backlashing

Question
How do you prevent backlashing of the fishing line?

Answer
I will assume you are trying to prevent backlash from happening while casting a bait casting or levelwind reel. Backlash occurs when the spool of your reel continues to spin after your terminal gear (lure or weight) hits the water and stops. Your spool has two types of drags.

The first one, which you generally adjust by rotating a star behind the crank handle, is adjusted to allow for the fish to pull line out while the reel in engaged.

The second, and most important for casting, is a drag for the spool while the reel is not engaged and the spool spins freely. This drag usually has a small bottle-cap shaped dial on the same side of the reel as the handle. By tightening this drag, you'll get less backlash, but shorter casts. But loosening it, the opposite happens, you can cast further, but you'll need to take more caution to prevent backlashes.

This second drag needs to be adjusted any time you change the weight of the gear you are casting, and it's really simple to do once you get the hang of it. Take your pole and hold it parallel to the ground and let your weight hang about 6 inches from the tip. Release the spool and adjust the knob so that the weight very slowly pulls line out.

Now, after you have done this, you are ready to cast. Make sure to use your thumb lightly on the spool, and when the weight is a few inches from the water, push your thumb into it so that the spool stops and the line doesn't backlash.

If you are using a spinning reel, the problem can be a lot more simple. It's all about line twist on a spinning reel. If the line gets twisted, it will backlash no matter what you do. A good way to solve this is the make sure you aren't twisting the line with you first put it on the reel, this can be done by giving it slack every few feet and adjusting the position of the spool you are taking the line from. If it is twisting, flip it over and go a few more feet and check it again.

After you have all the line on the reel, take a small weight attached to a swivel, and cast it a few times as far as you can, this is help put the line on the reel in its most natural position. Then make sure to use good swivels above any rigs that you tie, especially spinners. rusty or poor quality swivels should always be discarded.