I got into saltwater fishing a few years ago with basic tackle. Over the past few years I have upgraded my quite a bit. I have 2 calcutta 400 reels, 2 shimano lever drag reels, several surf rods. I have caught several nice fish, in my opinion, but no tackle I would call "heavy" tackle action. I have been online looking at land based shark fishing and wonder why all the big, high capacity reeels don't have levelwind.....I bought a penn senator 9/0 that was prespooled with 1300 yds of 80 lb power pro braid......And I wondered How the line stays straight on the spool when reeling it in...I am a newbie to saltwater and I am curious.....Sorry if I am asking a dumb question.

you have to manually do what the levelwind does

otherwise you'll just wind up with a big wad of line in the center of the spool

With levelwinds, sometimes the line will come off the spool on the opposite side from the levelwind. This puts the line at severe angles. When have a very large fish tugging at the end of that line those angles can cause the line to break or bind up the levelwind mechanism.

When winding up line use your thumb to gradually spool the line to the right. Release and continue to wind. The line will gradually and naturally return to the center. Then gradually guide it to the left and release. This will ensure that your line winds on evenly. It takes some practice but eventually become second nature. You'll do it without having to think about it.

I dont use them very often just because having the levelwind is just another gear that can mess up on you if it gets dirt in it.

I agree with Land Pirate, it just takes a little practice and is one less part of the reel that can fail.

My experience has been with penn and abu level winds. They work pretty good when new, but level wind is typically the first thing to go and I have had a few level winds fail when fighting fish. Having a level wind is a convienence though especially if you have inexperienced folks fishing with you.

If the levelwind breaks you can remove it and keep on fishing without it.