Want to put line on my own BC reels now, but I've got questions 2025
pauldconyers reply :
I'm tired of always having to run up to BPS to put line on BC reels so I am going to attempt to do it myself. I've got a few questions to make sure I do it right, do not mess up the line and do not needlessly waste a lot of time doing it incorrectly. I think this would be a lot less complicated if I was not going to use backing on all of them.
I guess my first question is what to back with? I have read a ton on here about cheap mono but also some points about braid making a better backing. For these reels I plan on having a main line of FC from 10-20 pound or 40-65 braid. For main lines such as that should I go with a specific test of line?
On YouTube I see most people suggest an arbor knot to the reel, is that the most common? Does it matter if the spool does or does not have any holes or anything to tie to? If I use braid do I want to use the little electrical tape trick?
Lastly what knot do I want to use the connect the backing to the main line? Does the knot type depend on what type of backing and what type of main line?
Boomstick reply :
I usually use a dual uni knot to tie backing line to main line with 10 turns on each side. If you have a spool that you can tie to, you might not need to use backing but that depends on how much line the reel holds. If it will hold 80 yards of whatever size line you're using then tie straight on. If it will hold 110 yards of 65lb, add roughly 30-40 yards of 17lb mono backing. Also if it holds under 80 yards of line, you can wrap the spool with black electrical tape then tie the line around that and that will keep the line from slipping.
Here's a video that should help
riverbasser reply :
I think your making too much of it. I like to use an arbor knot but really you can use any knot that will tighten up. I always use big game mono as backing mainly because I have several thousand yard spools. Depending on what the reel will be used for I normally only spool about 75 yards of fluro. So I fill the reel with mono then pull off 75 yards of line. (I marked it off in my yard)this only needs to be done once with a new reel. Then tie an Albright knot and fill with the fluro or braid.
Spool line from the top for baitcasters and the bottom for spinning.
Bass_Fishing_Socal reply :
Before you start on backing, you would have to answer this, why backing?
there are a few reason but mostly for the purpose of saving bucks from wasting expensive line. A lot of bass anglers prefer to have line at least 3/4 spool full at all time, why? Because that is the most distance you would get and a true IPT. Some just plain rich and want fresh new line every trip so backing help by not having to replace a whole spool of line only top 50-75 yds. This method you can use any cheap mono line as backing.
Another reason is to make spool as light as possible but this is not applied to majority here. Most of the fishing these day you won’t see any difference of saving a gram on spool weight UNLESS you fish finesse all the time. This camp mostly use braid as backing and mainline only 6-8lb.
Now you know why you need backing.
Next step, if you use reasonable price line, just fill the whole spool with such line, go do some bomb cast then peel the line off another 20-30yds tape it for reference so you know next time when your line run out to where you tape, you can cut the line and start from that point on.
Braid doesnt coiled up under spool pressure so no need for backing, you can use all the way to the end or reverse in-out if needed only problem in this case is speed or IPT where when the line only half full you lost quite a bit of speed. If speed is matter then backing should be add but you would waste a lot more braid line this way.
Now line you want, the diameter is also matter most modem 150-200 size reel would fit about 100yds of 20lb mono and 150yds of 10lb mono. You might not need backing if you going to use 20lb with this reel. Size of reel also matter, you have to know how much line your reel would hold. Another reason there are many size reels in market.
Double uni knot is well proven, it is not the smallest knot but easy to tie and hard to mess up. Arbor knot is also easy to tie but some might not even tie a knot just tape to spool is enough. Braid backing might have problem of line slipping, you can use electrical tape or plumber tape.
Ski213 reply :
Good info above. I typically use backing on reels only when I’m gonna spool up braid the rest of the way. I use mono for backing. I have had braid slip when it was a full spool of braid a few times. The tape fixes that.
I use the arbor knot occasionally to start at the spool. As mentioned, anything that will pull up tight will work. I had a couple reels in the past that had a little hole as a line tie. In that instance I used it. Probably just tied a square knot there. To join backing to the main line I use the uni to uni knot, also mentioned above. I’ve tried others but that’s the one I’ve stuck with. It’s simple and in
my experience works well.
WRB reply :
On 12/30/2019 at 9:15 AM, riverbasser said:I think your making too much of it. I like to use an arbor knot but really you can use any knot that will tighten up. I always use big game mono as backing mainly because I have several thousand yard spools. Depending on what the reel will be used for I normally only spool about 75 yards of fluro. So I fill the reel with mono then pull off 75 yards of line. (I marked it off in my yard)this only needs to be done once with a new reel. Then tie an Albright knot and fill with the fluro or braid.
