When should you change your fishing line?


fishing
FlyGuy asked:


I have a rod and reel about 1 1/2 yrs old. I spun spyder wire line on it and I take pretty good care of it. Its never stored in the sun and I only use it for fresh water fishing. I am going away for a fishing trip and just wondering if I should change the line before I go. Thanks.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “When should you change your fishing line?”

  1. dumdum Says:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 4:33 am

    I do not think with the spyder wire there will be a problem. But with mono I always change it at the start of each fishing season. I aways use the old line for backing and just fill the top half with new line. It works well for me and saves a little money and time. dumdum

  2. winkydink Says:
    April 23rd, 2010 at 2:11 am

    Flyguy-

    Changing your line at a set time during the year could mean you are fishing with worn out line, it all depends on how frequently you fish and under what condition. Monofiliment is very susceptible to abrasion, Spyderwire, much less so.

    Since you are conscientious about your line, I suggest buying an inexpensive brass spring scale like this what this does is has a marker that you can reset every time the scale is plunged, it tells you how far down, or the maximum tension was given.

    By tying a knot around the end of the scale and pulling until it breaks, you can see at what point the line snapped at. If it is close to your original test strength you purchased, then your line should be fine..

    there is a caveat to this process, and that is tying 100% knot strength. Most people have difficulty in doing this, and some knots will simply never be 100% knot strength no matter how you tie them. So the only way to REALLY know whether your line is good is to do several break tests on the line in question, then do several break tests on NEW line using the same style of knot.

    Also, many fishermen simply cut 5 or so feet off each time they start a new day fishing, this coupled with the occasional broken line requires re spooling well before a season is over, furthermore having 100% knot strength could be detrimental to your fishing, for example, if all of your knots were 100%, and you developed a snag, then where would the line break? sometimes, tying a knot with less than 100% strength is done purposely, for example, if you fish a dropper loop, or any set up that has your hook above your weight, then tying a weaker knot on the weight gives you the chance of retrieving your hook, possibly with a fish still on it, rather than loosing the whole set-up. winkydink

  3. 3 Says:
    April 23rd, 2010 at 3:00 am

    as often as you change your underwear. just kidding

    I usually do it about every other spring. 3

  4. Tucker M Says:
    April 25th, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    I always change my line when: It starts twisting allot, when i start losing a good bit of casting distance, has allot of coils in it from being on the spool so long, before a fishing trip, and definitely before a tournament. Always wet the line when tying a knot to reduce friction and give you better knot strength. Good luck fishin! Tucker M

  5. awommack Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    fish start biteing awommack

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