New spinning reels - is it me?

Hello,

It's January and I am trying to get all my gear ready for spring bass
fishing.

In the past I have always picked up a couple of cheap ron/reel spinning
combos. By the end of the season they are in pieces...

This year I did some research and decided to get some better equipment.
I was excited when I purchased 2 Shimano Sonora reels and a couple of
simple berkeley rods. (the Sonora is the bottom end of the line but has
gotton good reviews as a value reel)

As soon as I got them married up and started fiddling with them, two
things become apparent - and seem quite odd to me.

First, after a cast, when you turn the reel handle to close the bail,
you have to really, *really* give a ton of effort to do so. So much
that the whole assembly twists in my hands. Both reels seem identical
in this regard, so it must be intentional. Is this common? Is this
configurable? This alone makes me likely to return the pair. The effort
required seems ridiulous.

Secondly, (this may be tough to describe) in the past, just before I
open the bail to finger the line and cast, I "backup" the spool to the
right position - the reel seemed to know where it should be and only
will reverse to that point - these reels do not seem to work that way.
They have the obvious two settings that I can see, either no backup
whatsoever (no reverse spin), or full 2 directional free-spinning in
both directions. If set to no backup, which is what you what when
normally fishing, the only way to position the spool seems to be to
carefully "eye it to the right point" when reeling in originally. This
is very tedious.

OK. All the cheap ones I have had in the past:
Let me flip the bail closed with very little effort (click),
Allowed me to quickly and mechanically line up the spool for
my next cast with an effortless, and habitual reverse backup
of
quarter turn or so and provided a nice "stop" at that point.

Please let me know what I am missing here. I am entirely self taught in
the
casting department so I may be missing major things here.

Am I just a dolt that should stay away from the real reels?

Thank you for helping a novice,
tonyM

On 15 Jan 2007 14:46:52 -0800, "tonyM"
wrote (with possible editing):

Hello,

It's January and I am trying to get all my gear ready for spring bass
fishing.

In the past I have always picked up a couple of cheap ron/reel spinning
combos. By the end of the season they are in pieces...

This year I did some research and decided to get some better equipment.
I was excited when I purchased 2 Shimano Sonora reels and a couple of
simple berkeley rods. (the Sonora is the bottom end of the line but has
gotton good reviews as a value reel)

As soon as I got them married up and started fiddling with them, two
things become apparent - and seem quite odd to me.

First, after a cast, when you turn the reel handle to close the bail,
you have to really, *really* give a ton of effort to do so. So much
that the whole assembly twists in my hands. Both reels seem identical
in this regard, so it must be intentional. Is this common? Is this
configurable? This alone makes me likely to return the pair. The effort
required seems ridiulous.

I don't own any Sonoras, but I'd guess that is caused by the physical
position the reel is left in after casting. If a reel is right up
against the bail flipper, it is often hard to close. The solution is
just to turn the reel backwards a bit, and that gets solved by the
answer to your second question below.


Secondly, (this may be tough to describe) in the past, just before I
open the bail to finger the line and cast, I "backup" the spool to the
right position - the reel seemed to know where it should be and only
will reverse to that point - these reels do not seem to work that way.
They have the obvious two settings that I can see, either no backup
whatsoever (no reverse spin), or full 2 directional free-spinning in
both directions. If set to no backup, which is what you what when
normally fishing, the only way to position the spool seems to be to
carefully "eye it to the right point" when reeling in originally. This
is very tedious.

It sounds like you need to flip the little lever which lets the reel
freespool in either direction.

As I said, I don't own any Shimanos, but they have an awfully good
reputation. Hard to imagine they did things wrong, but stranger
things have happened...

anon


OK. All the cheap ones I have had in the past:
Let me flip the bail closed with very little effort (click),
Allowed me to quickly and mechanically line up the spool for
my next cast with an effortless, and habitual reverse backup
of
quarter turn or so and provided a nice "stop" at that point.

Please let me know what I am missing here. I am entirely self taught in
the
casting department so I may be missing major things here.

Am I just a dolt that should stay away from the real reels?

Thank you for helping a novice,
tonyM
--

Larry
Email to rapp at lmr dot com

"tonyM" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,

It's January and I am trying to get all my gear ready for spring bass
fishing.

This year I did some research and decided to get some better equipment.
I was excited when I purchased 2 Shimano Sonora reels and a couple of
simple berkeley rods. (the Sonora is the bottom end of the line but has
gotton good reviews as a value reel)

As soon as I got them married up and started fiddling with them, two
things become apparent - and seem quite odd to me.

First, after a cast, when you turn the reel handle to close the bail,
you have to really, *really* give a ton of effort to do so. So much
that the whole assembly twists in my hands. Both reels seem identical
in this regard, so it must be intentional. Is this common? Is this
configurable? This alone makes me likely to return the pair. The effort
required seems ridiulous.

While playing with the new Shimano reel that I got for Christmas, I noticed
the same thing. However, went fishing two weeks ago and in actual use, it
didn't seem to do this. Perhaps, the tension of the line or the natural
position of the bail when flipped while actually fishing makes the
difference.

Tom G.

"Tom G" wrote in message
news:9Nhrh.10405$My1.10189@trndny03...

"tonyM" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,

It's January and I am trying to get all my gear ready for spring bass
fishing.

This year I did some research and decided to get some better equipment.
I was excited when I purchased 2 Shimano Sonora reels and a couple of
simple berkeley rods. (the Sonora is the bottom end of the line but has
gotton good reviews as a value reel)

As soon as I got them married up and started fiddling with them, two
things become apparent - and seem quite odd to me.

First, after a cast, when you turn the reel handle to close the bail,
you have to really, *really* give a ton of effort to do so. So much
that the whole assembly twists in my hands.

Don't use the handle to close the bail, use your hand. No more "twist"
and the reel will last longer.