OK- I guided BWCA day fishing trips for a long time. About 60% of my parties had their favorite fishing gear that they wanted to take along which was fine. Many of them had gear that they had no clue how to operate. Some of them (my very favorites) would bring baitcasting gear that they bought at some big box tackle mart sold to them by an "expert" who's never even been to Minnesota much less the Boundary Waters. They didn't have a clue how to use their new rods & reels, but they watched a lot of fishing shows all winter long and how hard could it be to do afterall? We're talking about 8 hours of bird's nests, rat's nest's, backlashes and snags with 50 yards of cut-up monofilament in the bottom of the boat at day's end. Finally, there were those who were incredibly good with baitcasters. I can literally only think of only three people I guided in 25 years who were actually exceptional with baitcasters. They could literally light matches at 50+ feet on every cast and one of them was an older woman. Her name was Pat and I actually enjoyed watching her cast. Her husband barely knew which way to properly hold his spinning reel. This always brings to my mind the occasional Hollywood movie scene where someone is fishing and holding their spinning reel upside down and cranking backwards, yet when they cast, they hold it properly to cast and then flip it upside-down to retrieve. Go figure.

BUT, as I watched the customers using these baitcaster reels with right-hand cranks, I concluded that these reels made about as much sense as cranking an upside-down spinning reel backwards. With a regular bait caster they'd cast with the right hand and then, as the plug hits the water (or trees, or brush, etc.) SWITCH hands to crank in the lure. During the switch (and the guarranteed fumbling about), the plug would sink and instantly snag up on the rocks. Then, I'd have to back the canoe (19' Grumman squarestern rigged for rowing) up to shore so they could unsnag their plug. They usually snagged up about 70% of the time which was usually a direct result of switching hands to crank. Also, when they took their thumb (moderates line play-out off the spool during the cast) off the spool during the hand-switch, many reels backlashed right at the time when the plug hit the water and the spool of the reel continued to roll forward, uncheck by a thumb. Then, while the rest of us were moving on, the guy with the bait caster would be pulling line out from his reel to smooth out the bird's nest for the next 5-10 minutes and not fishing. Trust me, after doing this 50,000 times, you start to really resent TV fishing shows with bass fisherman, bass boats and all the surrounding, marketing-silliness that my customers thought was absolutely necessary to catch any fish in the BWCA. On TV, the fishing shows NEVER show the reel backlashes or how much film they shoot before they even find a fish.

The problem wasn't as much in using the baitcasting reel for the casting as it was in using a back-asswards reel that required a hand switch to the left hand so the right hand could crank. I looked at ALL my customers who used spinning reels that they mastered in a fairly short amount of time (with just a few pointers) and found that they pretty much always cast with their strong arm (which happens to be the right arm for most people as we left-handers exist in smaller numbers) and crank with their left hand. It's rare to see someone fishing the other way with spinning reel even though virtually every spincast reel is switchable from left crank to right crank with no tools or disassmbly needed. As a result there is NO goofy rod-hand switch, no delay in closing the bail and retrieving at the very instant a well-casted lure lands just 3 inches from shore. The only disadvantage in spinning reels was during the "panic" that usually and predictably occurs when trying to land a whopper. With a spinning reel, as you hear that screeching (Shimano) or tinking (Plueger and others) sound as the big fish is pulling hard - that's the drag. When the drag is properly adjusted it provides several advantages to the operator.

First, with a properly set drag on any type of reel, you are less likely to have your line break on a fish that's fighting hard. Secondly, you are less likely to see your rod break on a fish (or snag) that's fighting hard. Third, you the fish tires out more quickly. And fourth, you maintain tension on the line more easily at all times when the fish is pulling. Usually, if you slack up your line for one second, a big fish (they didn't grow big by being dumb) will shake the hook violently from his lip and it's "buh-bye" fish.

Here's the main problem with spinning reels. A LOT of people have never had the experience of hooking an alligator-sized northern or other big fish. When they finally do, their eyes usually glaze over, their skin goes pale, and they don't hear anything I say unless I say it loud enough to break their panic-induced trance. A LOT of folks suck wind and really start to crank hard and fast when they actually see that big green submarine cruise by with their lure in tow. Cranking the reel while the drag is releasing line to a big fish makes a big mess of the line! Newbies tend to be oblivious to the drag's screeching sound or just plain don't know what that sound means when they hear it. They are totally focused on getting the fish in the boat at all costs and crank their reels wildly. This action puts a mean twist in the line!! After the big one is in the boat, when they finally slack up their line, they end up with enough twists and spaghetti to make a macrame'-style, flower pot holder. Then they say start griping about the cheap line and how they got screwed at Bob's Super Tackle Mart who sold them the cheap line. Some of the less expereinced don't even notice the big twist and just wind it all back into their reels, twist and all. And, this brings us to the one of a few better reasons for using a baitcaster for big fish.

First, with a bait caster reel you can crank on your drag until the reel catches fire and you won't screw up the line. Second, if you are casting big plugs, they tend to fly through the air without tumbling. If it's a good quality reel, you can zing some pretty heavy line through the eyes of the rod because with a bait caster reel your line rolls off a spool that is rolling which keeps tension on the line which prevents lure tumble. With a spinning reel, your line sort of dumps/tumbles off the end of the spool when you release your finger in the middle of a swing and follow-through. The line of the reel travels in a circular pattern as it's being launched and that's why the eyes of a spinning rod are large closest to the reel and then get smaller further out from the reel to the end of the rod. If you use a cheap, kinky line with a memory (stays coiled up really bad) , it won't get through the eyes easily and can make the lure tumble and tangle. Also, with a spinning rod, if you don't employ a bit of finesse' in your swing, the lure can tumble, get tangled up, go into orbit, etc. Casting finesse' with a spinning rod is easier than a bait caster. Third, while you may not have the definitely required "feel" for casting, trolling or jigging with a bait caster reel and rod is a great option. They are fun to fight fish with. And, while saving the line from twisting is great, there is a flaw that I have found with most baitcasters over and above all the other problems mentioned thus far.

Baitcasters usually have a silent drag. On a lot of them, the drag makes no noise at all. How do you know if your line is going out or not? You can tell easily if you remember to place your thumb on the spool, but sometimes, people don't think about that in modern times because it's not required. On the old baitcasters, your thumb was your drag. Now the reels of the past 40 years or so, come with star-drags that do all the work for you, so you really don't have to fish with your thumb on the spool. Clearly, many of my customers did not know when their drags were working on their bait, but I could pretty easily tell that the drag was set too loose or too tight by watching the fish travel. With a panicked fisherman doing everything he can to hold the rod tip up, he usually doesn't know what's happening. That makes it harder to do the two things one absolutely needs to do to land any fish using ANY style rod & reel - keep the rod tip up in the air and keep the line tight at all times without pulling the fish out of the water.

So these are my thoughts on the differences between the two reel types. To sum it all up: