Braided line is so thin and slippery that it digs deep into a loose packed bait casting reel’s spool if you pull hard on the line.  To pack the line tight either your lure has to provide enough resistance, or you need to provide tension with your thumb and forefinger when you retrieve. However, I found out yesterday that pinching the line with wet fingers leads to line cuts.

So today, I had Flexi-Wrap tape over my thumb and forefinger and couldn’t feel how tight I was pinching the line.  That lead to a loose spool, which lead to a backlash when I cast into the wind.  I pulled hard on the backlash and caused the line to bury itself deep down in the spool. Next cast ended about 20 ft in the air.

Every other cast ended in a backlash.  And I pulled harder on the line to free it, only to cause deeper line buries.  If I were smart I would have stripped off all the loose line and packed it back tightly. I wasn’t smart and eventually quit.

The Waxwing System’s red Powerpro is very unforgiving when things go wrong.  It casts and retrieves well under calm conditions but is prone to backlashes when mismanaged.  So far I had two windy, backlash days and one calm, backlash-free day with the Waxwing System. I have to figure out how to cast properly in the wind, or go back to fluorocarbon when it’s windy.