The Age Of Your Fishing Line

[Joda911]

A heated discussion popped up the other day between some fishing associates of mine about how often they change their fishing line as the seasons change. To my surprise most of them were doing this ritual a couple of times a year. I never paid any attention to this because I've never had a problem with losing fish that I associated with the age of my fishing line, I usually blamed that misfortune on me or some obstacle under the water. Most of my tackle I've had for some time and no it pretty well, as a matter of fact, several of my reels have mono on them that's been there for more than 3 years.

I carry extra spools for most of the reels and the only time you'll catch me switching is when I'm attempting to fish different cover or larger fish. How important is it to spend extra money on fishing line when you really don't need it? I always feel the industry will suggest that you do it as often as possible, that reason being that they are in the selling business. I charter winter fishing with a guide and he tells me with the high cost of everything these days he only respools when the line on his reels begin to show signs of wear or his clients begin to break off numbers of fish.

Is there really and honestly a RULE Of THUMB for doing this twice a season? Does keeping your tackle indoors rather than outside in the garage really make a difference on how long a fishing line will last? My thinking is, if you're not breaking off fish after fish, why change the line so often. How often are you all switching that line?   

[Ron Fogelson]

I spool my reals full!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then during the course of the next month to year unspool then a little or a lot at a time depending on what caused it.  I retire my lures if I think my knot gets week after a big fish or hard fight so thats about 3 foot cause I want to make sure I cut out any week spots caused by rubbing a dock or tree or brush or, well what ever.  Now If I feel a scrap or nick in the line I normally double it past the last nick, so if I feel a nick in the last 2 foot of line I'll remove 4.  No I change lures allot until I can dial in the fish, so I my tie a new spinner on 6 to 10 times in a days trip until I find one they want.  so thats 2 foot a pop without thinking about it.  Also down here I may have 6 rods on my deck all day, so the line gets beat up by the sun & that takes a toll.  Not to mention if I backlash my real,,,  LOL  still learning baitcasters.  I have noticed that I don't have to replace the line as often on a bait caster as I did on my spinning gear, but don't think it was woreout persay, but with th heavier line I use it tends to build up memory worse on the spinning gear until it was just to bad & I cut it off.  Did this answer your question?  No I kind went on & on, basically I replace my line as I need to because I use it up on each trip, the only other time I'll respool it all is if I go to a new type, weight color line or if I find that I keep braking the knot while retrying.  If that happend I cut off 10 to 20 ft & try again & if the knots still tend to brake I'll respool immediately.

Play Nice or Die!
Fogy

[BIG PAPA]

With the newer line I find that I do not have to respool as often as I used to. But regardless I think that line gets a little stiffer after a few trips and I do not like any kinks in my line. I may be wrong but I only use premium line, I will not buy any off brand or odd lots of line. I am currently using Bagley Super Thread on everything except my jig and worm rods, for those I use Vanish Fluorocarbon, I use 20 to 25 on spinnerbaits and buzzbaits and always 25 on top water baits such as pop R's and spooks because it floats better than smaller line and 17 on my jig rods unless I am fishing really bad cover. I use 80 lb. power pro braid on my frog rods
Now to really answer your question I change my line on all my reels 3-4 times a year, and more than that on my jig rods. I do not like breaking off even one fish and can't remember the last time I broke off a fish unless it was hung up in heavy cover and I just could not get the fish out. I figure I spend about $100.00 a year on line and I consider that very cheap as in tournaments 1 fish could cost more than that easily. I also buy most of my line from 1 guy on E-bay that I trust to sell new line for less that half the price I would pay At high price stores such as BPS.
If I did not ever fish tourney's I may not change as often but I would certianly change at least 2 times a year.

papa

[HoosierAngler]

I respool after each tournament, just the rods I use most though.

[FisherMOM]

um.... IF I change my line once a year, it's a miracle. 
If it feels good, I keep it.

I keep them out of the sun, and I think that helps.

[Mike Noble]

I respool 4 to 6 times per year.

[Jared LeBlue]

I change my line often. How many times depends on the amount of fishing I do in a year. I use to change my line out before every tournament. I did this to get better performance out of my reels, nothing is worse than stiff line and memory. I believe line will break down over time especially if it's exposed to sunlight for long periods of time. I now change my line about 3 times a year unless I have a big tournament then I will put fresh line on the rods I know I'm going to be using during that tournament. I use P-line and Stren, which both have lots of memory, so when I see the line coils or get that stiff line I change it. In fact I need to order a few spools, it's time to change line on all my reels.

