Making The Most Of
Your Line
Craig Sandell ©
2010
Fishing line, especially TUF-Line, can be a substantial expense
when you have three or four reels to fill. Recognizing that many of you are on a tight
budget and considering that over the course of a Musky season, a Musky Angler may not get
out on the water as much as he would like, the line that is on your reels may not be
getting overly stressed.
Something To Consider
When you cast, the line that is mid-way down from the top of your
reel and all the way to the bottom of the reel rarely gets used. This line is, for all
intents and purposes, "virgin" line. When you decide to replace the line on your
reel, you are replacing line that has never been used.
An Option For Line Replacement
If you are not on the water every day of the season and are like most
vacationers who only get two or three week a year to fish hard for Musky, then you can
extend your line use by employing the following method:
Since the line at the bottom of your reel is essentially "virgin" line, simply
putting the "used" line at the bottom of the reel results in having fresh line
with which to pursue our Musky friend.
 Take a reel that has no line on it and a reel that
has "used" line. Loosen the drag on the full reel so that there is
only minimal tension and then, after stripping
off 5 - 10 feet of line from the reel to get rid of any frayed line, attach
the end of the line to the empty reel.
Now it is just a simple matter to swap the
line from the full reel onto the empty one. You now have the
"virgin" line at the top of your reel and you are almost ready to go fishing.
Before you actually use the reel, the line needs to be tightly wrapped on
the reel spool to prevent "the mother of all backlashes". Get out in the
middle of the lake where you have an open area. Attach a leader to the line,
depress the free spool and feed some line into the water. Slowly motor
forward and the weight of the leader and line will strip line from the reel.
Once the line is down to the spool knot, you can tighten down the drag and
begin to retrieve the line. Once done, you have the line evenly packed on
the reel and tightly wrapped onto the spool. Put a moderately heavy lure on
the leader and make a couple of "timid" casts to be sure that everything is
working OK.
A Word Of Caution
If you are fishing Musky every day of the season and/or putting a lot
of stress on your line, this is NOT a recommended procedure. Remember also to "feel" the line as you strip
it from the reel. As you slowly pass it through your fingers, you will be able to feel
frays and knots. If you find yourself discovering these line problems throughout the used
portion of the line, then you should prudently discard all of the line.
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