Spooling up - filling your carp reel with line

Filling You Reel with Line:

One thing that we all need to do in angling is fill our reels with line.

Fixed spool reels have an inherent tendency to twist the line, eventually making casting impossible. This twisting is down to the clutches fitted on the reels and is compounded by the technique in carp fishing of letting the fish take line from the clutch when we get a run. Smaller baitrunner type reels are the worst culprits, and when I’ve been getting lots of action the line soon twists pretty badly.

Over they years I have used a number of Methods for spooling up but have never really settled on a single method. I’ve tried using a bankstick through the spool, placing the spool on the floor with a weight on the top… etc, etc.

Now replacing the line is a bit of a chore but I was shown a couple of things that have made it easier.



The first piece of kit I would recommend you invest in is a Berkley Line Stripper. In the past I’ve tried a number of things to enable me to remove the line quickly from three or four spools, but let’s face it, its a pain!!

I’ve tried cutting it off with a blade, pulling it off with my hands, but neither were satisfactory until I was shown the above tool. It will strip your reel in not time. I thoroughly recommend these items of tackle.


So once you’ve got your line off its time to refill your spool. I’ve been using Nash bullet recently and it has capacity marks on the bulk spools so you know approximately how much line is left.
There is not much point in changing the full amount of line you have on your spool each time. I use backing to leave me with 150-200 yards on the spool.

Firstly I tie a neat knot to my backing and place it at the rear of the spool. I then put a piece of electrical tape over the knot to avoid the tag ends catching as I cast.

I then simply drop the spool into either a large bucket of water or the lake. The first advantage of this is that the line is wet when you load it and therefore suppler than when dry. It also lubricates it a bit and helps it bed down nicely on the spool.

I fill the spool to the lip. A quick note here, make sure that if your reel supplies washers to place behind the spool you test them out to make sure the line lay is right. It is important to fill the reel to the maximum without overfilling it. Bear in mind that the line will bed down a little.

The final thing I usually do when on the bank if there is space and not excessive undergrowth is to walk the new line out along with no rig on. I then wind this back in to make sure that as much twist as possible has been removed.

Modern reels now have excellent line lay, much improved over recent years. Even the cheaper models are pretty good.