So Mrs. Zero picked up a new reel for my bday a month back. She knew I was looking into Avets and chose the JX 6.0. So I spooled it up with 25 lb test and started casting away at Anglins. Wow...it was backlash galore. I swear I felt like a 100 year old man learning how to drive stick. Every cast...no matter how much thumbage I applied, I would backlash a nice sexy birds nest.

After a little bit of research on the interweb, I found out that many others were experiencing the same frustrations and were resorting to magging the reel. "WTF is that?" Some of you may know this already, but when your reel spool is within a magnetic field an opposing magnetic field may be induced to counteract the field of the stationary magnet. It basically just slows down the reel to prevent backlash. You can adjust your magnetic strength by placing larger or more magnets.

If you plan on magging a reel, they say you need to use Neodymium Iron Boron Rare Earth Magnets for it to be effective. You can buy them at www.leevalley.com

Here's a quick summary of what I did. It's not rocket surgery and you can find all sorts of articles on magging reels on the web. However, before making things "permanent" by using epoxy, I recommend you first use Elmer's Glue to check for clearance and desired amount of magging. Once you find a configuration that works for you, then go with the epoxy.


1. Unscrew 3 screws on handle side of reel.
2. With a cotton swab and alcohol, cleanse the area you are about to attach the magnets to.
3. I used 2 stainless steel washers as a backing and epoxied them to the side wall. You can pick up an easy to use 2 part epoxy from Home Depot for $3.
4. Since I suck at casting in general, I used 3 3/8" magnets. I can change this later once I become more acclimated with the reel. When applying more than two magnets, you need to alternate polarities which is indicated by the black circle on the magnet.
5. Apply some grease to the washers and magnets to prevent corrosion.
6. Reassemble reel.
7. Start Casting.

Magging the reel made a remarkable difference, however, I still have some tweaking to do. I just wanted to get this post out there before I forget about everything I did.

Here are a few images to help depict what I did. If anybody else has any recommendations regarding magging, please feel free to add on; this definitely was my first attempt.