How to rig a spinning reel

Spinning reels are relatively simple creatures to set up and maintain. Here I am going to briefly talk about how I like to rig my reels for targeting our many flats species down here.

I will start by saying that this is a guide and different brands of reels can operate slightly differently with things like line capacity and line lay, but the principles should be standard across all.

I always rig my reels with a high quality braided mainline. Doing this adds another level of sensitivity and feel to your fishing! Braid can be a tricky one; however, as a lot of braids can be rather smooth and tricky to both knot and lay on the reel nicely. I opt for the excellent Daiwa BG series of reels to rig for my clients use. Most modern braids come on a 130-150m spool and as such will need an extra layer of backing to fill the spool correctly. You can use mono or fluorocarbon as a backing, but I prefer to use a heavier breaking strain of braid.

To start, I take my braid and attach it to the spot via a simple blood knot. I sinch it down a little way but not too tight as the braid will slip and pull free from the spool. I then proceed to wind the braid onto the spool of the reel tightly. Once completed, you should have filled around half to two-thirds of the spool. Following this, I then tie the backing choice to the braid via a double Uni knot. At this point, you are merely filing the spool, so the knots don’t need to be perfect. I then proceed to wind the braid onto the spool, under tension, until I fill the spool.

This second part is the crucial bit, as this is how the reel will be when fishing. I loosen the drag on my reel, take an empty spool of line and begin to wind the backing off the reel and onto the spool. When I reach the double Uni knot, I will either cut it or pull it free. I then do the same with my braid mainline onto a separate spare spool.

Finally, I will tie the backing securely to the reel before winding it tightly onto the spool. I then retie the double Uni securely and trim off the tag ends. Lastly, I tightly wind on the braid mainline. The result is a perfect level of line on the spool, and a good, tight line lay to avoid wind knots. Finally to the end of the mainline, I will either tie an FG knot to my leader or do a double Bimini to complete the setup depending on how I plan to use it,

I hope some of this proved useful for you guys and maybe makes that spooling process a little easier.

Tight lines

Will