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What causes bail to close during cast?

17K views 26 replies 19 participants last post by  rattler  
#1 ·
Ok, so I grew up using spinning reels. I must admit I primarily use baitcasters, but for night fishing, I use a spinning reel. The other night I got my waders and boots on and headed out onto a jetty and began to cast. I fished for a brief time and made maybe 30 casts. About 6 times the bail shut right at the end of the motion of my cast. I have it aligned correctly when I cast. Is the bail just too loose? Need to tighten it? Twice the braid snapped when the bail closed. Very annoying. I have a new reel I intend to use next time, but I'd like to be able to fix the problem so I can use the same reel in the spring on the rapp.
 
#3 ·
What type of spinning reel is it? Some reels are notorious for closing on the cast. Does it also have the auto close mechanism where the bail closes when you begin to crank the handle? Sometimes the handle may be bumped during the cast causing it to close prematurely. On many reels, there are mods that can be done to make it a manual bail open/close which may help.

Depending upon the reel, there may be a bailess kit as well if that is something that you might be interested in.
 
#6 ·
Spinning reels have a return spring that assists in closing the bail, and as was mentioned a little bump during the cast can get the bail started, at which point that spring pulls it on across and it catches your line. Quickest fix is to remove that spring, this will make it a manual bail reel but you should be flipping the bail by hand after the cast anyway.
 
#18 ·
Actually -- you don't want to remove the spring you want to remove the trip lever if possible. Keeping the spring without the trip lever keeps tension on the bail to keep it closed. You manually just flip the bail. I've done this on my Slammers, Stradics, Tica Scepters for surf casting. The part you need to take out depends on the reel, look at the schematic.
 
#20 ·
Here is something that has not yet been put forth...

You mentioned that you are using braid. Some braid is very limp, and will spool off very fast - especially when you get any sort of mis-spool (?) on the retrieve. (loops) Is it possible that your braid came off quickly, (faster than the weight started out) and then when the slack came out, may have tripped your bail?

I know that sounds strange, but I've had this happen to me. Especially when I tried using a weight that was heavier than the rod specifications. (hey, I was desperate, and fishing with what I had available...)
 
#21 ·
I responded to you solid7 but don't see it on the thread so I'll try again. I was using a 7' Daiwa Emblem surf rod and was throwing a 3/4 ounce jig with a 4" shad body. The rod is rated I think from .5 to 1.5 ounces. There was a strong wind blowing in the direction I was casting and the line was coming off quickly. I guess that could have been happening, not really sure.
 
#22 ·
The bail trip, not the bail spring, needs to be removed. The force of the handle turning when you're making the cast is probably what's causing the rotor to turn, which, in turn causes the bail trip to be tripped, thereby closing the bail. Removing the bail trip will render the bail closing not automatic, but would never close inadvertently.
 
#26 ·
I had the same issue with the Daiwa Bait & Run. The bail wasn't opening up all the way. Hit up Daiwa and they said they were aware of the problem. They also said that being that the reel was new, it would be stiff. After using them, as I have two, they broke it just fine and work great.