TIP #11: Fill your reel to fill your creel!!!




CAPTION: An underfilled spool, left, robs the angler of casting distance and smooth drag operation. Spinning reels should be filled to within 1/16th of an inch of the spool’s lip (if no fill mark is present), as shown on the reel on the right. Go to within 1/8th of an inch for casting reels if no fill mark is present.

An adequately filled spinning reel (or casting reel, for that matter) will perform much more satisfactorily than an underfilled spool in several ways.

First, your casting distance will instantly improve. As a spinning reel spool is filled to capacity, the circumference of the line spooled onto the spool increases with each additional layer of line reeled onto that spool. The closer to the lip of the spool the line comes, the less friction occurs as the line exits the spool. The less friction encountered, the further the lure will go during the cast, all other things being equal.

Next, a well-filled spool helps your drag function more effectively. Reels’ drags are designed to work with a spool filled to capacity. If, for example, five pounds of force is exerted pulling line against a reel’s drag with a full spool of line, the spool will counter-rotate smoothly. If that same five pounds of force is exerted on a partially filled spool, the line will come off more stubbornly, thus increasing the overall strain the line is experiencing.

One of the situations I see regularly when anglers pursue topwater feeding fish is the tendency for anglers to get too close to the fish, thus spooking them as they chase after those fish with a trolling motor set on high. This pushes fish down and away. Instead of insisting on getting so close, anglers will do well to allow some standoff distance between their boat and the fish. Having a well-filled spool helps accomplish this and will allow the angler to catch more fish because more fish remain visible to the naked eye when not aggressively pursued.

To this point, I have spoken in general terms about having a full spool. To be specific, a full spool is a spool filled to the fill line engraved near the lip on many spinning reels. If such a fill-to line does not exist, then filling a spinning reel to within 1/16th of an inch below the lip will be adequate.

For casting reels, a bit more allowance is advisable. If a casting reel has no fill-to line, leaving about one-eighth of an inch is a good choice. The line on casting reels has a tendency to bunch on the far left side of the reel if the rod is held at an angle such that the line lays to the left of the rod’s tip throughout the retrieve, and vice versa. This is particularly true on long casts.

The casting reel can therefore be evenly filled before a cast is made, only to have bunching occur to such an extent that the line overflows the spool and begins to rub up against the inside of the reel’s frame.

This makes reeling more difficult and can damage the line. It will also decrease casting distance on the subsequent cast due to the added friction of the line being in contact with the immobile reel frame.

Some people will assume that if filling a spinning reel’s spool to within 1/16th of an inch is good, then filling a spool to level with the lip or even over the level of the lip is better. This is inaccurate.

Doing so invites tangles, and in the case of braid, invites wind knots which can be difficult, if not impossible, to get out of wet line, depending on how tightly the line is cinched before the knot is detected.




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If you have tips of your own, feel free to respond to this post, or send a private message. I will give credit where credit is due!


A LITTLE BACKGROUND: This is one in a series of tips posted for the summer of 2022. These helpful suggestions are borne out of thousands of hours of on-the-water experience in pursuing white bass and hybrid striped bass in Texas using the in-line spinners in the MAL Lure family. With tens of thousands of the MAL Lures now in use (and most of those in Texas!) I want to help give current and future MAL Lure users their best shot at catching fish by sharing what I've discovered 'the hard way' in hopes of reducing your own learning curve. These tips are in no particular order.

I am enjoying these tips. A bunch of great information. Some things I know and some I don't. Also some different slants on old ideas. Thanks for posting them.

Yessir! No use reinventing the wheel. Thanks for using the MALs!!

In my head I knew about this but thinking about my spinning reels currently I have 3 out of 6 that have line less than full capacity. This post is going to crack my lazy bone and fill up the line capacity on my reels. Thank you for the nudge!

Once you see how much distance that full spool gets you, you will get more disciplined at keeping those spools filled.

Thanks for tuning in, Rick!