beaver dams

[salmonboy]

I just bought a few beaver dams at Gander Mt and picked them up for $20, I have used polars in the past/  My question, polars have the little handle on the spool to wind the line in after a fish/flag, they also have the line guide which can be moved up and you can manually wind on the line to get in nice and tight on the spool.  I have had a little problem with the beaver dams trying to get the line tight since it has neither the handle or a line guide which can be taken out of the way to wind it on manually, what I get is a mess on the beaver dams because the line is not on tight.

Any thing I am missing???

[RSQCAL]

Well you ain't missing a thing. That is the number 1 problem with the Beaver Dams in my opinion. What I have done on mine is cut a slot at the top of the line guide. I didn't care to do this but on them really cold days were you line freezes instantly it's near impossible to wind the line tightly with out it.
I've been using Beaver Dams for 20 years and have only had 1 instance were I ran into a problem with this slot. Hope this helps.  

[salmonboy]

any advice on tools required so I dont screw the things up