When you have purchased your fly fishing equipment, you might feel like something is incomplete for a better performance. In that case, spooling your fly reel might be necessary. You might be here for the same reason to find out the way of how to spool a fly reel. To help you in spooling your fly reel, we are presenting you this guide on how you can spool a fly fishing reel.
What Does Spooling a Fly Reel Mean?
You might have purchased your fly reel suitable for a certain fish. But, when you go on for fly fishing to catch a larger fish, the knots in your fly fishing equipment mightn’t work. The connection between the backing and fly line, fly line and leader, leader and tippet and the end of the tippet and the fly might be affected while going on for fly fishing a larger fish with a fly reel suitable for a smaller fish. The reason why this happens is that the fly line starts going out.
Spooling becomes helpful at this point. Spooling a fly reel refers to the process of making your fly reel suitable for another size of fish. With this method, you will have secure knots on your fly reel along with the essential amount of backing so that you will be able to hunt a larger fish with your fly fishing equipment.
Why is Spooling Necessary?
Spooling a fly reel is necessary for the following reasons:
- Spooling allows you to use your fly reel for different size of fish rather than the suitable fish pre-defined by the reel manufacturer.
- You will have a sufficient amount of backing in your fly reel after spooling it for larger fish.
- Spooling clears the tension in your mind regarding the connection of knots in your fly fishing equipment while trying to catch larger fish.
Traditional Way: How to Spool a Fly Reel?
Spooling a fly reel is really beneficial when you are thinking about going to catch a larger fish while fly fishing. If you are thinking about getting your fly reel spooled, here are all the steps that go behind the process of spooling.
Making Sure The Reel Lining
The first thing you need to do is to make sure that the reel is properly lined up for a left- or right-hand retrieve. If it isn’t, you need to do so right now. For this, you need to have a fly reel which consists of the retrieve side that you prefer, or at least the reel needs to be able to switch from left- to right-hand or vice-versa.
Securing Drag
Now, you need to make sure that the drag is secure so that you will be able to spool your reel properly. The drag needs to be tightened.
Placing Bend
The next thing you need to be doing is to place a bend in your backing.
Ensuring Enough Seat
Now, you need to run the bend a couple of times in your backing so that there’ll be enough seat on your backing.
Attaching Bend
What you have to do now is to attach the bend securely with a uni-knot against the fly reel.
Proper Tension
When you are setting up your backing, the backing needs to feature a little amount of tension. If the wraps around your fly reel aren’t properly tightened, the backing material might bend down through your wraps. This is certainly not the thing you expected, which is why using a nail knot might help you to prevent this case.
Optional: You might want to cross your wraps around your fly reel so that the backing won’t be compressed while casting on the water surface. This is always a step you shouldn’t miss while trying to catch a larger fish which is able to run down into the backing.
Attach Backing & Fly line
You can attach the backing and the fly line with help of a double surgeon’s knot along with a certain amount of lead placed on your backing. The only thing you need to do here is to create a secure connection between your backing and running line by running the backing around the fly line spool.
Connection Between Fly Line & Backing
Now that your fly line is totally fine, it’s time to form the perfect loop-to-loop connection with your fly line and backing using another double surgeon’s knot.
Attach Fly Line & Leader
The only thing you need to do now is to attach your fly line and leader with the same method as above. You might also want to form a perfection loop between your fly line and leader at this point.
Precautions of Spooling a Fly Reel
While spooling a fly reel, there are several things you need to remember. Here are some of the major safety precautions that you need to take during the process:
- You shouldn’t dispose of your old fly lines by throwing them on the earth surface or into the water since other terrestrial and aquatic animals might get tangled in it resulting in their death. Instead, you can dispose of them in the fly line recycling bin.
- You shouldn’t bite your fly line since doing so might result in the chipping of your teeth.
- It isn’t recommended for you to drag your fly reel through the sand.
- Be careful about bumping your reel on rocks at any time.
- You shouldn’t use the fly reel and fly line if you’ve not properly spooled them first. You need to re-spool it properly before going for fly fishing.
Conclusion
Now that you have found out the method to spool a fly reel, it’s time for you to get started and turn these steps into real-life actions to spool your reel. It’s also recommended for you to go through the precautions once to find out some prohibitions and tips while spooling a fly reel.
When you’ve properly placed everything securely as mentioned in the above steps, you will have your spooled reel and you will be ready to go for fly fishing. However, if you couldn’t spool your reel, you might want to go through the same process again. If you are still unable to spool your fly reel, you can feel free to write down to us in the comments. We’d love to get back to you right away.