Fix It Now...Or Wish You Had

That advice obviously could apply to any number of different situations, but, in this case, I'm talking about braided line that's wound improperly on a baitcasting reel.

Having used all-braid for several years, I've learned, through a painful process of trial and error, that the smart angler is the one who stops and fixes problems with braid as soon as they occur. If the problem is one you can't resolve while on the water, you'll be better served just to put down the affected reel until you get home and can take care of it properly.

To cut to the chase, I happened to notice this past Wednesday that the braid on one of my reels was spooled in such a manner that I was just "asking" for trouble (in the form of buried-line backlash) with every cast. Was I going to stop? Not on your life...not on a day when I was lucky enough to be dialed into some nice fish.

How the line came to be all fouled up, I'm not certain. Perhaps I was only half awake when I last spooled the reel. In any event, however, as the saying goes, "Ask and ye shall receive."

In case you can't figure out what happened, I'll explain. I saw a fish move on the distant shoreline and let loose with some extra oomph on a cast that quickly would have me muttering some really nasty things to myself as I tried to "unbury" the 40-pound braid. For openers, my line pick was broken when I finally found it, so I should have waved the white flag right then and there. But what...me give up without a fight? I can count the number of times I've ever done that on one hand and have fingers left over.

It wasn't until I finally heard myself say out loud, "For 2 cents, I'd heave this whole d**n mess as far as I could send it" that I realized I'd better set the rod and reel in the corner of the boat before I did something I'd truly regret. You see, I actually performed that trick once many years ago and never have forgotten it. Besides, I still had three rigs I could use, and I quickly found out they, too, would catch the fish I was on that day.

After dinner Wednesday evening--when I once again was cool, calm and collected--I picked up the reel with the problem and started cutting off all the old line. When I was done, I grabbed a new spool of Stren braid, along with my Berkley portable line-spooling station, and did the job right.