[Rickoos]

Rattle,

Looks like Lake Charles Tackle will be "calling your name" soon.....

Ricky

[Mike Noble]

Rattle, have you ever tried "Rod and Reel Magic".  It really works well on cutting down on memory and keeping your line flexible.

[Jared LeBlue]

No I haven't but I will pick up a can and try it.

[Jared LeBlue]

Oh you best believe Lake Charles Tackle loves me.

[Mike Noble]

It comes in a plastic, pump bottle.  It is good on line and you can spray your reels.

[Rickoos]

Mike,

Mine can in a metal spray can, got it at Wally world......

Ricky

[MotherNature]

You can get it in both the plastic and metal. You have to be careful of how much you use or you will notice the residue on your hands after handeling the reels.

Laurie

[Mike Cork]

Another great question... I love questions 

This is a very tough question for me to answer to a relative number of times. Basically I change my line when the spool gets too low. But with that said, I use backing on my reels. I fill the first half of the reel up with a generic no name cheapest thing I can find line. Then I tie a blood knot to the line that I am wanting to use.

Here in Louisiana I fish mostly 17 pound BPS Excel. Even with the backing I have no problem making long casts with top water and crank baits, but it doesn't leave but 30-40 feet of extra line before the knot. So after retieing 15-20 times it will be time to respool. I am like Fogy I retie my baits often, especially after a large fish or if I there is any type of kink or fray in it.

I check the first few feet of line after every couple casts or during every pitch of a bait. So I may retie as many as a dozen times in a day which inturn equals respooling about every other trip. Some would suggest that I am wasting a lot of good line by doing it this way, but to be honest the line that is below the blood knot usually has a lot of memory and I can't stand that. The other benefit to this is you constantly keep your spool full and achieve maximum performance of your reel.

On top of all that I replace my line once a year on all my equipment, usually that day around December or January when it is freezing raining and fishing just doesn't see to appealing 

[Jared LeBlue]

Mike I use backing too. It's a waste of money to spool without it. I change my line often enough so I seldom run into the problem of not having enough line on the reel.

[Mike Cork]

I never run out of line, just use getting close to the blood knot as a guage as to needing to change line

[327]

I usually respool once a month or maybe even 2 months
I use Berkley big game 10lb test for where I fish

[Joda911]

Has anyone ever fished 7 year old fishing line just to see how well it would do?  I have reels spooled with 7 year old line.  I  keep my equipment indoors and out of sunlight, I have a couple of them that I use just for testing the durability of the line.  All of the rods and reels I use have the month, day, and year I spooled the line on, along with the manufacturer of the line and the pound test it is.

[Mike Cork]

Joda911, sounds like you do all the things that they recommend to improve the life of your line. I will be looking forward to hearing the results of your test. To be honest I have never really tested line aging. I always change it with in a few months because of my nature of doing things.

[Fishingelbow]

Am I the only one around who uses superline?  Among the numerous advantages is the fact that it never deteriorates just sitting there. So I change it only when it gets low. I'm sure I have some reels with 5 year old line on them that's as strong and limp as the day I put it on. Gave up fishing with "rubber bands" many years ago  .

[BIG PAPA]

I use superline on my frog rods and have one fliping stick with super line that I use to flip to heavy cover, and I will fish a jig on it if the water is dingy.

papa

[Joda911]

Yes, I do experiment with it Mike, like testing if you let memorized line out slowly while trolling.  Does this remove the coils old line gets when it's been on a spool for a long period of time?  I tried this on 8 year old Bass Pro ex-cel 10lb line spooled on a baitcaster.  This had no affect on the twists and coils in the line, even though I slowly released the lureless line out behind the boat.  With more than 3/4 of the spool released, once reeled in and casted several times, the coils returned.

When I tested this on Bass Pro ex-cel 6lb test the results were more favorable and the line appeared and functioned more like fresh line, relaxed and limp.

[Joda911]

Some manufactures still ship their line with foil strips around the spools.  I know Bass Pro does this.  In the industry, a shelf life date is hard to find, and you really don't know what you're getting really.

[Mike Cork]

I guess the foil is to keep the light off of it. The industry says any kind of light is bad. Have you done any experiments in this area?