A strange equipment failure

[Mark Harris]

Guys, I recently had a very odd problem and would like to know if anyone else has experienced this, or whether it was just a freaky one-off.

Hooked up a to a very nice GT. Was fishing 11 kgs of drag, with PE8 on a SW18000. Line peeled off very easily for about 5-6 seconds then suddenly came to jolting stop with the fish still pulling VERY hard. My immediate thought was the drag stack had failed somehow, maybe with a washer exploding. The fish was pulling very hard and I was just about hanging on, and then the line pinged. Was left in a bit of state of shock after that  and I was sure the Stella drag had failed and locked up somehow.

However examination soon explained what had happened. The line had impacted into a tiny gap between the top of the spooled braid and the spool rim.  I will say right away that I am close to obsessive about spooling my braid very tightly indeed, so this was not  a case of impacted line due to soft spooling. The spooled line was rock hard.  There was a tiny, only just visible gap between the top of the very tight spooled braid and the spool rim, and the line had impacted into there about 4 mm. It was in so tight it was impossible to pull it out manually until I got home.

I have never had this problem before and I hope it never happens again. It seems that somehow the line lay had left this tiny gap. I should also say that there was no problem with the winding shape of the spool - very even with no coning at all.

Anyone ever heard of anything like this happening before or have an explanation?  I will re-spool very carefully but I am nervous about it happening again.

[Jon Li]

Hi Mark ,

Did you spool the line manually or or the spool was filled by detaching it from the reel n put in a machine ? When filling the line manually , the line lay will have " criscross " pattern while when using machine may tend line " burying " , hence what you experienced .

Mind you , I have seen line burying when one not keeping constant line tension during manual line filling process due to fatigue by the winder at the time .

Other than that , it may be just one of freak things that happen despite our best efforts .

Jon .   

[Mark Harris]

Hi Jon

Thanks so much for your input.

It was spooled manually using a simple line winder device for tension. This style of device:



I never use spooling machines and I do try to be aware of the need to maintain consistent tension when spooling up, even when it  becomes arm-breakingly hard.

My feeling is that it was probably just one of those unfortunate things that happen. It is preying on my mind though!

[Adrian Braun]

Nice spooling device mark. did you make it yourself or can it be bought? thanks

[Brandon Khoo]

I have seen that miniscule little gap you refer to when spooling but I take pains to fill it by manually winding by hand to fill the gaps. It only a couple of winds to fill them.

[Mick Cunningham]

Nice spooling device mark. did you make it yourself or can it be bought? thanks

there is a different device that can be brought ... here is the link ...

http://www.nomadtackle.ashop.com.au/p/978429/custom-spool-line-winder.html

i do own this device ... awsome tool ... 

[Mark Harris]

Brandon, I am pleased to hear that somebody else has seen this problem and indeed, has the solution. I will pay special attention when re-spooling in future and manually fill any gap that appears, no matter how small.  I guess my experience is yet another example of how the tiniest issues can spell disaster in our extreme form of fishing.

Adrian, on the device, that's just a picture I found quickly with a Google search to answer Jon's question. Mine is a little bit different but exactly the same principle. Line winders are quite easily available as Mick pointed out.

[Brandon Khoo]

The line winder Mick has posted is great but it warps after a while if you use it with heavy braid. I am on my fourth one!

[Adam Gladwin]

Hi guys,

Sounds like a very unlucky thing to have happened Mark, and lucky you had a good hold of the rod,could of been very costly  .I tend to spool my reels manually aswell but have never had this happen,one in a million I reckon.I have made a similar contraption to yours which is a length of all thread welded to a solid steel bench with a series of large flat washers used as spacers,does the trick nicely.

A possible way to over come this in the future may to be watchful during the spooling process and makesure no tiny little valleys open up during the spooling process.Got a trip to Exmouth coming up in late April and can't wait. Also a trip to Bali in November and may be keen to find out more about them big Bali GTs.

regards Adam

[Mark Harris]

I tell you Adam, for the first time ever,  that situation allowed me to know what a good sized GT feels like on truly locked up gear - I mean really locked not just the drag button tightened as far as it will go.  It was only a few seconds but it was incredibly tough just holding on.  Something had to give and it was the 100 lb braid.  The only positive I could take was that my knots held!

When are you up here in November?  If I am around, be good to catch up.

[Adam Gladwin]

Hi Mark,

Looking at very early November for about a week or so,my wife knows I may go missing in action for several days if a fishing trip is in the planning,haha.Be great to tee up a trip for sure and catchup too,once the dates are set mate I will let you know,cheers

[Ken Best]

I have had this happen also Mark. It was on a cast with PE8 , and I lost a favorite Bigfoot 170.
It was the first cast after landing a GT with around the same drag as you mentioned. I'll admit that I put a little extra oomph into the cast.
As with you, I couldn't get the line out of the gap and had to cut more line off when I got home as the end was buried around 4mm down the spool edge.

My spooling device is now a Tiagra 30
I wind the spool of braid fairly tightly onto the Tiagra and attach it to a longish rod. Set the lever drag to the desired resistance and I invite a friend to hold the rod at an angle where I can see the pressure I am applying when winding by the bend in the Tiagra rod.
If I see a gap in the Stella spool anywhere, I get the Tiagra friend to wind some line back onto it and then I go again...
Hope this makes sense...

Cheers
Ken

[Mark Harris]

Ken, thanks for that and sorry to hear that you had the same issue.  I like the Tiagra winding device solution . 

So that's three instances/observations of the same problem.

I have actually now stripped all my Stella and compatible spools, and will be very carefully re-spooling them bearing in mind Brandon's and Ken's advice.

[Adrian Braun]

Thanks, and thanks for the link too

[Craig Maree]

Hi Mark

Thanks for the warning.

Is it possible to post a pic of the issue ?

Cheers

Craig