I have some Berkley Big Game that is pretty old, I'd guess 5+ years. It was still on the spool the entire time until I put it on a reel about 2 months ago. The line was kept inside mostly, never in the sun. It's not brittle but has horrid memory. So my question is how old is to old? I've considered buying larger spools but this might keep just buying line as I need it. Just FYI, I tried KVD line conditioner but still unusable. Any insight on Fluoro shelf life? I'd imagine it's worse.

Mono shelf life is about a year. It absorbs light, whether indoor or outdoor which causes it to break down.

Fluoro is UV resisitant and does not absorb light or water like mono. It has a shelf life of 7-8 years.

I have several spools of mono that are over 5 years old or older and they seem fine, they have been kept indoors and in the dark(not on purpose just where I put them).

I think the shelf life is about 5 years for mono kept in the dark. Probably much less if exposed to sunlight.

I recently tossed out several spools of Berkley Big Game 20 lb. test I've had for about 6 years. It was kept inside a box with no light, but in a non air conditioned shed. I used some of it about a year ago and it was fine. I also had some 17lb. Stren, about 6 years old kept in the dark inside my air conditioned house.

A few weeks ago I went to use some of it, and although it looked fine, both brands just snapped when I tried to pull a knot tight. I checked the reels I put it on a year ago, and they looked fine too, but the same problem, the line snapped when I tied a knot.

I bought some new line and re spooled all my 20 & 17 lb. reels, and all is now well. I normally change out all my line about every 12 to 18 months under any circumstance.

You guys blow me away with how often (or not) you change line. Aside from braid, I seldom ever fish more than two trips with mono and three trips with fluoro. Then it's time to re-spool. I admire those of you who can go a year w/o putting fresh line on your reels. I think.

By the way, I store all of my line inside, in a dark closet with climate control. Only time it comes out is when I'm traveling. I've never had mono last more than 2 years without serious degradation. Some much sooner than that. The line may look and cast fine, but the first time you hook a heavy fish in cover, you're toast!

Totally agree, Fouz. I switch out mono and copoly quite a bit. I don't think I could even pack up my gear to go the water if I knew that the line on my reel was more than a year old or had been on more than 3 fishing trips prior. Heck, I went on a one week fishing trip once and changed the line on one rod 3x just for that week! I'd rather not lose a good fish or fuss with wind knots and backlashes when mono is so cheap. I buy the bulk spool of line, but that's because I know that I'm probably gonna use that whole spool in about a year.

What intrigues me about this subject is this. I constantly check my line for nicks and abrasions. If I'm catching a few fish, I cut off, strip a foot or two and re-tie so many times during a day, my primary rods/reels won't cast 30 yards at the end of the day.

I re-spool every 4-5 trips can't stand the twist in the line plus buy in bulk not a big deal

Exactly! If I come home and haven't retied enough to see a difference in how much line is on my primary spool, I didn't catch too many fish. Even when I'm using braid, I might have to tie on 3-5 leaders.

As someone just starting to get more serious about fishing I'm glad I read this thread, I have a rod I've had the same line on for almost a year now, I'll have to change it before I go out again

I respool anytime getting them in the boat means $$. I have used 20# big game that has been in my garage over a year and you cant hardly break it.

When I was in high school I lived on the coast and was fishing almost every weekend. I re-spooled every couple of months and bought 1000 yd spools. For the last 5-10 years my fishing has only been about 2-3 times a year(hence the old spool). I finally tried braid when I got out of college because I was tired of having to change mono that was "new" every time I went fishing due to memory.

Now I'm married with a baby so most of my fishing is about once a month for 4-5 hours. I'm not catching many fish so it's not practical for me to change line that often. But your right,I can afford a few bucks every few trips to keep from loosing very limited fishing time and fish. But I mainly asked the question about memory for guys like me that don't make it out often.

As someone who has been seriously fishing for over 20 years, I think its bs to change your line every 2-3 trips... unless you have one of those worthless little oval baitcasts that only holds 100 yards of line anyway.

Did you try using KVD on a full spool then hooking your lure up to something stationary and taking all the line out and stretching then reeling it back on? That has always worked for me to get rid of some, not all, of the memory.

A study that was done 25-30 years ago showed that mono degraded enough, that if you are a tournament fisherman, you might seriously want to put new line on with 100 hours of sunlight. A lot of us allow our rods & reels to lay on the deck while we fish with another. I used that information and changed my mono out every 10 fishing trips during my bass fishing decades. It seem to work for me. Flourescent light does the same thing to mono as the sun, that's why many years ago manufactures started putting their line in enclosed packages.