General life expectancy of spooled line?

[NavyVet1204]

How often do you change the line on your gear given it lasts long enough? At this point I’m a once to twice a season respool depending on if I have my days where I’m getting hung up a lot and having to cut the line or a bird nest results in a respool. Braid for me is nearly a 100% guaranteed respool I guess because of inexperience with it. Haven’t fished with mono since I tried FC except for catfish rigs on spinning gear. 
 

Edit: I think I missed my own point partially above, do you ever have to respool due to line that is old and degraded?

[spokey9]

I change out mono fairly often, whether because of breaking off or it's been used a lot. I don't respool braid til there's a need and that's almost always because of low spool. I've got 3 rods that have had the same braid on it for going on 4 years now ?

Edited June 4, 2021 by spokey9
Fat fingers

[A-Jay]

The braid on my spinning gear (Sufix & Seaguar) last 'several' seasons. 

I'll replace it every 3 years or so, although it's usually still in pretty good shade.

InvisX & Tatsu on my casting gear has been quite hearty and I usually don't wear it out.

It does get replaced once or twice a season depending on use.

However it's usually because the spool is getting short from re-tying,

which effects casting distance. 

Finally, I carry 'extra' spools for quick, on the water, replacement should the need arise.

YMMV

Fish Hard 

A-Jay

 

[Cgolf]

I use braid on Bait casters and fireline on spinning rods and I think some of it is going on 10 seasons, and no i don't break off fish. I only change it when it gets too short. The stuff is fairly bullet proof. I am curious why a birds nest results in a respool with braid? Generally when it happens to me, hero cast, they are really easy to pick out, so curious if yours get so bad you need to cut some line. 

 

The big bonus with braid and fireline is when one side looks worn, just take it off and respool it the opposite way and you have like new line on the other end.

[DaubsNU1]

I re-spool mono when it gets low on the reel, or lots of line twist. 

 

I re-spool braid...well, I really don't re-spool braid. I have some old Fenwick Ironthread that has been on bait casters since the 1990's. It gets a little faded towards the end...but the bass don't seem to mind. Still casts great, holds knot...I guess it really is Ironthread : ) 

 

I do service my reels every spring...most are Shimano's from the 1990's...a few from early 2000's.  All perform great and I see no need to replace them. My rods are all Cabela's branded from the 90's...I'm told they were made by Loomis. Hard to beat.  

[Cgolf]

4 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

The braid on my spinning gear (Sufix & Seaguar) last 'several' seasons. 

I'll replace it every 3 years or so, although it's usually still in pretty good shade.

InvisX & Tatsu on my casting gear has been quite hearty and I usually don't wear it out.

It does get replaced once or twice a season depending on use.

However it's usually because the spool is getting short from re-tying,

which effects casting distance. 

Finally, I carry 'extra' spools for quick, on the water, replacement should the need arise.

YMMV

Fish Hard 

A-Jay

 

 

You make me feel better about my choices knowing you fish a ton. I probably fish 5 to 6 days a week but it is mostly 3 rods that are used on my local river or creek for 20 -30 minutes or so on the way to work or after work. My good bass rods see less time so that is part of the reason I can stretch those out for so long.

[A-Jay]

3 minutes ago, cgolf said:

I use braid on Bait casters and fireline on spinning rods and I think some of it is going on 10 seasons, and no i don't break off fish. I only change it when it gets too short. The stuff is fairly bullet proof. I am curious why a birds nest results in a respool with braid? Generally when it happens to me, hero cast, they are really easy to pick out, so curious if yours get so bad you need to cut some line. 

 

The big bonus with braid and fireline is when one side looks worn, just take it off and respool it the opposite way and you have like new line on the other end.

Agreed ~

I forgot to mention that I do this as well.

If the spool is getting 'a little low' I will spin it off and add a little more backing.

I should mention that I never use 'shallow' spools  

#hatethem

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[NavyVet1204]

19 minutes ago, cgolf said:

I use braid on Bait casters and fireline on spinning rods and I think some of it is going on 10 seasons, and no i don't break off fish. I only change it when it gets too short. The stuff is fairly bullet proof. I am curious why a birds nest results in a respool with braid? Generally when it happens to me, hero cast, they are really easy to pick out, so curious if yours get so bad you need to cut some line. 

