Wind knots are the bane of the spinning reel surfcaster.  They put a screeching halt to fishing and if they cannot be picked apart cause large amounts of line loss.  They occur when using BRAID line because it is very limp.  Actually, the term wind knot has become a garbage can term for several types of knots that occur during the cast. 

The most common wind knot appears as a series of long twisted loops occurring in the middle of the casted length of line.  They look like this:

There are two major and very effective ways of eliminating the occurance of wind knots  The first concern is to avoid spool face line crosssings.  The second concern is to avoid tensed line from digging down next to the spool flanges.  If you can be aware of these two things you will eliminate wind knots.

                             SPOOL FACE LINE CROSSINGS

Here is a photo of a spool face crossing:

The outgoing line will snag on line that crosses the spool face and snag prematurely pull the underlying line wraps off.  This results in a mess that head out with the lure.  The solution is to avoid spool face crossings.  They happen on the previous cast when the initially slack line does not immediately slide into the bail roller and the wraps are guided by the middle of the bail wire until the line becomes taut.  This happens most often when using the automatic bail closure to close the bail.  It also happens when the direction of the wind causes slack line quirks between the time of lure splashdown and bail closure.   Sometimes an outgoing wind knot will catch one of its loops on a rod guide and the line will abruptly break.   Fishermen are mystified why their line broke but it all was a sequla of an outgoing wind knot.  Here are some solutions:

1)  Don't use the automatic bail closure (flip it shut by hand) or better yet DISABLE the automatic bail closure.  Automatic bail closures inaccurately pick up the line (esp. with slack line) and cause spool crossings.  You can disable the auto bail closure on most reels by removing the small plate on the side of the bail arm and removing the linkage.  

Removing the auto bail closure linkage.

Daiwa Emcast Plus:

Tica GX Scepter:

Shimano Stradic:

The bail will still be spring-loaded and you can flip it over with a touch of the finger.  If you cup the line with your hand when you flip the bail you can also remove line slack and actually place the line into the bail roller.  Another LARGE advantage of disabling the auto bail closure is it will never snap shut during the cast and crack off your lure!

Proper hand position during bail closure.  A touch of the fingers closes the spring-loaded bail and the hand cups and places the line in the roller under tension.

2) Visually or by feel verify that there is not a spool face line crossing before each cast.  It’s kind of a pain but about the time you get lazy it will happen.

Here is a picture of the same reel with the spool height adjusted by placing a few simple hardware store washers under the spool.  Notice the line profile is more straight and without shelves or depressions.

4)  Some reels have tall and square drag knobs that can catch the initial wrap of line causing line spooling errors (thus wind knots).   The line can be caught completely like in the photo below or can quickly slip off but still result in a loose first wrap of the line on the spool.

It's of significant benefit to grind off the drag knob ears and fair things out with body putty or epoxy putty.  Like so:

If you are having random and mysterious wind knots it may be because your loose (initial line wrap) is catching on your drag knob.  Change the orientation of your drag knob and/or do some reshaping of your drag knob.

A similar type of wind knot can happen when the line is VERY loosely spooled.  This can happen when reeling in slack line or sometimes when popping a lure with large amounts of slack between pops.  Here are some solutions:

1) Pinch the line with your fingers to create some tension on the line when reeling in slack.

2) Adjust your rod timing with popping lures so you are reeling at the proper times to avoid excess slack.

3) Use appropriate reels for braid.  Cross wrapping reels do a lot to relieve problems with loose spooling.  Each wrap locks down the wraps underneath it.

I hope someone finds all of this useful and here’s to no wind knots!!