How to spool fishing reels with new line and how often should you change it?

One item of tackle which we rely on the most and trust not to let us down when carp fishing is our line.

Hook pulls are something that we accept as just being part of fishing as you are never going to land them all, but unexplained line breakages – where the line hasn’t come into contact with a snag or anything sharp, or something has gone wrong with your knots – are a different story, as there is no reason why your line should suddenly break and result in a lost fish.

If that does happen, then it is usually down to the line being old and having deteriorated, or it being a poor quality line in the first place and not actually breaking at the stated level.

All fishing lines deteriorate to some degree over time, either through constant use on the bank and the wear and tear that brings, or via exposure to UV rays in the case of some types of line such as monofilament.

For a line of the sort of breaking strain and diameter that we use for carp fishing to deteriorate to the extent that it will snap easily is an extreme case, but you will definitely notice a deterioration in the performance of the line in other areas if you don’t change it fairly regularly – whilst regular usage is one factor in that, age also comes into play even if it has just been sat on your reel not being used for an extended period of time.

How often should you change your line?

How often you use the line is of course the most major factor, aside from its age, as this dictates the level of wear and tear, such as scuffing to the surface of the line, or even flattening from your line clip.

Obviously you should check your line regularly, especially the few yards closest to your rig and which are most likely to come into contact with something abrasive, but also further back along your line if you feel it running across something whilst playing a fish, and any that is damaged should be cut off and discarded.

Losing line off the spool of your reel will eventually impede on casting performance due to the increased resistance as the line peels off over the spool lip, so whilst you might get away with losing some line when fishing at closer ranges, for long range casting you really need your reel filled to the optimum level, and may well need to re-spool even after just one cut off or the line getting damaged during the fight.

Deterioration in performance of monofilament - line twist

Over time you will also start to notice a deterioration in the performance of the line, especially with monofilament – fluorocarbon, and even braid, eventually deteriorate over time as well – and it will become less user-friendly, such as continually wrapping itself around the tip ring or even causing crack-offs on the cast. This is caused by continually being wound on and off the spool, via the bail arm roller, and if you play fish off the clutch then that will add even more twist.

Some of this twist can be removed simply by walking your line out along the bank and then winding it back onto the spool through a damp cloth, or similar, with nothing attached to the loose end, but it won’t get rid of all of the twist.

For many anglers, if they aren’t fishing all the time and don’t have any particular reason to need to change the line – i.e. damage or losing enough that the spool becomes too low – then many people will change it yearly, and often tend to do it whilst sorting their gear out in the spring ready for their new campaign, especially if they tend to fish less over the winter.

This is of course with mono, and if you are using fluorocarbon or especially braid then you can get a lot more life out of, several years in the case of braid with no noticeable signs of any loss in performance, other than maybe the colour going lighter as the dye fades.

Spooling fishing line correctly

This is something which isn’t as obvious as it sounds and which many anglers struggle with to the extent that they can ruin the performance of a brand new spool of line before they even get out on the bank! If you do that then you are just wasting your money.

Focussing on mono lines, when it is loaded in the factory onto the spools that it is sold on, this process adds some twist and line memory – hence why the lines comes off the spool in coils when under no tension – so when you load it onto your reel you need to ensure that you don’t add to that and reduce the performance of the line.

Plenty of anglers simply lay the spool of line on the ground and reel it on, but this adds twist - there is always much debate whether to have the label facing up or down – and the lower down the spool you get, the more twist, due to the way it comes off and over the lip of the spool it is sold on.

A much better way is to have the spool side on and spinning on some sort of a spindle, so basically it is coming off the opposite way to how it was loaded in the factory.

Use a spooling bucket - no need for even a damp cloth

The easiest way to achieve that is via one of the Korda Compac Spooling Buckets, which makes it easy to spool up by yourself and even keeps a certain amount of consistent tension on the line all of the time, so that it beds down nice and evenly on your reel.

The Compac Spooling Bucket also does a second essential job, as well as holding the spool of line in the optimal position, and that is keeping it lubricated throughout the whole process, via filling the bucket up to the right level.  That, alongside the tension under which it is wound on, ensures that the line sits perfectly on your reel and makes it easy to fill your spool to the right level to maximise casting distance.

