how much line

[perchnut]

So I just got some new asso line, and am wondering how much line you actually put on your reels.  Im going to use backing so as not to put on 600 yards of 2lb line.....the deepest I fish is around 40-50 feet.  Im thinking 80 feet of line enough??  This is for jigging perch and bluegills.  Is a good rule of thumb twice the deepest  you will be fishing?  Also have some 6lb for eyes....

[bean counter]

I would think double the maximum depth you fish is plenty - especially for panfish

[Chris338378]

That will be fine. 

[slipperybob]

25 yards, about... Half that 50 yards spool.

The thing is I sometimes like to look at the line on the spool.  It irks me just seeing the knot there.  Tells me I'm running out of line even though I probably still have several yards left.  Just me and my comfort zone, but I also used these same reel to fish open water.

[hardwater diehard]

25 yards, about... Half that 50 yards spool.

The thing is I sometimes like to look at the line on the spool.  It irks me just seeing the knot there.  Tells me I'm running out of line even though I probably still have several yards left.  Just me and my comfort zone, but I also used these same reel to fish open water.

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/fishing/2013/01/how-to-spool-an-ice-fishing-reel/

I usually can get two or three reels out of 100 yrds/ pony reels of line .

I believe I read somewhere that you should use 3x the depth as rule of thumb for line capacity after backing .

[Swift]

50', get 3 rigs out of a 50yd spool and rarely need to fish more than 15' anyway. Set for the season even with many reties. A nearly full spool of colorful backing line is nice and a blood knot to attach it

[slipperybob]

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/fishing/2013/01/how-to-spool-an-ice-fishing-reel/

I usually can get two or three reels out of 100 yrds/ pony reels of line .

I believe I read somewhere that you should use 3x the depth as rule of thumb for line capacity after backing .

I sort of follow the 3x as well.  It's feet into yards easy math.  However I think its all about knowing your reel/spool and your location of water.  Plus I'm old school, I count the number of cranks on my reel handle.  It's not so easy to measure line off the spool.  So I estimate that way.  Most of my reels averages close to 2' per crank.  Most of the time I do just under 50 handle cranks. 

Where I fish over 35-40'...hooking a sturgeon is very likely, so all 100 yards of pony spool is the rule of thumb...and you don't want to be within 100 yards of the next shack.   It just happen to be ASSO 3# ice line.  Several runs brought my line down to the last few loops before the knot, yes backfilled spool as well and line joined.  The knot is generally the weakest jount.  After 45 min of tug of war.  The gill plate of that sturgeon was as big as my 9" ice hole.  I had it there for a few minutes, tried the cheap phone camera, just a blurr shot.  Cloudy overcast day wasn't much help.

The intention was crappie fishing and a few bonus perch and walleyes.  I no longer play with that huge red mark anymore.  Its a sturgeon and I pull my rig away.  If it chases, it's less likely to be a sturgeon.  I've never had caught a sturgeon actively chasing my jigging lure.  They just generally lumber in about the same suspended depth.  This is a set up and camp kind of water.

On another different water, 25 yards of line does the job.  It's burbot monsters to watch out for.  I only assume, cuz I was never able to pull one in of significant size, but the smaller ones of less than three feet I have. Here it's varies 20-50' on location.   I like my light wire hooks and light lines. Many times I wished I hook into them with a stronger hook or line.  There's just something about 2-3# lines that gets you more bites on this water, even though its heavy dark stained.  This is a hole hopper location.

Because I do fish both locations I have to default to the longer line for most set ups.

[3300]

i use asso - super hight tenacity 2#. the hardest part is knowing how much backer to install before adding your main line.

use a line that is marked on the spool for a backer and wind say twenty wraps on it, then find out the speed of the reel raito/handle turn and try to measure one turn of the handle.  count your turns of the handle to get your main line installed.

the next problem is how much line will the main line take up to have an 1/8" lip on the spool and still get 3 spools worth of line from 50 yards for 3 reels. so you have to leave the right amount of space for that. you can try the idea of if your spool holds say 120 yards of 4#, but your using 2#, then it would hold about twice as much or use half the space the 4# uses.

its good to unwind one crank and measure how much came off to figure that out too, like you do the main line, so you know how many cranks it should be to fill it correctly. it will bring in more main line when its almost done than when just starting, so it makes it harder to figure out. i add a few inches when i measure my fill line when starting out per crank and the the same for the main line.

if you get where you have to know exactly, you tie onto say a nail on a tree and walk it out and measure the two lines to what would work better knowing if your trying to get 3 spools worth of main line to tie off to a tree and measure that into 3 equal sections. go 2 sections if you want more than 50 feet (would be 75 feet).

i use a cordless drill and the line holder (or spare line holders) that comes with the line and electric tape onto a drill bit and wrap the tape onto the bit to make it fit snug into the line holder to make a line winder and i wind up or strip reels with this method. if you want to bring in each section of line you cut back on, use a peice of tape and pinch it onto the end of the line your finishing so its easy to find and not lost into the rest of line.

you can use this to reverse your line and get another season out of it too. just use a different line holder to pull the used line onto it from the one you just used to strip the spool, then spool up as normal.

[Townie]

I spool up 2/3 cheap 4# co-poly line/ 50' 3-5# ice braid/ 5' 3# Asso Fluoro leader

[Muskyrush]

Fill your reel to capacity........what happens when you hook a bass,pike,catfish,walleye. Then when you respool you only pull off a 100 feet then put a 100 back on.

[Nightbird]

Fill your reel to capacity........what happens when you hook a bass,pike,catfish,walleye. Then when you respool you only pull off a 100 feet then put a 100 back on.

Agree. Can't see any advantage to not filling up my reels and having the capacity for a large fish that wants to leave me behind. If you want to save a few bucks, you can back with a cheap mono as insurance. It costs me far more for gas to get to the lake and back than one spool of quality line which will last many trips and likely more than one season.

[river rat78]

Fill your reel to capacity........what happens when you hook a bass,pike,catfish,walleye. Then when you respool you only pull off a 100 feet then put a 100 back on.

Can't agree more. As soon as you drop your bait into the line there is no telling what will bite it. There has been plenty of times that I have been targeting gils or crappies just to have a 3-4lb bass hit. On 2 separate occasions I have had pike and a musky come look at my offering when targeting perch. I just like to have my spools filled up just incase I hook into a much larger fish that I'm not targeting.

[pfscott]

I fill mine 3/4 or so. On spinning reels that is.

[Stewie]

I often fish in 190 feet of water. My little spinning reel was full at about 80 yards of 10 lb braid. So far, it's been enough (knock on wood)

[Bout-Time]

I fill my reels just a hair from full, and no backer whatsoever.

Deepest Im jigging is 30 feet, for most of my setups.