Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Spinning reels no longer have a reverse feature

I bought several Daiwa spinning reels last March that had the usual reverse/anti-reverse lever. Yesterday I was helping a friend decide on which spinning reel to buy when I discovered the reverse feature is gone on every reel we handled!

I have been fishing since 1956 and had become used to the the reverse feature. ( you younger guys just wait, you too will hate change when you get older)

I like to use reverse for a number of things:
back reeling when a large fish takes the lure at the boat
aligning the bail with roller guide to pickup the line with my finger
grabbing a lure to remove weeds or to untangle the line.
making an adjustment to the distance the lure hangs from the rod tip


Removing this feature means I will be either opening the bail or grabbing the spool and rotating to do the things just mentioned. The drag will have to be adjusted on the loose side so breakoffs won't occur when a large fish hits at the boat.

I know someone will say that baitcasting reels have been this way for years. IMO there is no comparison. No bail to align, should a large fish hit the lure at the boat the spool release can be instantly hit and thumbing acts like backreeling, in fact the spool release allows for fast and easy adjustment and lure contact as mentioned earlier.

Having thought about this since yesterday, I know I will adjust to this new approach, but I think the most difficult one will be getting the bail aligned with the possibility of rotating it past the proper position often.

IMO this so manufacturers can reduce costs and part inventory.

For those who have a spinning reel without reverse how is it working for you?

been using them since 1970 and not have needed the anti reverse yet

I use that feature a lot.

Me too. Learned to back reel when drag systems sucked and never really stopped using that method as they’ve improved.

I already hate change. However, I love improvement and this is an improvement. One less thing to break or have flipped on accident at the worst possible time.

Some still have that feature but more and more don't. Missed it a lot at first but grudgingly getting used to it. You're right IMO on the bail alignment.

The mfgs tell us it's a feature we don't need, it's a source of water getting into the gears, etc, which would be a problem on salt water reels but no question they're saving money by eliminating this feature and I don't notice their savings being passed on to the consumer.

Same here, thats why god invented the multi-disk drag.

Called Daiwa today. They offer both versions depending on model and price point. The less expensive ones called LT (light tough) have reverse levers. The MQ (monocoque) don't. Tech I talked to thinks eventually all their offerings will come without reverse. Said it had to do with water especially salt water entering through the reverse lever area in housing.

Buy them up before they disappear, or don't......

That feature my have been important 30 years ago, but no longer,

There have been vast improvements in drags and lines, reels in general.

Maybe half of mine have reverse, don’t think I’ve used that feature in 20 years,

I had a very nice real delivered this fall without.
I learned a zillion years ago to be ready and back reel when a fish lunges, in the old days this seemed to help take stress off the line at that sudden moment and gave the drag time to ease in so to speak.
I know todays reels are light years ahead in a lot of areas including drag but at my age it’ll be a hard change for me to get on to.

Osky

I was shocked several years ago when I purchased a good quality reel and found no anti reverse. Now it's hard to find reels with them. I guess companies figured that very few people were using them and it helped save a few cents in the manufacturing.

I have some new Quantum’s listed for sale that have anti-reverse switches if anyone is interested in them.

Maybe I'm the only but spinning reels today are fugged since they started getting rid of the drag knob on the back. It was so easy to just reach over and crank in more or less. This is a good time of year to hit the second hand stores and pawnshops for good older reels..mb

You can still get rear drag spinning reels. Shimano makes several rear drag models, and I think Shakespeare still makes a few.

I like the reverse lever too. I’ve switched to spinning the drag down, pulling some line out, then tightening it back down.

Daiwa BG1500 has reverse switch also. They’re a great size for trout paired with a 6’-6’6” UL rod and saltwater tough. Mine are on St.Croix rods and are my favorite UL set ups.

Never knew what purpose it served.

I use the reverse frequently for several reasons. Will miss that feature.

It was good for creating unintentional tangles when the anti-reverse lever was accidentally bumped off. It was also good for ‘unlocking’ reel handles when they got tangled together in a rod locker. I never saw the point of back reeling a fish if your drag was adjusted right, and I won’t miss the lack of a back reel option.

Regarding the rear drag, they still exist but I have read they are inferior to top drag due to the size of the friction washers. It really isn’t hard to adjust the drag from the top, even if you feel the need to do it while fighting a fish.