Time to respool?

[Drawdown]

When I make a cast on my spinning reel with 15lb braid, I see the metal of the spool. My local fish shop was running low of bulk spool the day I got it set up, and a couple weeks ago I had a bad wind knot lose me a good deal of line.

 

I’d hate to get spooled. But should I just wait until I run out of leader to re-do it?

[DinkDreams]

The paranoid in me says respool, because if you hook into the big one and it spools you you’re gonna be very upset. No downsides to respooling outside of cost of braid.

[Choporoz]

No matter when you respool up new line, it will feel like you've 'wasted' a good amount of line.  If you are casting to within a couple coils of the end, it's already past time.

[garroyo130]

if the lines good just give it more backing

[Darth-Baiter]

might be my imagination, but my spinning reels have a sweet spot in casting smoothness when they are spooled "just right".

[Drawdown]

Asked the guy at the shop, who stood to gain if I did decide to respool. And he asked how many wraps I had left. Hadn’t thought about it before he asked, but when I did and told him it was at least a dozen, he said I’ll be fine.

59 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

might be my imagination, but my spinning reels have a sweet spot in casting smoothness when they are spooled "just right".

Funny you mention this, because I think it doesn’t cast *quite* as far as it did before. I wondered if it could be because I gave it an even longer leader than last time. Or if it was the amount of line in the reel.

 

But it’s not enough to matter—when I eat up the rest of the leader I’ll take it in to respool.

[Choporoz]

59 minutes ago, garroyo130 said:

if the lines good just give it more backing

My hesitation with this is that it sounds like there's only a cast-length of braid left.  Just adding backing would mean that any catch at the end of the cast means you might fight the fish with that backing-to-braid knot.

[padlin]

Just changing lures and retying for chewed line shortens mine every time I go out. No way would I chance with as little as you have, I know there's an 8 lb'er out there somewhere waiting for me to screw up.

 

Supposedly, like baitcasters, a full spool is about an 1/8" from the lip of the spool.

[Choporoz]

3 minutes ago, Drawdown said:

Funny you mention this, because I think it doesn’t cast *quite* as far as it did before. I wondered if it could be because I gave it an even longer leader than last time. Or if it was the amount of line in the reel.

 

But it’s not enough to matter—when I eat up the rest of the leader I’ll take it in to respool.

Imagine that line coming off the spool and how it now has to 'get around' the spool lip/edge.  It will certainly rob you of momentum or inertia and kill distance.

 

If you already decided you like that line, consider buying a spool and doing it yourself.  Might save you some money and you'd know ot was done right.

[MN Fisher]

2 hours ago, Drawdown said:

When I make a cast on my spinning reel with 15lb braid, I see the metal of the spool.

I would have re-spooled WAY before this.

 

I only put 70yds or so of mainline on my spinning reels. Rest is filled with Berkley Cajun - which is a dark red color. If I start seeing Red at the end of a cast, it's time to re-spool, even though there's 60-80yds of the Cajun still on the reel.

[GaryH]

Time to re-spool. If cost is a factor use some mono as a backer then your braid. I’d hate to see your next post being that you lost a hog because you ran out of line.

[casts_by_fly]

If you still have line on the spool after a long cast I would just add backing. Go out into the yard and make a long cast. Strip off what’s left and note how much more there is. Then put a bit of big game 10 lb on as a base layer. 

[WRB]

You want a spinning reel spool filled with line about 1/16”* below the spool rim.

* the thickness ( not diameter) of 1 penny.

When  it gets below 1/8” it’s time to respool.

Just wind the braid onto another reel or empty filler spool and save it. Use mono line to respool as backing to about 3/16” below the spool rim, the wind on the old braid. It should be filled to 1/16” below the spool rim.

When respooling line run it through a wet folded cloth towel to keep light tension on the line.

Tom