Reusing braided line

[J.A. Veil]

My fleet of rods has reels in the 1000, 2500, and 3000 sizes. All of them have 10-lb Powerpro braid tied directly to the spool (I first put a strip of masking tape on the spool to give the line something to grab onto). I leave my line on the reels indefinitely. More often than not, I will get a wind knot or snag a lure, which removes a few feet of line off the end. Eventually, the spool gets down to the point where I cannot make a full cast.

I had one of my 1000 reels and another 2500 reel that were getting low on line. Rather than strip the remaining line off of both reels and replace it with new, I was able to reuse one set of line. I started by removing the remaining line from the 1000 reel and discarding it. I then tied the end of the line from the 2500 reel onto the bare spool of the 1000 reel and wound the line onto the 1000 reel. Although too short for the 2500 spool, it filled up the 1000 spool nicely. I finished by spooling up the 2500 reel with new line. Now I have two adequately spooled reels and used just one reel's worth of new line.


While on the subject of reusing braid, I keep some old 20-lb braid in a dark color on hand for sewing repair projects. I have repaired fishing gloves, the fabric cover on my gel seat, and straps using this very strong line. You can also use fishing line to hang pictures (I use clear mono) or for hanging bird feeders.

[Mark]

Reversing line is smart thing to do. (Having an extra spool makes the task much easier.) Braid has such a small diameter that the majority of the line on a spool never sees daylight. I like it when the vibrant color returns on the usable part of the line after the reverse -- at least for a while until the sun causes that portion to fade also.

Most of my spinning rods have Pflueger President reels. They have held up remarkably well and their actions remain smooth despite their relatively low price. Something Pflueger does that I'm surprised is not standard for all reel makers now is to embed rubber strips on the seats of their spools to grasp the braid. That negates the need for tape to stop the line from spinning.