Reel Repair by Alan Tani

I have 4-712s 3 have aluminum spools 1 is plastic. It seems all the larger greenies 710,700,704,& 706 had plastic spools, correct me if incorrect ? All before braid of course.

The larger ones could have had plastic —- but I have only seen plastic spools on the earliest 712's, and the 710's.  The 710 plastic is a very tough material —- and I have never seen one of those break, although it is certainly possible.  It is sort of a thick and slightly flexible material.

Best Regards, Fred

I have two 712 greenies with silver aluminum spools filled with 20 lb. original fused Fireline (dyneema) and a 712Z loaded with 12 lb. pink Ande.  I also have two 710 greenies with empty plastic spools and upgraded with 712 gears. I've never needed to use the 710 greenies since the 712 reels would cover all my "heaviest" spinning needs.  If I ever needed a bigger reel, I could always load up a 710 or, extreme scenario, get my 750ss out of its box, but now days that's unlikely.

It's true a 712 will hold more braid than most people need, but in that vein, it makes more sense to me to fill up a 712 with braid rather than to fill up a 710 with it regardless of what the spool is made of.  But these days my spin fishing is primarily done with a 714 and 14lb. Fireline.


A reel repairman friend in a local fishing/hunting shop gave me the broken plastic 710 spool below.
Example of what monofilament did:

Quote from: thorhammer on June 25, 2026, 01:53:25 PMSwampfox, may have asked you before, but where are you located? And, what piers are you fishing? All good intel above. My personal plugging set-ups have 20lb PP with three feet of 25 or 30 fluoro, 20 if it's really clear and the Spaniards are finicky. I use 7' or 7.5' rods and this gets me out past most pluggers. I think the 20lb gives you cushion if you do hang a cobia, big blue, sea turtle (the cobia hang under the sea turtles, don't laugh) and enough to wind fish up. I also got worse wind knots with 15lb. This set-up has also caught stripers, bass, trout, reds, yellowtails, black drum and sheepers and bailed mahi.
,
My recco: Wind on 30 yards or so of braid or dacron. Double uniknot to 15lb mono to fill out half the spool capacity, then 1doubly uni to 50yd spool of 20 lb PP if you have plastic spool. If you have aluminum spool, 15lb mono backing then to uni to 20lb braid to fill out. If you have plastic, use as above while your aluminum spool is procured then keep plastic as back-up for wind knots, etc.

Sounds like some work but braid last for years if you don't drag across too many rocks and pilings, and you can refill it just back to the mono backer in most cases.

MY 0.02, but the one rig I've taken around the States and to the Bahamas is a 7' St Croix blank I built 25 years ago with MIUSA Slammer 360 set up this way.

Also- your spool isn't skirted, so the 20lb MAY help keep it out of the gap in wind.

John

I'm out of NC, and most the time on peri at Atlantic Beach I can't recall it's name right this second.

Oceanana.