Just got some new beaver dam tip ups but when I spooled them with 50 yards of 30# dacron I realized the spool is too small. I spooled it as tight as I could and it looks like I’ll have to cut about 15-20 yards. What do you think the minimum amount of line should be for fishing 5-30 feet of water for pike and walleye?
Your Beaver Dams
should hold 50 yards of 30# Dacron, especially if you've put it on very tightly. Take a look at your line. Is the weave/braid kind of loose/floppy or is it very tight/thin and almost doesn't seem like it could be 30# test? Those are the two extremes of otherwise "same products". If it's the loose/floppy stuff I'd get rid of it. Been there and it was only a pile of problems: holds lots of water, freezes to anything it touches out if the hole, hooks getting snagged in it and (big surprise) is a mess on the spool.
As far as those stock spools being too small? For what you described in your other post, "targeting walleye and pike in 5 - 35 FOW" they will be just fine. That's all I've done for 40 some years and never really been disappointed, only compromised. Only two instances in those years, one involving a pike and the other a musky where I've been spooled or very nearly so. Landed both fish.
My experience is I could probably fish with 30 yards of line 99% of the time and be just fine. I do like a full spool though for a number of reasons.
One last question: Was that line coming off a 50 yard spool, measured with a line counter or physically or just guessing? My Polar spools are very similar and sold as "200 foot" capacity and I can put all of that on them.
