Thread: Spinning reel spool length, what’s your thoughts?

Shallow spools , re- spool often is likely the answer to all these issues to some degree.
Most lines , short of braid , develop heavy curling memory on deeper spools pretty fast .
Shallow spools are less tight curls and need to be replaced often . Hence fresher line , as older line seems to not want to straighten back up with use .
As far as the mono and fluorocarbon go , most if not all of it has the memory issue .
Nothing KILLS a long precision cast quicker than memory curls in the line.
Longer rods with loose enough eyelets sometimes cast a bit more out there too .
Some of the micro guides rods with high numbers of eyelets are not made for casting as well

Ok, that’s another thing. The 6’0” rod has micro guides in the tip section, about 5 of them in all. It is a Crappie Maxx Quick Tip rod. The 7’0” rod is a B’n’M Sam Heaton Super Sensitive and it just has normal stainless steel guides. Not overly large, but for sure not micro. Since performance was the same on both rods I’m thinking the guides didn’t play a huge roll here.

I didn’t pay attention to coils and line memory. I’ll have to go check that out now. Since I have new line on one and the old still on the other I’ll see if I can tell any difference. But I wasn’t experiencing any issues with ease of cast that I know of. It really seemed smooth and the line appeared straight, it definitely wasn’t coiled up. Maybe it isn’t as easy to see in light line? Maybe it’s there but on a minuscule level? Also, is 45’ normal for a 1/32oz bait or should it be more? Do I even need more, like do I need to be backed up off of the fish more than that distance? I’m used to 70-80 feet casts with bass lures on medium rods. Crappie fishing and these light rods and light lines is a new thing to me.

No matter what you do to improve your casts . A shallow spool is top of the list , filled to 1/8 from totally full on the spool

Go braid and don’t worry about it. I have some I haven’t respooled with new line in years.

I really like my shallow spool reels over the deeper spool reels and think you get better distance with them. My rods with the micro guides don't get the distance that the conventional bigger guides get because there is more friction with the tiny guides plus there is more guides on these rods. I get the most distance with a shallow spool reel with conventional guides but believe the rods with the tiny guides protect light lines better with more sensitivity. I'd get another shallow spool reel. I have a half dozen of them now and very happy with them.

I like large size reels, most of mine are 2500 size. It seems that there is less line twist and memory with them. For the deeper spooks I use filler line.

I like larger diameter spools over longer, skinnier spools.

I’ve seen several say that a shallow spool is better for distance casting. I have to ask how so? Once you’ve filled a deep spool up even with where a shallow spool would be when empty, aren’t they just gonna be the same thing at that point? Going from there you just fill it on up until full. Only difference would be all the buried line on the deep spool that never gets used.