Spool line from the top for baitcasters and the bottom for spinning.
Top of the filler spool so the label spins clockwise for baitcasting reels.
Make sure the line goes on tight by keeping some pressure on the line while spooling it.
Dry Loose line with braid is a major problem!
Tom
pauldconyers reply :
If I were to do mono backing what pound test do I want to go with?
mrpao reply :
What reels are you using?
If your spools are shallow, you may not need any backing at all.
In bass fishing backing is usually only used to take up spool space.
Also if your reels already have line on it, just strip off the line to where you normally use it to, plus maybe additional 10 to 20 feet and add the new line to it from there. No need the waste line that will never see the daylight
pauldconyers reply :
On 12/30/2019 at 9:51 PM, mrpao said:What reels are you using?
If your spools are shallow, you may not need any backing at all.
In bass fishing backing is usually only used to take up spool space.
Also if your reels already have line on it, just strip off the line to where you normally use it to, plus maybe additional 10 to 20 feet and add the new line to it from there. No need the waste line that will never see the daylight
The main reason I am wanting to do this comes back to money. Last year I bought 4 different Shimano SLX reels. Loaded one up with Sufix 832 braid and the other 3 with Sunline FC sniper. Those reels are the 150 size and when my fishing season was done I had them full up with no backing of whatever line type. Well this last month I feel into a little unexpected money and a buddy wanted to buy these SLX reels from me for almost what I paid for them so I upgraded them all to Curado K reels and they are 200 size reels so the line off the SLX 150 reels would not fill them up properly and at the same time I do not want to "waste" all that perfectly good line that was not cheap. So I figured I would put like 1/3rd of the reel on of backing and be able to use this line of the SLX reels. In the future if I buy a 200 yard spool of reel I figure I could pull off 100 yards of it, cut it and put it on top of that backing and could do that a second time when the time comes.
riverbasser reply :
On 12/30/2019 at 9:30 PM, pauldconyers said:If I were to do mono backing what pound test do I want to go with?
Depends. I normally use 15lb big game only because I trust this line in this diameter in the odd chance I was low on line and the fish pulled enough to get into my backing. (This really never happens)
pauldconyers reply :
I was kind of leaning towards 15# big game. I'm curious if people think a different size line would sit smoother or whatever.
OnthePotomac reply :
I do not use knots for my backing line (10lb mono) to the reel, just a tiny piece of white duct tape, then another tiny piece of duct tape for the main line onto the backing. Before I spool on the mono or flouro main line I color the line with a red marker for about 5 ft, then I know when I am getting down to the end of the line. Has worked so far for 19 years. I even tape on the braid on the frog reel..
PourMyOwn reply :
On 12/30/2019 at 9:30 PM, pauldconyers said:If I were to do mono backing what pound test do I want to go with?
Whatever you have lying around-it doesn't make a difference. I've never gotten down to my backing in 30 years of using baitcasters.
pauldconyers reply :
On 1/1/2020 at 1:22 AM, PourMyOwn said:Whatever you have lying around-it doesn't make a difference. I've never gotten down to my backing in 30 years of using baitcasters.
But will a thinner or thicker line lay on the spool "smoother" or does it truly not matter?
PourMyOwn reply :
On 1/1/2020 at 1:30 AM, pauldconyers said:But will a thinner or thicker line lay on the spool "smoother" or does it truly not matter?
It doesn't matter.
Maybe if you put 50 pound mono or something with a really big diameter...but that's highly unlikely.
WRB reply :
1. Don't take off all the line from your reels with FC or mono, take off about 70 yards of the line and use whats left on the reel for backing.
2. Don't remove all the braid, reuse it by turning around with top line on the arbor the bottom line doesn't take a set and as new.
Tom
Bass_Fishing_Socal reply :
First of all, the SLX 150 (14lb/90yds) 200K (14lb/110yds) not a huge different in line capacity so you will have to use proper backing to not wasted your good line.
The easiest way, if you already have the K is to transfer old line from SLX to K directly. You can see how much room left that you need for backing. Do this back and forth you will get a perfect amount of backing without wasting your expensive line.
What lb for backing, doesn’t really matter but the bigger the line the bigger the knot. If you happen to run all the line to your backing you might be in trouble for knot to go thru all the guides. Big knot also can interfere with braid when cast if the knot if not deep enough in spool.
pauldconyers reply :
On 1/3/2020 at 6:57 AM, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:First of all, the SLX 150 (14lb/90yds) 200K (14lb/110yds) not a huge different in line capacity so you will have to use proper backing to not wasted your good line.
