'Slipping' drag was not - a lesson in spooling braid!

[Oldbritguy]

I missed three good strikes last weekend, due ( I thought) to the drag on my old Citica slipping badly. Hardly any drag at all - happened very suddenly, very puzzling???

Quick trip to my trusty local Shimano repair guy. Seemed to be working O.K. in his store? Left it for a checkover. Phone call a few hours later: " The drag is working fine. Whoever spooled this braided line on your reel did not tie it properly to the spool. Its slipping. Braid will do that, you have to be more carefull when you respool with braid"

So, lesson learned: Make sure you tie a good tight knot to the spool. Being new to braid I just tied a simple overhand knot, and 'voila!' - 75 yards of premium Samurai braid just simply slid around the spool. No wonder I lose so many fish. . .

:-[

[Nitrofreak]

DUH!! ha ha I did the same bloody thing so dont feel bad, That's what fishing is all about... Learning lessons like that so others can have a laugh at your expense... What a great country we live in!!   ;D

[Lucky Craft Man]

I learned that lesson a while ago. Even though I have slowly migrated away from braid (except for a few applications), I actually use some mono as filler and then double uni connect my braid and finish out the reel. It helps me conserve the good line by using less and the mono hasn't slipped on me yet.

[Oldbritguy]

Yes, that's what the Shimano guy suggested.  "Use mono tied directly to the spool, then tie the braid to the mono".  And, as you point out; the expensive braid goes much further.

Why is everyong else so much smarter than me?

[Mike Z]

One thing I saw on the Yamamato website under their tips and hints was that he wraps his drilled spools in teflon tape to cover the holes. he claims that this will reduce the chance that water from rain or whatever will get into the inner workings and foul things up. Also, since the tape is meant to be pliable and is wrapped around the spool, it may also act to keep the braid from slipping in case of a poorly tied knot as mentioned. Don't know if it will be effective, but a few wraps jjust in case can't possibly hurt when I have 100 yards of line wound tightly on top. (vs a mirror smooth aluminum machined finish)

[Nitrofreak]

Experienced not smarter! We are like children on this site learning from our wiser more educated parents only this time around we tend to listen to them.

[Fishes in trees]

I had that same problem and solved it by gluing the line to the spool with super glue.  It just takes a dot or so the the glue and a minute or two to dry and then no more line slippage.

[Dan:]

You should have just asked here! Would have saved a little $$$

[islandbass]

Experienced not smarter! We are like children on this site learning from our wiser more educated parents only this time around we tend to listen to them.

Definitely! I too went through the same thing. I thought something was wrong with the drag. :-[

[=Matt 5.0=]

Use one wrap of friction tape on the spool. One less knot to worry about. After doing it this way for 20 years I have NEVER had braid slip.