 

The big bonus with braid and fireline is when one side looks worn, just take it off and respool it the opposite way and you have like new line on the other end.

The bird nests I have with braid are far more catastrophic than bird nests with FC for me. Maybe I’m not spoiling tight enough?

[InfantryMP]

I change out every season at a minimum. 

 

I have respooled though because I have had to break off etc. I also had a bad batch of braid I think, and every time I set the hook, I broke off, even on a bluegill. I swapped all that out this year too.

 

The majority of the time though I can get away with a change every season. 

[Deephaven]

Without catastrophic user failure I respool when my spools get low from retying or seasonally for non-braid.  The user failure usually occurs on my skipping rod which I use Big Game on so that gets spooled nearly for free, but potentially a few times a year.  For my non-braid rods I normally respool them during my yearly reel maintenance.  Braid I flip like A-Jay and add backing.  It last years...

[Michigander]

Respool FC when it runs out or in the spring prep, whichever occurs first. Respool braid when it runs out or every third spring, whichever occurs first. Don't use mono so no replacement schedule there.

[gim]

13 minutes ago, InfantryMP said:

I change out every season at a minimum. 

 

This is me too.  I've got about 15 setups total and I take all the old line off and have them re-spooled every March with new line.  I may be wasting some good line, but that's a moot point for me because I'd rather have the peace of mind going into a new season knowing there's new, fresh line on there.  On occasion I will have to replace a spool during the season if I can visually see its getting low.

 

I should also mention that I often cut about 8-10 feet of the end off fairly regularly as that seems to be the obvious area of wear.  So eventually if I keep doing this my spool will get too low.

[Cgolf]

30 minutes ago, NavyVet1204 said:

The bird nests I have with braid are far more catastrophic than bird nests with FC for me. Maybe I’m not spoiling tight enough?

 

Possibly, but I know when I get them I can usually just start grabbing and lifting sections of line and then pull line out once it is free. The worse the backlash the more you have to hunt to pull the right strand. I don't run free spool a lot either. I generally adjust the brakes to prevent this.

[Happybeerbuzz]

I switch out my mono reels 2-3 times a season.  Other than that, I use braid with a leader.  I figure I lose less than a foot each time I put on a new leader so there is a greater than 0% chance those reels will never get changed out again while I am alive.  If I recall correctly, the last braid reel I changed out was because I wanted to put it on another rod for a different technique.  The time before that, it was because I wanted to test the visibility of neon green vs. high-vis yellow.  We will see though.  The Monkey might catch my eye with some new and improved line I can not resist. 

[Mbirdsley]

I re-spool braid every year in the spring.  In the grand scheme of things fishing line/braid is cheap compared to everything else.  If I don’t re-spool during the season due tangles and break offs I always re-spool in the spring. I use braid, FC, and mono.  Next to braid mono is usually the toughest imho 

[TheBasslayer]

For my spinning pole, which is Braid with Flourocarbon leader, it lasts a while for me, because when my flourocarbon gets either short or old, I could just replace it. The braid on there is 2 years old and still going strong!

[E-rude dude]

When it kinks, frays, or starts giving me problems. Which is about once a year.

[NavyVet1204]

3 hours ago, cgolf said:

 

Possibly, but I know when I get them I can usually just start grabbing and lifting sections of line and then pull line out once it is free. The worse the backlash the more you have to hunt to pull the right strand. I don't run free spool a lot either. I generally adjust the brakes to prevent this.

That’s normally what I do as well, but for some reason they are way worse in entanglement than FC by far. I honestly don’t have patience to set for a half hour and pick through knots that seem impossible. I just cut it out and off and spool up with FC and good to go.

[Cgolf]

21 minutes ago, NavyVet1204 said:

That’s normally what I do as well, but for some reason they are way worse in entanglement than FC by far. I honestly don’t have patience to set for a half hour and pick through knots that seem impossible. I just cut it out and off and spool up with FC and good to go.

