Cgolf

I think this has turned into a whose on first conversation. So not sure which of us you are replying to, but 60 yards of 30 lb 832 paired with roughly the same amount of 10 lb big game gave me the reel spooled up in the pic above. At this point I pretty much have 10 lB XT and 10 lb big game as my backing line. It seems to have worked out just fine. I don’t use mono anymore so not much reason to have a lot. I can definitely say this is the most thought I have put into spooling a reel, so I am sure it is better than others I have done in the past.

The whole thing is confusing because Abu states 12 lb 145 yd capacity. Xt 12lb 0.015 while big game 12 lb is 0.014. To get 0.015 in big game it would be 15 lb line. So maybe reel manufacturers should give us diameter since pound test is pretty much useless.

The full 25 days on TW is showing for me right now, not sure if it is a fluke or not.

Do really like the Sufix Coastal Camo on the reel hoping it will work on the water.

I ended up using @jbrew73 method of spooling on the 60 yards of braid first and then the backing to get the amount of backing correct. Then went through the fun process of flipping the line to get the backing on first. this time I won’t fill it as full with backing. After I flipped it, it was a bit fuller than before.

The only thing that bugs me is braid seems to take up more space than mono of the same diameter. It doesn’t seem to lay on the spool as tightly as mono.

To answer the year round question, nope to plastics all the time, northwoods bass love lipless and square bills way to much. Years past chasing WI river smallies, I typically caught more smallies slowly crashing a bandit 100 through the rocks in the spring right after the opener and on an x rap 8 late fall with the air temp in the 30s. During these times plastics got bites, but weren’t as efficient catching fish. Honestly I think it has more to do with the bodies of water you fish. My home lake is pretty featureless which is perfect for cranks when the weeds are low, rivers where cranks shine long as you are ok with losing some, and reed beds where cranks are a great option. I try to fish cranks as much much as possible to locate the fish then slow down with plastics if need be. The only side note to this is that northwoods bass really seem to hate cold fronts and won’t chase when holding around cover. At that point plastics are the only way to get them to bite. It sounds like they took some notes from there southern cousins.

Not 100 percent sure on the accuracy, but I do watch them like a hawk when letting back crank when trolling to make sure the line doesn't slip. I think the clip on models are a lot more accurate than the line counter reels, which are influenced by the amount of line on the spool, consistent for that reel but not across multiple reels. I do feel they are pretty consistent, but have never thought to verify their accuracy.

Maybe, but I do have some reels with 10 year old power pro on it that I feel I got my money out of. The only thing with starting with 150, if you flip the line at some point before it’s too short you end up using all of the line. That would hold true for your scenario as well.

I did this and it ended up being pretty close. Only thing I noticed was with the braid on top it filled up a touch more, maybe from the tape over the back to back uni knot. I will say that it is tedious and took forever. Since I don’t have to do it to often it is better to get it right. I ended up taping it to a bench and walking it to a spot measured 15 feet away. Then I would tape where it was at the 15 ft mark and wound the previous 15 feet onto a second spool. 15 feet works good for figuring out how much line I am spoooling up.

So I took my longest casting reel, Lews Crush, that I never came close to casting into the backing and I will up that number by 10 yards and call it a day. I guess my problem is I am cheap and analytical so I hate the idea of wasting line so I like the numbers to equal full spool usage. I honestly didn’t expect this topic to generate so many replies I tough it was a simple answer;) Also just learned the Abus hold 35 more yards of line than the Lews. I was right around 50/50 on the Lews. Figure if I get 120 to 130 on the Abu reels I will be good and I will be around 50/50. The jerkbait/topwater reel I may go more backing and a length similar to the Crush because these are shorter presentations for me vs bomb casts with the other 2. Thanks for all the replies.

Working on that, pulling some line off an old retired reel to respool another reel. Also the reels with the pretty old braid on them now, if the back half looks good, I will just flip it. The three new reels get the new line. Braid and fireline is awesome stuff, it seems to last a really long time on a reel and not lose any braking strength.

