Line twist

[ThinIce2006]

I see that a lot of folks out there are having problems with line twist, especially while ice fishing. Here are a couple of things that might help.

First, get out of the habit of turning your reel handle to trip the bail on your spinning reels. Each time that you do, you add a twist to your line. By the end of the day, if you reel up enough, you've added a whole lot of coils to your line. Manually flip your bail before turning handle.

Second,before you head out to fish, pull about fifty feet of line or so from your reel. Dampen a rag and pull the line from reel out to end of line a few times and stretch it as you go. Believe me it really does help. It can become part of your preparedness ritual before heading out, and really eliminates a lot of grief on the ice, especially in low-light conditions. Hope it helps, it's working for me.

[PerchPounder]

Thats good advice. A few things that I try to do to reduce/eliminate twist starts when I spool my reels make sure you are putting the line on the right way if it wraps around the rod tip flip the spool over. The twist should come out and just because your reel hold 100yds it doesnt mean you need that much you can save yourself some line and money by only spooling what you need. None of my winter reels have more than 25-30yds on them and even that can be too much sometimes.

Another way to keep twist out is to not reel when the fish is pulling drag it's not doing any good anyways and it will save you the headache of line twist costing you fish.

[stick]

I am always making sure I don't incorporate line twist when putting on line, however when fishing small jigs (Genz worms, etc.) I assume they spin on the way down and/or up. When I lift them out of the water, they spin like a top. Any suggestions here? Should I use a swivel up the line?

[Corey Bechtold]

Another thing to think about is Reel Magic. Apparently you just spray it on your spool and it will take the memory out of the line. I saw it at Thorne Bros but think you might be able to buy some elsewhere.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[ThinIce2006]

I don't think you'd be putting any twist in a line using a small jig as it incorporates no action of itself. I do use a swivel when using lures like a chubby darter and jigging raps which tend to "swim". I've also heard that wd-40 works as well as Reel Magic. Who knows? Might be another gimmick to catch fishermen.

[SP180]

Reel magic does a good job of helping with bait casters. It really allows for some smooth and long casts. I dont think it helps to much with the line twist issue. At least it has not helped me this winter. I do like the ideas of stretching the last 50 feet.

[PerchPounder]

To me a anything Genz is too big, but thats another topic. What are you using for bait? if it is postioned incorrectly it will also cause the jig to spin on the rise and drop. Whenever I know I have twist in my line for whatever reason I try to leave out as much line as possible and let the jig spin out all of the twist in both directions this will usually cure the problem for a short time, but you may need to get more in depth and prestretch a larger amount of line.I am not a fan of swivels unless your are using a swimming lure which will put alot of twist into your line, from my experiences they will remove the feel of the jig, kill the action, and give you two more possible points of failure.

Im not totally sold on Reel magic or WD39. I normally use line 3lb or less so I rarely have any memory in my line. If I do use line heavier than this I usually stretch it far enough for it to take most of the memory out but I haven't had much trouble since switching to Flourocarbon.

[slipperybob]

Line memory coil is one of the contributors to line twists, especially when you're lure is sooo small it doesn't have enough weight to straighten the coil out on the fall. The smaller your spool is, the more problematic this becomes.

Solution: pre-stretch your line.

Ineffective roller ball. Cold freeze and cheap reels are the contributors to this. That little roller ball on your bail may not even be rolling at all and line is just sliding/twisting onto the spool on your retrieve.

Solution: Clean and grease/oil it. Sometimes warming it up helps as it's ice that's the culprit.

[Woody Erickson]

Most any jig will spin on the way down or up depending on how the bait and/or plastics are positioned. Too much drag on either side will cause it to spin.

For spinning reels, pulling the line off the reel (against the drag) on the way down is the best way to reduce the line twist. Manually twisting the spool on the way up would be the best, but not a real time saver . As long as there is sufficient tension on the line, the line will untwist itself once the jig is out of the water.

I have found that "economical" large arbor fly reels to be very effective for my panfish rods. There is no line twist when spooling, dropping a jig or reeling up a jig. It gives the feel of direct contact with the fish.