Line Twists

I've been fishin a lot more this fall than I ever have and the last few times I have been out after a couple of hours I start getting line twists. I end up spending more time straightening my line than I do fishing. I am verticle jigging with a 10' rod and 8lb vicious line with jigs. I mainly use an ice fishing reel but I had the same problem with a spinning reel. Is it something I am doing wrong? I did put the line on my reels about a year ago. Or I should say I had the reels spooled about a year ago.

Put a high quality swivel up about 18 - 36 inches up the line and your problems will be solved

Are you jigging with "tied" jigs or a jighead/plastics ?? If it's jighead/plastics, the jig may be spinning on the fall & that's causing the twist. That's usually from not having the plastic bait centered on the jighead hook. That's not always a turnoff to the fish, but it does cause you aggravation from the twisted line. And remember ... the smaller the reel spool, the more coils the line will have in it.

You can "untwist" your line a couple of ways ... at home or on the water. At home, just peel off twice the length of line that you normally use and drag it around in the grass for a couple of minutes, and then wind it back on your reel between your finger/thumb under pressure. On the water, drag that same length of line behind the boat while idling from one spot to another, then reel it on between finger/thumb under pressure. Don't have anything attached to the line in either scenario.

If I haven't used a rod/reel for awhile ... I like to tie the line off to something, walk off a length of line that's at least twice as long as a good cast, then pull the line tight and hold it for a few seconds & release the tension ... and repeat the process a couple of times ... then cut the line free and reel the line back on under finger/thumb pressure. This relaxes the coils from the line AND takes a lot of the twist out.

I cast my jigs/baits most of the time ... and they will sometimes spin in the air, especially if I use a wrist snap type of casting motion. Not so much when using a softer/smoother "lob" type cast, but when I'm catching fish I get excited and sometimes get in a hurry to get another cast to them. :Rofl

Jighead and plastic and I have never given any consideration to the plastic not being centered and be a part of the problem. I am mostly vertical jiggin but I'm like you in your casting if I'm catching I get in a hurry and if needed just slip a a new plastic on when needed and do not pay a lot of attention to how centered it is. Thanks for the advice.

Spinning and spin cast reels twist line anytime the drag slips . Also some baits tend to twist your line at times . Like it was posted earlier, I put a small barrel swivel about 12 or 18'' above my jig when vertical fishing which is my main method .