I bet I’m the first….

[fish4942]

…angler to experience a birds nest with their first baitcasting reel without even casting.

I finally bought my first baitcasting reel. And like a kid who just got a new bike for Christmas and couldn’t ride it because there is 3 feet of snow on the ground, I occasionally look at it, play with it, feel, etc. So Bass Pro Shops spooled it up for me with 12lb BPS mono line. They tied the end to a rubber band and hooked it to the first eye ring on the rod. Like a curious cat I would press the bar to release the spool a couple of times. Then foolishly I cranked it pretty tight to where the was a good amount of tension on the rubber band. Then even more foolishly I press the bar not thinking about how tight I had wound it up. Wahlah, instant birds nest in my garage at 2:00 a.m. It took all of 30 minutes with the assistance of a toothpick to untangle the mess. My first thought after pulling the line couple of times was to start cutting away the heaping pile of line. But then my childlike thought kicked in to where I realized it was my first baitcaster and I wanted my first use to include every piece of tackle that came with it. Including those several yards I would have cut away.

I guess it’s probably a good thing that this happen because now I’ll be sure to set my brakes and tension correctly before I start chucking lures out in the water this spring.