Is 125 feet enough main line on spinning reel

[Cgolf]

When I spool up with fireline, I always use mono backing and tape the Uni to Uni knot junction down to the spool. Being economical, is 125 feet of fireline enough? If I do this I could spool up three reels which would be really nice. I do have a line counter from walleye trolling I would use to get it pretty close to right. 

I am thinking it is good, throwing plastics with these rigs, not putting the heaviest lure I can find and bombing it out there. 

[ww2farmer]

Plenty. About the only time I ever get close to using a ton of line off a spinning reel spool is when I am dragging tubes or drifting with a drop shot over off shore stuff smallmouth fishing, even then I just let off enough line behind the boat to maintain bottom contact for the depth/conditions I am fishing and unless it's been a long time since I have respooled I am rarely down to the backing.

[Sam]

Take the setup outside and cast as far as you can.

Take two more arm lengths of line off the reel.

Back up until the line you took off the reel is straight with the line you casted.

Put rod and reel on ground and knowing that each step is three-feet, walk to the end of your line.

Then turn around and walk back counting a yard for every three feet.

This will give you an idea of how much line you need on your reel if you plan to cast the setup

Just an old way of estimating how much line you need on your reels. In no way scientific or exact, but you will have a good idea of how much line you may need for casting.

 

[Cgolf]

Thanks for the answers, I figured for once I would actually measure what how much I put on instead of winging it and ending up with 40 or 50 feet left on the spool. I do have one reel that has about 50 feet of three different colors of fireline spliced together because I was too cheap to toss the partial spools out. 

[Goose52]

I guess you've already made your decision but for next time here's something to think about.

I understand the goal of trying to spread the filler spool of line across three reels; BUT, sometimes that can be false economy. Here's why:

What do you think is the shortest amount of main line that you can live with? 70 feet, 80 feet, 90 feet, 100 feet? Let's say that it's 80 feet. So, at 80 feet you have to pull off that remaining mainline and refill the reel. So, 80 feet x 3 reels = 240 feel of line being tossed. Were you to spread that filler spool across two reels, you'd only be tossing 160 feet of that expensive main line.

By filling two reels, you'd have 187 feet of line (still only about 62 yards - not very much at all) BUT, you would have line available for longer casts, AND, something many folks aren't thinking of - line available for re-ties / trimbacks. On a rod that I'm using quite a bit during a day I might be easily cutting off three feet or more of line due to re-ties and trimbacks. It doesn't take many days on the water to trim off quite a bit of line and soon you're at your 80 foot (or whatever) minimum.

Up to you to decide how you want to spread that line out across your reels, but for me, I don't like having the minimum amount of line on my reel to start out, AND, I always want extra line for reties.

[Cgolf]

42 minutes ago, Goose52 said:

I guess you've already made your decision but for next time here's something to think about.

I understand the goal of trying to spread the filler spool of line across three reels; BUT, sometimes that can be false economy. Here's why:

What do you think is the shortest amount of main line that you can live with? 70 feet, 80 feet, 90 feet, 100 feet? Let's say that it's 80 feet. So, at 80 feet you have to pull off that remaining mainline and refill the reel. So, 80 feet x 3 reels = 240 feel of line being tossed. Were you to spread that filler spool across two reels, you'd only be tossing 160 feet of that expensive main line.

By filling two reels, you'd have 187 feet of line (still only about 62 yards - not very much at all) BUT, you would have line available for longer casts, AND, something many folks aren't thinking of - line available for re-ties / trimbacks. On a rod that I'm using quite a bit during a day I might be easily cutting off three feet or more of line due to re-ties and trimbacks. It doesn't take many days on the water to trim off quite a bit of line and soon you're at your 80 foot (or whatever) minimum.

Up to you to decide how you want to spread that line out across your reels, but for me, I don't like having the minimum amount of line on my reel to start out, AND, I always want extra line for reties.

I am going to do the cast test on the river and I can retrieve with the line counter. And then yeh definately will leave a bunch for reties because I break off a ton on rocks. I just want to be able to use the spool of line properly, whether I use it on two or three reels. It is tough to judge how far you can really cast, I will probably be surprised how far it actually is. 

[Team9nine]

Personally, I wouldn't go that short. Taping the knot connection down will help with frustrations, but I'd argue for you splitting it in 1/2 instead of thirds. When I spool, 75 yards is about as short as I like to go unless it is going on a smaller spinning reel, then you might be able to get away with 60+ yds.

-T9