If you want to know exactly how to figure it, this is it.
The edited article appears on page 58 in the June 2006 Edition of Saltwater Sportsman 50vsw
The following is the full article before editorial shortening.
Braid and Mono Capacity –
How to figure just the right amount of Mono backing for the quantity of
the Braid you want to use – or visa-versa.
By Adam Wilner
Many bottom-bumping anglers like to use the thinner and far more sensitive super braids to find their dinner. This type of line offers greater strength, much smaller diameters and the key – Unbelievable sensitivity. The down side it is that it costs 3 times the price of mono. Most anglers I know don’t want to spend upwards of $50 to fill the reel with line. The solution is simple. Put 150 yards of braid on the top and spool the rest with good old-fashioned monofilament.
The problem occurs when we try to get just the right amount of monofilament backing to add the amount of braid we have decided upon. I have heard of many methods to accomplish this. The best one I have heard requires a second, identical spool, where you put on the braid first and then add the mono until the spool is full. At this point you would take the end of the mono that you just put on and tie it onto the second reel. Now wind it on and you are done – perfect. Except you need another spool or in the case of most bottom rigs another reel. That is a costly way to add line.
With a little info and a calculator you can get the same result for free (or at least real cheap). However, you must remember that your results will only be as accurate as the information you use. If you are looking for perfection then I recommend that you take precautions. For example, test your line counter.
The first information you will need is how much line the reel will hold. It doesn’t matter if the manufacturer tells you a capacity in a different line size than you are going to use because we are going to convert all the numbers.
In the following illustration I am going to use The Penn 113H, 50 lb Power Pro and Ande 30lb mono for the backing.
The 113H has a capacity of 475 yards of 30 lb line. We need to know the diameter of the 30 lb. line Penn used in “their” calculations. I could have called them or sent an e-mail but Penn also printed the other capacity numbers (metric) on the Penn website www.pennreels.com. It is 435 Meters at .55 millimeters (mm). Don’t be frightened, like many of you, I don’t think in meters or millimeters either. The conversion tables are easy to use or you could simply go to www.onlineconversion.com and plug in your numbers. In this case I have converted meters to yards and millimeters to inches. These are the terms I am familiar with. You will also need to know the diameter of the lines. Power Pro has the specs posted on their website at www.powerpro.com. It says there that their 50 lb. test line is .014 inches in diameter. Finally, I will use Ande 30 lb. Monofilament as the backing www.andemonofilament.com. I found that 30 lb Ande is .022 inches in diameter.
Let’s jot down some conversions.
435 meters = 476 yards (rounded)
.55 mm = .0216535 inch
50 pound Power Pro = .014 inch
Ande Premium Monofilament 30 lb. = .022 inch
1 mm = .0393701 inch
1 meter = 1.0936133 yard
Total Capacity Factor
The total capacity equals 476 yards with line of .0216535 of an inch. To get the total capacity factor we do the following: 476 x .0216535 = 10.30
So 10.30 is the total capacity factor.
The Braids Capacity Factor
The capacity factor of the braided line is done the same way: Remember, 150 yards of 50 lb. Power pro:
150 x .014 inch = 2.1 The braid capacity factor is 2.1
So the remaining capacity (or mono needed as backing) is: The total capacity factor minus the braid capacity factor or: 10.3 – 2.1 = 8.2 This is the Remaining Capacity Factor. This is the reason we went through all this. The remaining capacity factor divided by the diameter of the mono tells us how much backing we need or: 8.2 ¸ .022 = 373 yards of the monofilament backing.
Simply load the reel with 373 yards of this mono, join the mono to the braid and wind it on. If you are interested to know your new line capacity just add the two numbers 373 yards of mono + 150 yards of braid = 523 yards of line.
Want to add capacity to a spinning reel (or any reel)? Trying to figure out how much braided line the spool will hold? This method makes short work of it. Of course we start with the manufacturers information. Most often it is printed right on the spool itself. Lets say we have a spinning reel that holds 195 yards of 20 lb test. We want to keep 20-pound test but here we want to increase the amount of line on the reel.
Remember: Line capacity multiplied by the Line diameter = Total Capacity Factor or 195 x .018 = 3.51
Then the total capacity factor divided by the “new” line diameter (the braided line) = The new capacity
Or 3.51 ¸ .009 = 390 yards of 20 pound test braided line. In this case we have doubled the reels line capacity. You may decide that you do not need that much line and opt for a little more strength. Simply take the total capacity factor (you already figured this out) and divide it by the diameter of 30 pound braid or: 3.51 ¸ .011 = 319. Perfect. You now have 319 yards of 30-pound braid vs. 195 yards of 20 lb. Mono. Look out Spindlebeak – I’m a commin’.
So with an inexpensive line counter and a calculator you can get you reel spooled to the brim without wasting any of that expensive braided line.
Fill your reel with line, fill your cooler with pop and fill your boat with fish.
The following is how it appears in Saltwater Sportsman June 2006
newel
TOPS FOR BOTTOMS: Braid with mono backing draws raves from bottom fishermen.
Photo: Joe Cermele
Many bottom-bumping anglers like to use superbraid lines to help them catch fish. Rather than spend up to $50 to spool a reel, top-shot with mono backing. Here's how to calculate the amount of mono to use. The first information you will need is the reel's line capacity.
For this example, I used the Penn 113H with 50-pound PowerPro and 30-pound Ande mono.
Penn lists the capacity of the 113H at 435 meters of .55-millimeter-diameter line. I like to convert all metric figures to English (see "Conversion Table"), so the reel holds 475 yards of 30-pound mono. You will also need to know the diameter of the lines. PowerPro's 50-pound-test line is .014 inches in diameter. Finally, Ande 30-pound monofilament is .022 inches in diameter.
To find the total capacity factor of the reel, multiply how many yards the spool can hold (476) by the diameter of the line, in inches (.022). 476 5 .022 = 10.5 yard-inches.
Use the same formula above to find the braid capacity factor. Only in this instance multiply the number of yards of 50-pound PowerPro that you want (150) by its diameter in inches (.014). 150 5 .014 = 2.1 yard-inches.
The total capacity factor (10.5) minus the braid capacity factor (2.1) gives us the remaining capacity factor: 8.4. Now, to figure out how many yards of mono backing you'll need to finish the job, divide the remaining capacity factor (8.4) by the diameter, in inches, of 30-pound Ande mono (.022-inch). 8.4/.022 = 382 yards—the amount of mono needed as backing.
— Adam Wilner
Conversion Table
1 mm = .0393701 inch
1 meter = 1.0936133 yard
1 yard = 3 feet
435 meters = 476 yards
.55 mm = .022 inch
50-pound PowerPro = .014-inch diameter
Ande Premium Monofilament 30-pound. = .022-inch diameter
Note: numbers are rounded