I used to and then I ended up with a bunch of spools that had wasted line on them. For the big game mono backing, no worries, but for more expensive braid I wasn't feeling great about throwing away that much line. At least with flouro you can use it for leader material. Somehow my reply got lost lol. Gonna go with 60 yards and get 5 reels out of one spool and do it backwards like you mentioned to get the backing right. Would just hate to throw 40 yds of line away which would happen if I did 65 yds a reel. On my 150 yard spool will just do 75 on 2 reels and call it a day.

Always interesting to see others point of view on value of gear and what is needed. I do appreciate on this forum that both ends are well represented, and nobody looks down on those of us with a smaller budget. I have participated in another forum years ago that if you had an ugly stick and didn't fish Lucky craft baits, you shouldn't even be fishing in their eyes lol.

I guess what cracks me up about this is that the OP considers a 150 buck rod middle of the road gear. I have only one rod worth more than that, Avid X, and I got it for 100 on sale and may pick up a Dobyns Sierra for 110 on sale. Heck I thought I had solid middle of the road gear (60 to 110 for rods), guess I will have to keep catching tons of fish on my bargain bin crap;)

One thing I have done too to minimize backlash damage and not have the connection knot screw up the line coming off he reel is put a small piece of duct tape over it as the knot is spooled on. This does seem to help with casting, especially on spinning reels where lighter line is used. Yeah I have 3 of them I use when walleye trolling and have used them to spool up reels before. I figure it will get me in the ballpark when spooling up, not perfect but close enough. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't shorting myself with 150 feet.

Looking to spool up some new reels and some old ones and trying to figure out how much line I should put on. I picked up a couple of 300 yd spools of 832 if I went with 150 feet on each I could spool up 6 reels. Does that seem about right? Thinking of walleye trolling I don't let out much more than 100 feet very often, not sure how far I truly can cast bass plugs.

I shore fish in the dark sometimes and at night in the boat. When fishing from shore. Many hits are close to where I stand. Would having the headlamp on in red light mode spook the fish or can I use it to give me a bit of light to see what I am doing?

If I only lived closer. I did learn helping my Dad it can get tricky with too many cooks in the kitchen, because there was stuff he didn’t see where we stored it and I got a phone call lol. I did see a video Ike did and he had the 10 or 18 gallon containers labeled with what was in them, say spinnerbaits, etc and stored the bulk and old stuff that way. Still could be stuff just tossed in, and looked like you had stuff still in the package which this would work great for. We we have used the shelves from Menards for 20 years, and 3 houses, they stow the 18 gallon totes perfectly. Just need the frames and boards and you are good to go. https://www.menards.com/main/storage-organization/garage-outdoor-organizers/freestanding-shelving-units/midwest-manufacturing-reg-shelving-unit-end-frame/1363206/p-1444448753030-c-12652.htm?tid=1306320290738681412&ipos=2

Would have a blast organizing that. I have to keep my stuff organized since it is in our walk in closet. Maybe when my daughter moves out I will be able to use her room as my tackle/fly tying room.

What I remember of the conversation was that it was easier to balance a full handled stick than a split grip. I really can’t tell what the split grip gains you, I fish a mix of both. Honestly for the grip material means more, I do prefer cork over other materials. I have a list of rods I carry in the boat that I am slowly upgrading, so I will take whatever style grip fits that chart. Thinking of the spinning rod because that would get all of the ugly sticks out of the boat, unless I keep 1 in for spybaiting which the ugly sticks work perfect for.

Cool I will go with the Sierra. I remember listening to the ultimate bass podcasts and Gary was on there a lot and seemed like a really good guy. If I remember he was not a fan of split grips, but everyone wanted them so he went with it.

Which one is the better stick?

Not a chance. I call using livebait for bass not catching fish. I used to try it for bass on reed beds to use up worms and leeches after a bad week of walleye fishing and my catch rate plummets. Switch back to soft baits and scent, slam em. Not sure why, but livebait must not suit my style of bass fishing.

Saw that they had the deep diver on sale at TW. Are these any good? They are definitely not lightweight baits.