Spooling up with braid

With a mono line you simply tie it straight to your spool – an arbor knot is a good choice as it isn’t bulky and won’t come undone under tension.

For braid though this won’t work as it won’t grip the spool in the same way under tension, and the lack of stretch means that force is transmitted all the way through the line from the other end.

If you simply tie braid directly to the spool – a mistake many make the first time that they use it, even Neil Spooner years ago when he first tried braid! – the result can be that when you hook a fish and try to wind, all that happens is that all the braid on the spool rotates and you can’t gain any line!

To avoid that, simply use a yard or two of mono tied to the spool, and then join your braided line to that, as this provides enough grip to prevent the braid spinning around on the reel under tension.

In order to get the braid to sit nicely on the spool, it is best to give it a good soak in water beforehand, especially with sinking braids, but even neutral buoyancy ones benefit from this and will wind on more evenly and bed down tighter. Talking of which you want to wind your braid on under plenty of tension to get it to sit right – you can feel if it isn’t, as if you squeeze the braid on your reel you will feel some give in it, almost spongy, whereas it should feel firm. You can still use a Spooling Bucket, but with the addition of winding the braid through a cloth or sponge whilst gripping it tightly to add more tension.

How much should you fill your spools?

The closer to the lip your spool is filled, the less resistance there will be when you cast, and your rig will go further for the same amount of effort – all other factors being equal.

But you also have to balance that with the potential for the line to catch on any slightly looser coil on the reel, thus dragging that off at the same time and causing a tangle, and ultimately usually a crack-off when this gets caught around one of the rod rings.

So you want your spools full – especially if long range fishing or it will reduce casting distance – but not so full that it causes you additional problems (even more so in windy conditions – hence the term ‘wind knots’).

If you're unsure, then initially overfill them slightly, go to a lake and flick out a lead, and if it is overfilled it will tangle a bit and you can cut off the excess line and repeat the process until you get it just right and there are no more tangles.

For most fishing though, where you aren’t trying to get every extra yard on your casting, you don’t need to go to that extreme, and can simply fill the reel up until just below the lip – somewhere around 3mm or 1/8th of an inch seems to be ideal.  

Should I use backing?

Backing means using other line (usually old line that is no longer needed) underneath the new line which you are intending to put on, and is often used where the spool has a much greater capacity than you actually need for the type of fishing you’re doing.

For instance, if your reel holds 400m of 12lb line, then regardless of where you are fishing, a lot of that line is never actually going to end up getting used, so you are wasting money by replacing all of it. Plenty of people just strip off the top 200m or so and replace that with new mono, rather than the whole spool.

Backing might also be needed in order to get your reels filled up to the optimum level, when using a line that doesn’t come on a bulk spool and which may not by enough to fill your spool completely – such as the Korda Kontour or LongChuck Tapered. A good way of getting it just right is to fill a spare reel spool with all the line, and then add backing on top of that until it is at the right level on the spool. Then simply wind it off of that spare spool onto the reel, and it will fill it perfectly (with the backing underneath).

Lines like these can also be reversed as long as you have a spare spool to put it onto, and the tapered main line is actually designed specifically for this, with a thicker tapered section at both ends, effectively doubling the life. The same goes for fluorocarbon, which is expensive compared to mono and is used for shorter range fishing of up to 100 yards or so at most, and reversing it means you are using a part of the line that has never been used before.

Different lines for different situations

Whilst standard monofilament lines are a good all-round option, there are other main lines such as fluorocarbon, tapered lines, and floating or sinking braid, which will perform much better in certain situations.

For this reason you will see many of the Team Korda anglers, such as Darrell Peck, carrying spare spools for their reels which are already loaded with alternative types of line – sometimes even for fishing different swims on the same lake, where some areas might require a tapered line for long range casting, whilst in others you may be fishing at very close range where fluorocarbon is ideal. 

That also applies when fishing different lakes and not just because of the style of fishing but also the rules, so whilst your SubBraid sinking braid might work really well on one lake, it is possible you won’t be able use it everywhere that you fish, as many waters have braided main line bans.

You don’t necessarily have to carry spare spools with you on the bank, which take up extra space in your fishing kit, but it pays to have them in your car just in case, and ideally stored in something like a Compac Spool Case where they are protected from any damage – both to the line via UV, or the spool lip from scratches or chips.