I have to admit I dont have a whole lotta experience with Fly Fishing
I am preparing for my next trip out,which is real soon.
Am gonna get 3 Reels ready for action…But…
None of em have Backing. I dont even know what to use nor how much or what kind.
I’ve Flyfished very few times due to 14 Surgeries.
What is your favorite procedure?
Thanks in advance.
BTW - I googled it but was accually wantin to see how many different ways there were to do it.
buy line at bass pro and they will put backing on for free.
David
Thanks David,
I have about 8 different sizes of Stringing including Braided spiderwire.
That was my main question is what size and how much to use,not where to get it…cuz trust me I have plenty.
I won 2 cases of different sized Spiderwire a Bass Rod and all kinda stuff about 7 years ago from them.
I prefer dacron for backing instead of gel spun or braid for most situations. First what kind of fishing will you be doing? If you are fishing for brook trout with a 3 wt, backing is basically a spool filler that makes the arbor on the reel larger and prevents tight coils from going on the reel. If you are fishing for tarpon or tuna you are going to need gel spun just to get the amount of backing on the reel that is needed for their long runs.
If you go to your reel manufacturer’s web site, they will list the amount of backing needed for the reel with a particular average line design. An example might be 5wt line, 150 yards of 20 pound dacron or it might say for a different reel 8 wt line, 225 yards of 30 pound dacron.
If the backing is used mostly as a spacer for a lighter trout reel using trot line dacron in bulk spools will be just fine. For 3 - 7 wt rods for ME, I typically load them with 20 pound dacron. For my 8 - 10 wt rods I load 30 pound dacron. Anything over 30 pound test is going to be stronger than you fly line which breaks around 30 pounds so that is overkill to me.
Hope that this helps. If I cause another question ask.
Rick
No doubt the dacron is best but the mono will work just fine, especially for beginning. After you “advance” to all kinds of species and some that may run all your line out (and you go into the $500.00 reel market), then get the very best … meantime, “adequate will suffice” - you have all that Spiderwire to use up! (LOL) - Besides, all the backing does, for the main part, is fill the reel. On some cheaper reels that I use on the river for bass using poppers, I used a 12 lb mono for backing. Once upon a time the dacron backing was as cheap as dirt, then the movie “A river ran through” came out and EVERYBODY got onto the fly fishing band wagon and the dacron backing went from .50 cents a roll to three, five and six dollars almost overnight.
I agree with Rick about using a dacron line of some sort. Cortland Micron or Scientific Anglers version of that. I tried gel-spun superbraid (Power Pro or Fireline, as I recall) on one of my 8wts. I hooked into a carp that made a strong run well into the backing, and that stuff nearly sliced my finger off when I tried to apply some hand pressure to the line. Probably should have just palmed the reel, but sometimes situations call for one over the other. Its a dangerous situation! I won’t use a superline for backing ever again.
I’ve never tried mono for backing.
I use Dacron and not mono. Mono stretches and if put on a reel under tension, it can distort the spool and even crack as pool. Then again, you may never get to the backing at all.
I don’t use gel spun or any super lines. As noted above they can cut you because they are so thin. What I worry about is that super line will groove the the snake guides if you catch a fish that gets to the backing. GEl spun with ceramic spinning guides OK; with chrome plated snake guides, I worry.
For most freshwater sized reels, I use 20# dacron.
If you don’t know how much to use …
Spool the fly line onto the reel tip first. Tie backing onto the end of the fly line and continue spooling backing onto the reel until it is full. Cut the backing. At this point, the fly line and the right amount of backing is spooled on the reel, but in reverse.
Now take a large, wide spool of some kind (eg, empty paint can or bucket) and unspool the backing and fly line onto the large spool. When you do this, spread out the windings so that they are not wound over each other too much.
Finally, find the cut end of the backing, tie it on the reel arbor and respool the backing and fly line onto the reel.
That’s exactly how I do it. The only thing I would add to your excellent description is that I don’t fill the spool completly. I leave 1/4 " space at the top of the spool. This will ensure that you can wind the line a bit slopily while fishng and not over fill the spool.
Thanks Fellas…Will use this info just as ya’ll say to do…I do appreciate this.
I will be focused on Lake Texoma Striper…They get quite large there.Again Thanks a million
Gonna get to finally try out a Float Tube as well from an old Friend Flytire
Jeffro needs big reels with lots of backing. He will be fishing for stripers that can be in excess of 35 pounds and they will take ALL the backing they want to. So he is not fiddling around with a small trout reel. Just trying to be informative…
He needs the backing for the species he is going after…