I'm new to fly. My only experience of fishing is spinning when I was school boy, and more recently teaching my youngest kids to do the same.
I picked up a Guideline 9' #9 EPIK Pike kit this week! I eagerly put it together, and have been out casting with it precisely twice (both times were yesterday). The rod had a slight rattle, which made me keep checking that all four sections were firmly located.
This morning I took her to a low pier in a small lagoon to practice casting for a third time. I had a pike fly, but the small-boat marina is not known for fish of any size, so although I took my landing net (to manage the "upside risk" of accidentally catching something), and my pike pliars (in case the fish I accidentally caught had teeth), and my knife (to manage the "downside risk" of hooking a boat in the marina) this outing was purely for casting practice.
Still the rattle. Reseat the rod sections. Cast some more. Still the rattle...
Then, cast and "plop". Oops, no reel.
I was holding a reel-less rod, and looking around to gain an appreciation of what had happened, and to see if anyone had noticed by incompetence! My 1-day-old reel, were now at the bottom of the lagoon at the end of the jetty....
So now the game changed. Now I was actually fishing...for a reel.
I started pulling the reel up by the line, and quickly realised to my dismay that I had been casting with the reel set on minimum drag. Each pull merely unwound more line from the reel. Now, the EPIK is a pike kit, and pike can run, so the reel is spooled with a very generous amount of backing behind the #9 line. The amount of line loose on the jetty was growing and growing (and it was a breezy morning, which did not bode well for my being able to unravel the line once the reel was eventually recovered - if the reel even could be recovered).
As more and more line came up I started wondering - did Guideline securely attach the backing line to the reel? Would I end up with all the line and no reel?
Feeling some resistance I pulled a little harder - even more line on the jetty - and the reel rose to the surface only to fall back down unwinding yet more of the backing. But that gave me an idea. I reached back for the landing net.
Now the net I have is foldable and relatively short handled - about 2.5 feet when extended. To get the reel to rise to the surface I would have to make a long pull on the line, which needed me to crouch low and pull my elbow high, but to reach the reel on the surface I had to be lying down on the jetty. I tried a few times, but this was never going to work. Lying on the jetty with the net well under the water I could not pull a long enough stroke on the line to get the reel to rise. I started to really, really hope that Guideline had secured the backing to the reel.
This story does end well. Guideline HAD secured the backing to the reel adequately, and eventually the reel up, out of the water, safely onto the jetty. I now had approximately 20 yards of #9 line and 40 yards of backing blowing in the wind. It took me a good twenty minutes, but I was eventually able to unravel everything and re-spool the reel.
And now I know what that rattling was.
There are two circular nuts on the handle with which to secure the reel. In my inexperience I had tightened only one., leaving the locking nut loose to rattle, with embarrassing result!
