Wasting Line?

[st.croix]

Just a thought of mine. I have never heard anything about it but I'm sure there is an answer.

I go through a lot of line in a season because I fish about everyday and my line is always in the sun and water so I'm always changing it. I'm wondering why we put 140yds of line on a reel when we only utilize about 60yds before we ( i ) change it? I feel like there is a lot of brand new perfect line underneath the small amount of line that gets used everyday and when I change it I watch about 80yds of new line underneath go into the trash. It would make sense to me to leave about 80yds of line on my reel all the time and just tie my new line onto that and reel on another 80yds of new line which is all I use so when its time to change again I'm only throwing away the line that I used.

Am I out of the loop on this because I feel like this is logical and people already do it to save line but I have never heard of it.

[st.croix]

I was on another forum reading about different lines for baitcasting setups and there has been a few answers along the lines of saying " PowerPro in 30 or 50lb with a P-Line fluorocarbon leader and any kind of cheap mono backing ".

I understand the leader obviously but what is a backing? backing sounds like what I was trying to describe with just having useless line on the spool to take up space

[BrianinMD]

Backing is exactly what you described in your first post. Its a great idea, saves a lot of money by not wasting the more expensive line.

[J Francho]

Many, many people use cheap mono as a backing to more expensive "actual fishing" line.

[Fat-G]

I back all of my reels. It saves a lot of money.

[philsoreel]

I always do this with fluorocarbon and braid. Depending on the spool size, I usually fill about the first third of the spool with mono or old fluorocarbon. On "my" reels this saves me a large amount of line but is still plenty of line left just in case. I want enough extra line to account for alot of re-ties and to never get spooled down to my line to line connection. I use an albright special knot when connecting my braid mainline to my mono backing and a uni to uni when connecting my fluoro mainline to backing. The uni to uni is IMO easier to tie mono to fluoro, mono to mono etc, etc

Just my two cents....

[st.croix]

Thanks guys glad I got that cleared up. I knew that I had to be on to something that someone was already onto haha.

[Stasher1]

To me, the cost of "wasted" line is almost insignificant compared to some of the other fishing-related consumables, like soft plastics. A spool of decent line costs less than a couple lunches at a typical fast food joint, and even less if you stock up when it's on sale.

I use just enough mono backing to cover the spool with a single layer, tie on my braid and fill the spool. When/if I feel like changing line, I strip it all off and start over again.

[Hyrule Bass]

i fish my line down to where its dang near casting off the spool before i change it. but all i use is mono. here lately ive been thinking about trying braid, but am waiting for one of my reels i want to try it on to get low on line so the backing is already there...

[ROCbass]

Another thing you can do to save line is put old line from one reel onto another reel. That way the used part of the line is at the bottom of the spool, and the good unused part of the line is at the top. I do this with braid. I've never tried with mono or fluoro, but it might not work as well because of the memory of these lines and the tight coils at the bottom of the spool.

[Skinnyh2ofishin]

I use the "backing method" with most of my reels now. I started doing it with braid years ago, mainly due to the cost of a school of braid compared to mono. Then, I had the same thought that you did, and started doing it with all my reels regardless of being spooled with braid or mono. Now, I leave the same backing line on all year and only change the top portion of the line until either I start casting far enough to see the mono backing, or when the braid starts to look like it needs reversing. If I've swapped the top line many times, then I'll go ahead and strip all the line off and start over. I only do that because I do quite a bit of inshore saltwater fishing as well and there is the real possibility of having enough line pulled out to get into the backing, and then I want that backing to be as reliable as any other line I'd have on my reel.