Should You Use Braid Ready Spools Or Put On A Mono Backing?
- By: Wyatt Parcel
- on
- Found In: *Tackle & Gear, Braid, Fishing Tips, Line, Mono, Reels, Weekly Newsletter: 9-12-21
What are the benefits of braid-ready spools?
How do you know which type of spool will be best for using braided line?
This is important because the spool of a reel can affect the way you handle a fighting fish as well as cast your line out.
Check out the answers below!!
What Is A Braid Ready Spool? [VIDEO]
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When you go to spool your reel with braid, you need to figure out how to make the braid stay on the arbor so it doesn’t slip.
Braid Ready Spool
Braid ready spools have a rubber band inserted into the arbor of the spool itself.
This allows you to tie the braid directly onto the rubber band.
Tying the braid directly to the rubber band will allow you to have a good hold on the fish you fight.
After wear and tear on the spool though, the rubber band can lose its seal to the arbor which can lead to your line slipping down the spool and losing fish.
Traditional Spool
A traditional spool has little indentations along the arbor from top to bottom.
Traditional spools will need masking tape around the arbor to spool the reel with braid or backing of monofilament line to wrap first around the arbor.
Conclusion
A short-term solution is to tie the braid directly to the braid ready spools but don’t rely on this for everyday use.
The best approach is to put a monofilament backing on the spool leading into the braided line
This is suggested for either type of spool and can save you money!!
Let us know if you found this advice helpful down in the comments!
Here are the tutorials for spooling your own line on reels:
- How To Spool A Spinning Reel With Braid
- Should You Use Mono When Spooling Your Spinning Reel With Braid?
And if you know someone who wants to know which spool is best for braid, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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thanks Wyatt,
Question for ya, I justed spooled a Penn Spinfisher VI 4500 with Ande 10 lb mono Line, and I have decided to change over to 10 lb J-braid. any idea how much mono I should remove? the braid diameter is .15 and the mono is .3, almost exactly half. If spool holds 320 ydsof 10 lb mono, shouldn’t I be able to remove about 75 yds to get 150 yd of braid on there, or is my math just bad lol, thanks in advance
Todd
I haven’t used any mono backing since first time I used braid about 20yrs ago. I just used a cross hatched over under about 7-10 wraps depending on spool size from 1000-8000 and now use a San Diego jam knot(6-8 twists depending on how small the braid)that is wetted before cinching. At times I have to redo the knots, but I really haven’t had any slip and once cinched down even on smooth arbors like the shimanos…I’ve had great results.
How much mono should you put on first?
It’s a personal preference, but at a bare minimum, you’ll want to cover the spool. This will differ with each reel size and brand, but you want to cover up all of the metal spool once or twice to ensure that the braid doesn’t catch it and slip. I actually add a little extra on my reel, so I don’t have a bunch of braid sitting on the back of my reel that never gets used. But if you want the extra braided line capacity, once or twice will do it.
Good stuff, son. ;o)
Haha, thanks so much Tami! Hope to see you out on the water soon once you and David get to feeling better!
Hey Wyatt! So when you add the mono as the backing…how do you measure the amount of backing? for example tie to let’s say a 300 yard braid to spool on a 4000 reel that goes up to 10lb/240yard braid capacity.
Hopefully Wyatt chirps in, but I’ll give you my take. Your situation is easy because you have more braid than braid capacity (but I’d double check that number as it ought to be greater yards of 10# braid). Just put down enough backing to cover the arbor once or twice with mono. Then, tie a good FG knot to the braid and wind it up to within 1/16″ of the end of the arbor. Many reels have a line on the spool indicating the “top fill”. It gets a bit tricky if you were tying on 150yds of braid. Then you need to figure the ratio of necessary backing to braid.
Meant to say within 1/16″ of the top of the spool not the arbor.
I’m of the mind that a double uni-knot is more than sufficient for attaching braid to a mono backer. However, for the leader, I’m sold on the FG knot.
I’d agree with you there Todd!
While the exact number is going to differ with each brand and reel size, a good rule of thumb is to at least cover the arbor of the spool with mono once or twice. I prefer to add a little extra to fill in the space that I would put my expensive braid, because if a fish takes me down to the last 50yards of line, it’s likely going to spool me anyways. So I cover the arbor with 12lb mono 3-4 times and then tie the braid on. The goal is to make sure there’s no metal from the arbor that the braid could catch on and move the mono enough to slip.
Remember, to spool under considerable tension to preclude line dig. Up to a third of breaking strain works well.
Hollow braid tends to be over strength and as it sits flat like tape, it bumps up capacity and of course, splices.
No dodgy knots to top shot, just glue locked nail knots.
Correct! I like to spoil my line tight enough to where I have a decent little bend in the rod. You can fit more line under tension and you likely won’t get wind knots if it’s taught when spooled.
Nice video Wyatt!
When you picked up that wad of braid I laughed out loud. It reminded me of some epic back lashes I’ve had. Great visual prop, love it!
Hahaha I hoped somebody would get a kick out of it! Thanks for watching Pat!
Thanks for the GR8 INFO! Another good way to re-spool with braided line is that, 3M has a doubled sided rubber tape product available. Just wrap it around the arbor on the reel, and spool up. If you want, you can re-apply the product ever time you change your line. I use it on both my spinning and level wind reels. I never had a line slip. Note: Remove the red plastic protector that keeps the tape from sticking to itself. LOL You can find this tape at most hardware, and home improvement stores. Good Fishing!
Great intel Lee! I’ve been hesitant to use tape as it presents the same problem as the seal (the glue failing and braid slipping) but if you’ve not had issues with it, I just might test it out!
The timing of this video is uncanny. I just spooled up my first “braid ready” reel last night and was wondering about what to do. I opted to use a 10lbs mono backer as I followed Luke’s advice about how to spool a reel with a backer to a depth from the spool edge of approx 1/4″ which allowed me to put on an entire 150yd spool of 10lb braid–this is on a Daiwa BGMQ2500. Worked like a charm so for that reason alone I’ll continue to use a mono backer regardless of the reel type.
You made the right choice Todd!!! Thanks so much for watching!