[lamb]

Being lefty, majority of my reels are Avets. I feel your pain.

In the beginning while the reel is brand new, I'm usually happy with the clicker strength. It does wear out and weaken through time. Yeah, that porn star greenie pull line here and there, but those zzzzs are easy to differentiate from real zzzzzzzzzzs.

It looks like AVETs have 2 different type of clickers. The older reels I bought have the metal o ring for the clicker, no springs; the newer ones have the spring. See what's yours - the clickers with the spring mechanisym seem better/stronger.

The way I've been dealing with it - i make sure I keep the clicker parts clean and oiled... When it gets too weak, I just order new clicker and replace it. You can order the parts and do it yourself - it's easy and not too pricey.

I've tried the same thing - lifting up the level just a bit to have it slightly engaged. I felt the same way - too much of a tension. Plus I think as you have something start pulling the line, the tension even increases, no bueno. I think I lost one fish experimenting with that and gave up.