When I respool my reels, putting on fresh line, I only use a top shot of fresh line. A top shot, is, what saltwater anglers call it, a section of a specified line atop the normal spool of line. Using this technique of top shotting, I can make a new spool of line stretch quite a bit further than if I were to strip the entire reel’s worth of line off, putting fresh line on. Let’s break it down a bit.
When you consider it, casting lengths vary greatly. However, even on the longest casts made by the pros, a cast is about 150 feet, tops. Often it’s much shorter, depending upon technique. So, if we allow ourselves to round up, a long cast is no longer than 200 feet, which adds up to 60 yards. A typical replacement spool is between 150 yards and 250 yards. And considering that a typical bass reel holds 150-200 yards of line, if we only strip off 60 yards or so of old line, replacing only this amount, we can spool between 2-4 reels— more than if we stripped all of the line off of one reel, replacing all of it. This saves replacing the line that’s buried deep within the spool, unlikely to be used anyways, even on the longest of casts.
Using this top shotting practice allows me to not feel as much of a financial pinch when respooling the many reels I use for my Traverse City Bass Guide Service business. I can put fresh line on a lot more reels than otherwise, giving my customers the freshest line as often as I can.