Installinig New Fly Line

[lastchance]

What is the easiest way to place new backing and a fly line on a reel? I've done it before, but I'm thinking there must be an easier way.
Thanks,
Bruce

[Lotech]

I usually have the place where I bought the line do it for me. Always free if you bought the line & backing there.

[Normand]

What is the easiest way to place new backing and a fly line on a reel?

have your wife do it for you!

or

spool the line first then the backing. then you will know how much backing is required

remove everything from the spool

spool on the backing, tie your favorite knot to hold the line and finish spooling

should take about 20-30 minutes.

[jszymczyk]

I usually have the place where I bought the line do it for me. Always free if you bought the line & backing there.

on one occasion, I watched a moron working at a fly shop setting up a reel for a customer- he wound on a 100yd spool of backing, then wound on the fly line.... without tying the backing to the line.

99.99% chance the customer will never even see the end of his fly line, but I damn sure want to know it's done right, so I do it myself.

[Buddy Sanders]

LastChance,

I don't know about 'easier', but I try to do it the best way I can. It's a chore that has to be done, and many of us have to do it ourselves.

My 'goal' is always to get enough backing in place so that the fly line fills the reel completely without binding. While most reels list the amount of backing they are supposed to hold with certain weight line, the difference in fly line thickness and lengths from manufacturer to manufacturer and all the different line types makes these numbers suspect at best.

Here's how I 'do' it. It's not easy, nor is it hard. I does take a certain amount of time, but you only have to do it once.

I take the reel I want the backing and line to fill and attach the tippet end of the FLY LINE to the arbor. I spool this onto the reel. Then I attach the BACKING to the fly line and add enough backing to the spool to fill it to the level I want. Now I have both fly line and backing on the spool, but they are on backwards.

The next step depends on what you have around. If you have an empty extra spool for the reel in question, just reel the backing and line onto that spool and you are done. That's not always an option, though.

What I do if I don't have an empty extra spool is to take another two reels (I keep a couple of old reels, bought for cheap at the swap meet, around for this purpose) and take the line from reel to reel until I get it back onto the proper spool in the proper direction. It's a three stage process, but you end up with the correct mount of backing for that reel and fly line with no waste and no annoying tangles.

Takes about ten to fifteen minutes to do all of this. It's not fast, but it is 'sure'. If you don't have any extra reels, you can just hand wind the line onto paper towel tubes or pool noodle sections, or a flat piece of cardboard. Just about anything will work, but try not to twist the fly line doing this.

Another option is try to eyeball it, which is what most folks do. The problem here is that most people underfill the spool. While it's not too much of a problem, and most fly fishermen just live with it, it does have consequences. Tighter coils in the line, low backing capacity, slower retrieve rates. None of these are catastrophic, just annoying.

A way to overcome this is the 'trial and error method'. Fill the backing to 'overfill' it, then add the fly line. If you put on too much backing, pull the fly line off, cut out some of the backing, and then try it again. Do this until the reel is properly filled.

It only has to be 'close', but as close as possible is best.

Good Luck!

Buddy

[ducksterman]

Couple of hints...

There are a jillion ways to hook up a hand drill to do the winding...speeds up the process considerably.

Remember ...when you wind line and backing on in the controlled environment of your home it is not the same as rewinding when fishing...easy to wind on too much if you try to get too exact.

[DarrinG]

Good point, Duckster. When spooling on new line/backing at home, it's all spooled on neat. Out on the stream, when picking up line fast to get a fish on the reel, it wont be wound as neat. I ~always~ leave about a pencil's width between my line and the edge of the spool when putting on new line to have a little extra room for a sloppy retrieval in the event of a hard-charging fish I wanna get on the reel quick.

I do like some others...I spool the actual fly line on first, then attach backing and spool it on until I get to that pencil-width stopping point. Then strip it all off. I usually strip it out all through the house, then spool it back on, attaching the backing to the spool first and wind it back on.

[tailingloop]

There are so many variables that it makes it difficult to consistently know how much backing to put on a reels. Fly lines are different lengths and diameters, there are different fly line tapers. Different brands of backing are different diameters, even if the same break strength. (example: SA dacron is thinner than Micron, which is thinner than Cabelas dacron, etc). Colored backing is thicker than white. Spectra is thinner than dacron, is the line wound on by machine or hand wound, etc.

I have started collecting a database of information that makes filling reels with backing a bit simpler.


I examine reels that have been filled properly with backing and line.

I record the diameter of the interior side of reel spool and the internal width of the spool. Dont measure the the diameter of the face of the spool since if it has a palming rim this side will have a greater diameter.


I measure the distance from the center of the reel to where the backing stops and the fly line starts.
I record the type of flyline that was on the reel (WF, DT, floater, sinking, integrated head , etc)

I have done this for my reels, I have taken the measurements from friends reels, and I have examined reels in shops.

So now for example, I know that I can fill reel with a 2 7/8" diameter, 15/16" wide spool such that the end of the backing is 1" from the center of the spool (not the arbor, the rotational axis) and put a 90' WF-6-F line on it.

With measurements from a couple of dozen line and reel combos I have found that I can estimate pretty well for others and since I have been helping a local fly shop with rigging reels with lines from 2wt through 12wt I have been pretty right on almost all the reels I have rigged up.

[Greg H]

I follow the same basic routine as Buddy and Duckster, with this one added suggestion. Putting the line and then the backing on the reel is straightforward because it comes off the spools, but for taking all the line off again to turn it around - DO IT OUTSIDE.
1) Attach the reel to the butt section of your rod and run the line through the guides available.
2) Then I find it is really easy to attach the backing to a tree or fence post and walk to another of the same about 30' away if possible. It only takes a couple of circuits to get all the line off the reel - and the line is basically out straight, not coiled or tangled.
3) After attaching the backing to the reel, since the reel is on the rod butt, I find it easier to reel in the line like I would do if I were fishing - and again tangles are avoided because the line comes through the one or two guides available.
Good Luck.

[lastchance]

I did two spools in about 45 minutes last night. I taped the front end of the fly line to the spool and wound it on and then I connected the backing and filled the reel. I then walked around my kitchen table while stripping off the line and the backing. Then I attached the backing end to the reel spool and wound it on not snug, but not loose. For the extra spool I tied the backing on and used the first spool as a guide as to how much backing I needed. I attached the fly line and I was finished. I just thought there might be an easier way, but I guess that's not the case. Thanks for all of your suggestions.
Bruce