The easiest way, if you already have the K is to transfer old line from SLX to K directly. You can see how much room left that you need for backing. Do this back and forth you will get a perfect amount of backing without wasting your expensive line.
What lb for backing, doesn’t really matter but the bigger the line the bigger the knot. If you happen to run all the line to your backing you might be in trouble for knot to go thru all the guides. Big knot also can interfere with braid when cast if the knot if not deep enough in spool.
So if the smallest braid I would be putting on top of the backing is 30 pound and the smallest about of FC I would put on top is 10 pound what size mono would you recommend to go with that size line/knot?
Bass_Fishing_Socal reply :
If possible I’ll try to match mainline with backing especially with braid. If you have any cheap 10lb big game try that.
BTW 10lb FC sniper on 150. Size reel, you might have almost 150 yds of the line.
pauldconyers reply :
On 1/3/2020 at 7:42 AM, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:If possible I’ll try to match mainline with backing especially with braid. If you have any cheap 10lb big game try that.
BTW 10lb FC sniper on 150. Size reel, you might have almost 150 yds of the line.
Should I just be trying to match up line diameter more so than pound test of both lines?
Bass_Fishing_Socal reply :
You don’t have to match-match it just close enough I guess. Use whatever cheap line you have for now. From your info, you would have a lot more than 100 yds of both braid and FC in your spool, you might not even see any backing at all thru next season. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If you have to buy new line, head to Walmart and get 10lb big game there (I doubt you would find 8lb big game) and get it done.
Next time when you need to respool, you would have to re-evaluate your backing, (more backing, less main line) if you still gonna use 30lb braid or 10lb FC on your 200K. Might worth invest in line counter if you have a lot of reels.
pauldconyers reply :
On 1/3/2020 at 8:39 AM, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:You don’t have to match-match it just close enough I guess. Use whatever cheap line you have for now. From your info, you would have a lot more than 100 yds of both braid and FC in your spool, you might not even see any backing at all thru next season. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If you have to buy new line, head to Walmart and get 10lb big game there (I doubt you would find 8lb big game) and get it done.
Next time when you need to respool, you would have to re-evaluate your backing, (more backing, less main line) if you still gonna use 30lb braid or 10lb FC on your 200K. Might worth invest in line counter if you have a lot of reels.
I have heard these things are not real accurate, what is your experience? Can they possible damage the line?
Bass_Fishing_Socal reply :
You are worried too much young padawan.
I don’t have the Rapala one but I do use my broken Berkley one a lot. It might not as accurate down to feet but at least it get the job done for me.
You might not even need it just buy a 150 yds spool and split to half.
I need this because I have at least 5-6 reels that use 10lb braid down to 4lb braid especially on spinning rig.
Another reason to buy a reel size that match the line you wanna use. I have 200i that fill with 15lb copolymer no need for backing, 150SLX with 12lb copolymer no backing and 15 AbrazX on bantam 150, also no backing. I’ll use these reel until the line down about 1/4 then I’ll add whatever line I have to make the spool full again.
FishTank reply :
I have backing my reels for years with Yo-Zuri Hybrid 6lb, all of them. I picked up a ton of it years ago for $2.00 1/4lb spool. So far I have had no issues. I usually fill a reel about a 1/3 to a 1/2 full. I have also backed reels with whatever small amount of line I have left from a regular filler spool. I have found that as long as I don't go smaller than the 6lb, I'm good.
Also, I don't care for the line counters.
OnthePotomac reply :
Just watched Kevin Van Dam changing his line and said he uses a know to tie on his current line, which is never more than 75 yards and the knot shows him where to cut and tie on a new 75yds of line. I guess my red line marking does that for me and it really show up well.
pauldconyers reply :
I ended up buying a 1500 yard spool of 10lb Big Game. Looking at it's diameter compared to the other lines I will use with it that pound test made the most sense regarding knot size and all that. Now I have to start fill up all these naked reels with it as backing. Is filling them up a 1/3rd a good rule of thumb for backing?
dgkasper58 reply :
On 1/6/2020 at 3:23 AM, pauldconyers said:I ended up buying a 1500 yard spool of 10lb Big Game. Looking at it's diameter compared to the other lines I will use with it that pound test made the most sense regarding knot size and all that. Now I have to start fill up all these naked reels with it as backing. Is filling them up a 1/3rd a good rule of thumb for backing?
Depends on what line (diameter) is going on top and what you are going to do with that particular reel.
jbsoonerfan reply :
I can't believe this thread is still going. I have been putting line on my own reels since I was 14, never knew it could be so difficult. LOL
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