Need some input here from all you dock shooting guru's. I have been using the upside down closed face Pluger 8160 on my dock shooting rods. The problem that I have been having is after I land a fish the line seems to get cinched down inside the reel and the the next shot it will not come out.

Have been considering going to some sort of open face bail reel, but really like the the trigger to hold the line as I'm pulling the jig back to shoot.

Pain the butt to have to pull out about 20 ft of line though to free it up so that it will come out easily though, and was wondering what could be causing this to happen.

Any help would be appreciated.

You named your own poison. Get an open face spinning reel. They can be a pain too, but there is nothing absolutely perfect. It is not hard to hold the line with your finger while pulling the jig. In fact you will have a lot more control than by holding a trigger.

Shimano Sidestab 2500

Shimano Solstace 1000 w/line trigger

What size/brand line are you using? Wondering why your line would be getting tight in the spool after catching a fish. I know the tension of the line with a fish on is going to cause the line to spool up a little tigher, but should not be binding into the spool. Might just be able to change lines and fix the problem

cardnal 101

+1

I have one of these that I use but not for shooting docks but you might like it since you like a trigger.

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewquanthpx20.html

I have been using the 1806u for 3 yrs now with no probs. I laugh at my friends with open face reel always fixing loops just to hard headed to fish with a closed faced .I have triedem all the key to it is the large size of the spool face hole on pflueger reel .The micro is just to small .I also have the 1810u its bigger and works great for dippen.Darrell

Mr Crappie makes a great open face reel. Also you can get the reel and rod combo. Great dock shooter. You can pick on up at Bass pro.

+1

you can buy this reel ANYWHERE and it's cheap and dependable

Sidestab 1000 or 2500... Cardinal 101 is also good. BTW, the Sidestab was discontiued....

I use Shimano spinning reels...

Mr. Anderson is right on...we used the rods when we went out with Mr. Rollins at Cedar Creek and they seemed like they were destined to shoot docks.

Only thing I have used to far is an open faced spinning real, a zebco micro. It's tiny and loaded with 4 lb test on a 4 1/2 ft ultralight rod. ALways a nice fight with any crappie, especially anything over 12 inches or so. No probs with it at all except an occasional loop in the real.