Rich, where ever you are at the moment, turn around very slowly and just
BANG YOUR HEAD into the nearest wall.
;-))

"RichZ" wrote in message
...
Gone wrote:
I don't have the anti-reverse engaged because the
line would snap and i would surely lose the fish,


If you don't have the anti reverse engaged, then you should backreel, and
not rely on the drag at all. Pretty near every fish I've caught on
spinning
tackle in the past 30 years or so has been caught with the anti-reverse
disengaged, and the drag tight. Whether I'm using 2 pound test or 20
(actually, I very rarely use anything over 6 lb on spinning gear), whether
the fish are crappies and perch, bass, pike, steelhead, brown trout,
atlantic salmon, bluefish, stripers, even bonito. That's the way I
play/fight fish. The drag never comes into play, except for grudgingly
giving a hair on an exceptionally hard hook set.

As far as the bail snapping open, that can ONLY happen if the line's not
in
the line roller, the bail's badly bent or not completely closed, or the
bail spring is shot. The geometry of the bail/roller/pivot is such that if
the line is in the roller, the harder you pull on it, the harder it holds
the bail closed.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing