Tangled times

[king01]

When do you know its time to put new line on your reels... I have had some cracking fish lately on my 12lb line, some of which have been very hard fighting.

I have noticed recently my lines have the following issues

just as i lift the bale arm to cast the line occasionally seems to spring up and spill off the real

it seems quite loose on the real in places and i more often than not get small loops on the real.

How do you re-spool a real anyway, would it just be easier to get my local shop to do it and provide the right line..

I await your command .....

[muddy_boots]

I put a pencil through the spool* that the line is on and get someone to hold it and put their finger on the line to create a bit of resistance and reel it in.


*as in the one that holds the line before it is on the reel.

[Portland Pirate]

You possibly have a couple of issues.
Firstly you may have too much line on the reel, you should have a gap of around 2mm from the top of the spool to the level of your line.
The other problem may be the line you have on is a cheap line. They are notorious for springing up and going loose.

[Complete Tangler]

As a rule, I always renew my line on all my reels once a season, normally at the start of the year coinciding with a general reel service.
Have only ever used Maxima and Daiwa Sensor mono, and apart from when I was first starting out, never had any issues with linelay, loops or spool off's.

[barbelblanker]

If you use baitrunner reels a lot you will quickly start to suffer from line twist as instead of "spilling" off the reel the line is pulled off the spool as it spins.

If you overfill you get a similar problem.

If you are using nylon then sunlight will make the plasticiser leech out and the line will start to go brittle and weaker.

I've also found that short casts, especially when it's windy, lead to very loose line lay on the spool.

So you might want to try some of the following.

Have a good look at the line. Get a sample of it and try to break it. Most accurate way is to use weights that eventually add up to the breaking strain of the line. Obviously you need to be careful whatever way you do this as when the line does snap things drop or shoot around a bit. I probably wouldn't use a set of scales for this as I'd be worried the sudden release of weight might damage the mechanism. If you suspect the line is damaged then replace it.

I buy Diawa Sensor on bulk spools that makes the "pain" of replacing the reel line less , well painful.

When I fill the reel, I put the reel on a butt section and the line in a bucket (you can add water but you don't need to). The idea is to stand the spool up in the bottom of the bucket. If you use the pencil method then make sure you are pointing the spool of the reel and the "donor" spool at each other. Don't just reel in with the "donor" spool spining.

I always tie the line to the reel spool using a strong but simple sliding loop knot , that way if you drop the reel in the drink with the bale arm open you've got a chance of getting it back.

With the line coming off the edge of the "donor" spool you can see the way the line has been loaded and ensure that when you load your reel spool that the line goes back on so it lays the same way.

Even though nylon is essentially straight it does take on a little bit of a cirl so if you maintain that on your reel then it helps. Load the spool to about 2mm of the edge. If after the first few uses you are getting line spilling off all the time then you might have overfilled it.

In use some lines are more robust that others. I use Diawa Sensor for a number of reasons. It's comparitevely cheap, it's abrasion resistance is good and it's dark in colour. If I am legering at anything over a few rod lengths and the bottom if rough then I tend to discard the last 10 foot or so.

Now what I mean by discard is I loop it up and put it in my bag or pockt. Then when I get home I simply cut the loop quickly in to 1 inch lengths and put it in the bin. That way when it gets to the landfill and sits in the bin back for 10 thousand years before the bin splits, my line doesn't tangle whatever digs it up. Don't just throw it in the water. If many of the people on this forum see you do it you may well end up fetching it.

If your line is OK but appears twisted there's a tip I picked up from watching my brother in law shore fishing. He always starts by casting the reel line out with just a weight on to stretch the line and take out some of the twists.

I've started doing this with an arsley bomb before I tackle up (float or leger) and it just seems to bed the line down a bit and help with the twists.

Give it a good thump out if you can but it's not a casting competition.

If you line is curling when tension is taken off it , you definately have a line twist issue.

You can get specialist leads that help untwist line but I cannot remember who does them.

I store my line in a dark cloth bag, in the bottom of a box, in the windowless garage. Ultra violet light is the enemy with nylon. If you fish a lot in the sun then your lines will be slowly damaged just by being in the sun. In this case it's worth discarding 10 foot or so as a matter of routine.
Hope that helps.

[king01]

thanks all, especially BB

[Mark78]

spot on bb..................... those leads are called spin doctors.