How much line should I wind on the reel?

All reels are marked with a spool rating, or the recommended amount of line to wind on the reel. If you wind too little line, the line will brush against the spool more during casting, affecting your casting distance. Overwinding can also cause line trouble.

When the winding capacity of a reel is 200M for PE1, the lines we purchase on the market are usually 100M, 150M, and sometimes even over 300M for large-capacity lines. If you continue to use only PE line 1, it would be best to purchase a line with 200M or 400M spooled, but reality is not like that, and sometimes you may need to change the line to a thinner one, so you may end up having to spool the underline.

However, those who say, “I’m not greedy for distance and I don’t care about line trouble,” don’t need to underline it^^

There are various ways to wrap an underline, such as using tape or tying a plastic bag, but today we will learn about the commonly used method of wrapping a nylon line.

First, there is a method of calculating and calculating the exact length of the line.

Second, there is a way to do it without calculating, although it takes time and is inconvenient. Let’s learn about each method.

Ⅰ. How to calculate the amount of underlining

The reel in the photo shows a 75cm reel per revolution, which translates to 200m of line for PE 1.5. However, if I wanted to reel in 0.4 line, I would need to calculate the appropriate amount of line, as the line diameters would be different.

PE 1.5 is 0.209mm and PE 0.4 is 0.108mm, so 0.209÷0.108=1.9351. Therefore, the calculation is that 0.4 needs to be wound 200m×1.9351=387m. In other words, this means that I can wind PE 0.4 (the amount of line I have is 150m) 150m÷387m×100=38.75%, and I need to wind the remaining 61%, or 237m, of line as the underline.

However, if the line to be used as the underline is Mono No. 1 (0.165 mm), this reel can wind 200 m of 8 lb (0.23 mm) nylon line, so 0.23 ÷ 0.165 = 1.393, so in the case of No. 1 line, 200 m × 1.393 = 278 m can be wound.

Then, based on the two calculations above, to wind 61% of the line, you need to wind 278 x 0.61 = 169.58 m, and since the amount of line wound per rotation of the reel is 75 cm, 169.58 ÷ 0.75 = 226. Therefore, the calculation is that you need to stop winding and wind the PE line after spinning 226 times.

For those of you wondering, “Ah, what’s so complicated? Isn’t there a way to just wrap it without any calculations?” I’d like to introduce a second method.

Ⅱ. How to wind the spool without calculating the amount of underlining

This method is a bit cumbersome and can be inconvenient without tools, but it’s widely used because it eliminates the need to calculate the amount of underlining. First, to wind underlining using this method, you need two empty line cases, or bobbins. It’s also convenient to have a line winding tool (a high-speed recycler).

If you look at the wrapping method in order,

① Wrap the PE line.

※ It is convenient to stick tape on after wrapping, but since regular tape has strong adhesive power, it is better to use masking tape.

② Underline the text.