You underspooled. Now what?

[MontanaBasser]

It's line spooling season in my neck of the woods.  Which means pulling out the box of partial filler spools and trying to guess if ya have enough left to fill the reel at hand.  But, sometimes ya miss judge and the filler spool taps out when the reel is only 1/2-3/4 full.  What do you do?  Scrap it?  Back spool it onto another smaller reel(braid)?  Use it as is?  How full does it need to be for you to let it ride?

[casts_by_fly]

If it’s 95% of the way there I’d roll with it (for mono). I change my mono mid season usually so when the 95% is low from cutoffs I’ll strip and refill. 
 

For braid or high end fluoro, if I came up short but had enough to fish, I’d reel it onto another reel, add some more backing, and reel it back on. 

[Team9nine]

2 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

For braid or high end fluoro, if I came up short but had enough to fish, I’d reel it onto another reel, add some more backing, and reel it back on. 

This ^^ for me, too (I usually prefer 65-70 yds min. ‘fishable’). If not, back on the spool to be used as leader material.

[F14A-B]

Brand new line filler spools get marked by permanent markers from the initial use. That way I never have that problem. 

[Jar11591]

If the spool is full enough to where I won’t cast all the line off in a far cast, I’ll just use a leader knot to splice the line and add more to the reel. 

[bulldog1935]

plan ahead and stack line if needed.  

 

https://www.pattayafishing.net/advanced-fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/

 

[A-Jay]

I purchase bulks spools of main Line & backing.

FC, Mono & Braid.

I use the 1/3 - 2/3 method.

1/3 backing and 2/3's mainline on every reel spool.

Spinning & casting.

I hate, I mean, I do not use shallow spools.

When the top section of the mainline begins to show wear, I end for end the mainline back down to the backing and put the fresh line on top.

If the line on the spool is a little short, I add a little backing before spinning the mainline back on.

If it's toast, I replace it. 

Arsenal includes an average of 30 reels or so. 

I been doing it this way for at least twice as long

as the recent Bassmaster Classic winner has been alive.  

Seems to work. 

A-Jay

[Craig P]

I am OCD when it comes to that.  I pull it off and wind it back to the original spool and start with a fresh spool.  That now old spool can be used for a shallow spool or for leader.

[LCG]

When I was young, I was taught that "if you're going to do something, do it right the first time."

 

That advice has paid off quite a bit throughout my life. 

[Motoboss]

I guess I’m the odd idiot out. I fill the whole spool with new line and use it until the casting distance suffers, then replace it.

Now that being said, everything is filled with braid which last for years. I don’t use clear line as mono ruined that for me many, many years ago. Until this Spring. For the first time ever I’m switching to Yozuri T7 fluro and Sunline Shooter fluro on all of my reels (6) to see if I like it. I plan on filling the spool full and then when I replace the line I’ll go half spool with the new line, using the old as backer.

Spinning will remain braid to leader as usual.

 I know, I know,,,wasteful but my reels only hold 130ish yards so using a 150 yard spool isn’t a big deal and it leaves leader line.

[DaubsNU1]

I'm pretty close to @A-Jay's method of 1/3 - 2/3 method.

 

If a spool is running a little shallow, I will peel off line, then tie on new line via Alberto, and spool back up. I think it really helps with casting distance when the spool is darn near full.

 

I did pick up a Shimano Citica used via eBay...pulled off about 1/2 the mono already on there...then spooled up with Braid. But that wasn't enough to fill the spool...so tied on another braid and filled her up. It works.

[throttleplate]

1 hour ago, DaubsNU1 said:

I think it really helps with casting distance when the spool is darn near full.

hello Daubs, in my experience, overspooling my spinning reels always causes me problems with wind knots and so i end up stripping line off and cussing myself out.

[WRB]

Look at the spinning reel spool rim, the line should be at the top where the spool radius starts ( about a penny thickness below the spool top surface.

The line needs to be spooled tight not loose!

If the line is loose it falls off the spools.

Easiest method is running line out 50 yards of line behind a boat at walking speed and reel the back onto the spool while the boat is moving

No boat then walk off about 50 yards on line on a lawn source and put the line between a folded wet terry towel and rewind the line back onto the spool to tightened it.

Too low line level do what the original reply suggested, then respool the line tight as suggested above.

Tom