I just got the reel on Thurs. so I haven't tried it yet. I think I will wait til the weather is a little less cold. As far as the "Air Bail" the only function it serves is to pickup the line. I've heard that some guys take them off the reel and just manually put the line on the roller. I have never tried that myself but I guess it is possible as long as you keep tension on the line. The price of the reel was 159.99. A far cry from the 40 dollars I paid for the last reel I purchased back in the late 80's. I'll try and post some pictures. It looks as if Daiwa put a lot of thought in the design and the machining of this reel. We will see how it holds up this coming season to some of the big slammer blues. That will be the true test. Talk to you soon.

Mike O