I use line counters on my rods but I've gone with others who just cast them out and go and we still caught fish. Its harder to repeat what works without the line counters though. Sometimes if we went for a while without catching anything I'd flip the bail and let a little more line out on one or two rods but it would be almost impossible to know exactly how much was out to begin with, how much more I let out by flipping the bail and letting line run out for a few seconds, etc...

I have more confidence when using my line counters but I wouldn't let the lack of line counters stop me from going and trying to catch a few.