Spooling braid onto a reel

[jurelometer]

Nylon and mono stretches so it is easy to wind it on tight.  Spectra doesn't stretch.  Before there was ever problems with Spectra being wound too loose and causing slippage, there were problems with mono being wound too tight and causing spool flange warping.

Agree, but I think that it is a bit more complicated.  Nylon mono doesn't slip on the spool even if it is not packed tightly, so the extra grip from expansion doesn't  seem to be the main reason. I would argue that Nylon mono mostly maintains its larger cross-section, and doesn't dig-in and form a solid puck like modern braid does, and more importantly, has a higher coefficient of friction, so it takes more force to cause it to slip o nthe spool.

Gelspun polyethylene (trade name Spectra) fibers have some weird properties.  As temperature decreases, they shrink so much along the length that they actually get fatter.  This is why I think spool slippage is more common for folk fishing in the winter.  This contraction/expansion causes the wraps to dig in more and lock together more firmly, turning the line into something more like a fiber-filled puck with a slippery outer surface. (We have a thread on this somewhere).

This can also happen with constant temperature.  The coefficient of friction for Spectra on the spool is quite low, so when the bottom wraps are loose, and the upper wraps are not contributing to pressing the the line against the spool, you can easily end up in a situation where where the friction on the line against the spool is less than your drag setting.


The original common practice for dealing with modern braid slippage was to start with a few wraps of monofilament, or even a partial spool fill of monofilament, since reels back then were not sized for braid.  IMHO, it works fine.  Then folk started using electrical tape, but that often caused corrosion  problems from saltwater being trapped, creating an oxygen deprived environment.  So folk started using that porous medical flex wrap, which seems to be the currently  most popular on this site.
 I have not personally found a need to use mono, flex wrap or anything else.  Just multiple wraps of braid before the arbor knot, and a long tag to wind over (the Jerry Brown method).  It is important to pay attention  and start the fill with strong tension, but you should be doing that anyways.

If you want to play it safe, maybe do what the pros here do and use the flex wrap.  It has been used for quite awhile now on lots jumbo tuna with high drag settings.

-J