 

Wow, I can usually pick mine in 30 seconds. It is rare I have to stop the trolling motor to unpick them. Could be our casting styles differ. I use moderate action rods with all my baitcasters, so it is possible that the load up properly for a good cast. I found most of my backlashes come on a rushed cast where the rod doesn't load properly or I slightly screw up the release point. I have fly fished as well, where loading the rod is super important. It is amazing how much distance and accuracy is lost if you don't allow the fly rod to load properly, might be something like that with baitcasters too, just a thought, no idea if it is true.

[DitchPanda]

Straight up mono I replace at least 1 or 2 times a year. Copolymer is 1 time a year sometimes I can get two out of it. Amazing what a little line conditioner and keeping your line out of sunlight can do for the fishability and longevity. I just changed my frog braid out for the 1st time in 3 or so years..honestly it still looked ok. I pulled it off and stuck it in my skirt making bag so I can tie my skirts on my jigs.

[NavyVet1204]

50 minutes ago, cgolf said:

 

Wow, I can usually pick mine in 30 seconds. It is rare I have to stop the trolling motor to unpick them. Could be our casting styles differ. I use moderate action rods with all my baitcasters, so it is possible that the load up properly for a good cast. I found most of my backlashes come on a rushed cast where the rod doesn't load properly or I slightly screw up the release point. I have fly fished as well, where loading the rod is super important. It is amazing how much distance and accuracy is lost if you don't allow the fly rod to load properly, might be something like that with baitcasters too, just a thought, no idea if it is true.

Yeah it could very well be my technique or lack there of. Honestly, I do just fine with FC and braid was mostly something I wanted to try with top water. I can manage what I need perfectly fine with the FC because shakyhead, chatterbaits, T-rigged craws take up the majority of my fishing time.

1 minute ago, NavyVet1204 said:

Yeah it could very well be my technique or lack there of. Honestly, I do just fine with FC and braid was mostly something I wanted to try with top water. I can manage what I need perfectly fine with the FC because shakyhead, chatterbaits, T-rigged craws take up the majority of my fishing time.

If I ever decide to put together a dedicated bed rig setup then I’ll put some braid on a spinning reel and my luck may be different.

2 minutes ago, NavyVet1204 said:

Yeah it could very well be my technique or lack there of. Honestly, I do just fine with FC and braid was mostly something I wanted to try with top water. I can manage what I need perfectly fine with the FC because shakyhead, chatterbaits, T-rigged craws take up the majority of my fishing time.

If I ever decide to put together a dedicated bed rig setup then I’ll put some braid on a spinning reel and my luck may be different.

Ned rig setup*

[jimmyjoe]

   The lines that I use around riprap (Yo-Zuri Hybrid and Big Game) get changed out about every month, maybe more often. I'm a shorecaster, and the abrasion is fairly constant. My lines for unobstructed water (InvizX and Trilene XL) last several months.             jj

[WRB]

The question should be what degrades fishing line?

Braid is degraded by abrasion wear.

1O0% Fluorocarbon degrades from time under pressure and yield forces.

Nylon or copolymer Nylon degrades from time under pressure, very cold or temperatures greater 105f, UV and chemicals like exhaust fumes.

Stored on original filler spools all line keep in a cool dark temperature controlled space last decades.

Stored and used on reels depends on use and stress.

Tom

[ironbjorn]

I mostly only use Yo-Zuri Hybrid and Big Game. I respool every other trip because it's cheap and I'm OCD.

[jtharris3]

14 hours ago, A-Jay said:

The braid on my spinning gear (Sufix & Seaguar) last 'several' seasons. 

I'll replace it every 3 years or so, although it's usually still in pretty good shade.

InvisX & Tatsu on my casting gear has been quite hearty and I usually don't wear it out.

It does get replaced once or twice a season depending on use.

However it's usually because the spool is getting short from re-tying,

which effects casting distance. 

Finally, I carry 'extra' spools for quick, on the water, replacement should the need arise.

YMMV

Fish Hard 

A-Jay

 

Well d**n! That extra spool thing is a great idea!