jerry brown's thoughts on spectra

[SoCalAngler]

I don't know about other shops or their winding method, all I can tell you is what I did and still do. I'm sure I spooled well over a hundred reels in the in the 80 thru 30 sizes (mostly 50's) for big tuna including my own. Here is where a problem may lay, how many of those guys at the other shops have ever used a reel of that size to fish large tuna from a long range boat? It may be hard for them to grasp the importance of putting the spectra on correctly or they may not know how too. It is one thing to spool up 65lb spectra and under but it is a whole different story spooling 100lb and over.

I saw many of the customers after returning from their trips and talked with them about what worked, what didn't, how their gear held up and what not. Let me tell you that most of the guys were not shy letting me know if a hook snapped or straitend out or any other type of gear failure. And yes there was gear failure there always will be, stuff happens that why its called fishing and not catching. If there was any problem with the spectra spooling on reels I did you can bet I would have gotten an earful, a well deserved earful. But let me tell you, I much rather use a line winding machine to spool on my spectra any day than spooling 600 or more yards by hand at the drag pressure needed to fish heavy line.

[alantani]

they need a way to tighten down the spool so that it has at least 10 pounds of "drag" coming off the spool.  holding the spool with a gloved hand is just way too much work, and i believe it does not spool the spectra on tight enough.   

[SoCalAngler]

To each his own I guess. First you don't "hold on to a spool with a gloved hand" you apply pressure to the spectra's spool edge with a doubled over glove or folded up rag. If you tried to hold onto the spool you could never get enough pressure on the spectra plus the heat from the friction would burn your hand in a few seconds right through the glove. The heavy duty winders we used came with a tensioning system for spectra but we found that system inadequate as we could not get the drag pressure we were looking for out of them and that system would fail anyway after several (many) reels were spooled using it. I said in another thread the shop I worked at had one of the first if not the first internet sites for fishing gear and only sold saltwater gear but of course some of the small bait casters could be used in freshwater. It was not out of the ordinary to ship or sell at the shop thirty or more reels a day, heck I sold 13 reels to one person at one time who was outfitting his boat. The shops owner added incentives like free spectra, reel covers and such to increase sales so most of the reels sold were spooled in one way or another. We shipped reels all over the world used for many different applications and if there was a problem with the way we spooled spectra you can bet we would have heard about it. I don't work there anymore but from what I have seen and them opening a second shop even in times like this they must be doing something right. As you may know now a days it doesn't take long for word to get out through the internet if your products or services are not serving your clients well. I'm not trying to sound like a know it all, actually I learn something new every time I go fishing but to say you can't use a line winder to pack spectra tight enough onto a reel for fishing big fish you may be correct. But let me tell you I know I can and I have done it many times. I'm not trying to start a argument or anything but remember there is always more than one way to skin a cat

[alantani]

no kidding!  they've had problems before.......   

[seashells]

        I recently spooled 2 Penn 50VSW's with 135 hollow Izorline. I first clean the spool and then coat with a thin layer of paraffin, I burnish the paraffin finish. I create a loop splice in the line to be tied to the spool, then wrap twice and tie. I lay the tag end across the spool and and begin spooling taking care to make sure the first layers lay down smooth and tight. I place the bulk spool in my lathe and use the transmission to select the appropriate tension. Just a note, When I was spooling my Daiwa 900H's I bent a reel seat, When I say Tight I mean Tight. I spool all my reels this way and have never had an issue. Last week a bluefin north of Cape Cod Bay took 85% of the spool before I started to recover, and the line slipping never entered my mind.
      The smaller solid spectra is much more prone to digging into itself than the heavier hollow.

[Bunnlevel Sharker]

This is gonna sound really stupid but can i use turtle wax and do i need toactually get out the buffer?

[alantani]

you're talking about trying to keep the spool from rusting, right?  yeah, lots of guys talk about that.  i just use a light coat of grease on the spool.