had made a great choice, but on my first cast i kept my thumb on the line, but still saw some mild backlash, i pulled some line out and noticed that the more i pulled out, the worse the backlash and loose line got. I pulled all of it out to the knot, then reeled it back in. My next cast, I was extra carefull to tightly keep my thumb on the line, but it did the same thing. I pulled all of it out and cut the line. Can someone tell me why this happened?

Is the spool tension too loose? Are your breaks set too light?

I have used Vanish since it was first introduced with no problems. It is my preferred fluorocarbon although I do use some BPS because of cost.

line conditioner may help a bit?

if the looseness forms at the beginning of the cast add more brake action

if the looseness forms at the end of the cast tighten the spool tension

if that doesn't work throw out your line, it is cheaper than throwing out your reel hahaha

vanish is the worst flouro made.buy some seaguar invizx.any flouro is junk if it gets kinks in it during a backlash.

The more I think about it the more certain I am that you dont have the reel set up right for it. I've owned a smoke, and they are great once you get them dialed in correctly. It's just taking the time to do it. Mine in particular had to be redone whenever I would change line types.

What is the retrieve on that smoke? I find that the HS reels seem to lay the vanish on the spool in such a way that if you don't have a very educated thumb, the odds of a professional overrun are high!!