Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Don't recall a discussion of this topic and if it's a repeat I'm sorry for my laziness to check the archives. In any case, it's time to rip off the old and put on the new line. I reline before every tournament. I almost always use a backer on my reels so I don't have to put on all new line. I have thought about buying a machine to do this because it really takes up quite a bit of time the night before and it's boring. Quite frankly I'd rather be eating, sleeping, or going over lure choices and connecting the terminal tackle for the next day. What's the fastest way to get this done? Do you tie a loop to put on the reel or do you use a knot? Do you reverse the piece of line tied to your backer? Any baitcaster, spinning tips. Should you reline before you prefish so if you have too much line on or have some twisting you can get things straight before tournament morning. I leaning more and more to doing this. What's your thoughts?

I'm too cheap for new line all the time, and can't really afford it, that's why it doesn't happen.  About every other week or so my reels will get new line, but I change it all.  You never know when you may get a bad birds nest 40 or 80 feet into your line, and not have enough to fish without hitting your backer.  Just my opinion though.

I use all braid with a fluorocarbon leader, so I get a full season out of my line normally. I turn it around half way through the seaso and its like new line. I do use "flea-flicker" on our salmon rods and we change that every 2-3 weeks.

I just got a cyclone spooling machine from Hooksetter and I spooled my baitcasters (9) in about 30
minutes stripping and all, I can't believe how fast it works. Can't wait to use it on the salmon reels as they are huge capacity.

If you use alot of braid make sure you take your rods out of your boat when you get home and let the reels dry out.

i use p-line and rarely re-spool completley... maybe 2-3 times per season on my spinning gear. i strip off 10' of line and retie before each outing. I lost 1 fish last year to a break off (a big one too lol...) and it was the only rod i didn't retie for that tourney. :( 

I usually re spool when the the line gets low or twisted too bad. So i just do it by hand. the berkley respooling stations are nice for baitcasters but i spool my spinning gear off the face of the line spool.