How Not To Transfer Braid From Reel To Reel

I hope you noted the Not in the title!

I’ve had a beautiful, brand new 24T 4-8kg KLabs rod that’s been standing in my bedroom for a few months now, but haven’t had a reel to put on it.

So I bought myself a little Fin Nor Rampage 2000 reel for NZ$50 including shipping. I’ve had one of these before and while they’re not waterproof, so not ideal for kayaking, they feel pretty good for the price and with my oversized Predator XL kayak, I’m willing to risk it.

I had some 10lb braid on a secondary spool of a reel that’s given up the ghost recently, so I thought I’d just put that onto this reel. Because it’s a small reel I was concerned about how much line I’d get on, so I put a small bit of backing line on, tied that to the braid with my newfound FG knot skills and started transferring the line to the new reel. Halfway through I feel something pass through my fingers and there’s a whole bunch of backing line on the old spool. I could have and should have just cut the line where the braid ended and would have had a working solution, but the reel would have been somewhat empty and I wanted more backing on it. So… the genius plan…

I pulled all the line off both reels onto the ground. As it happens I didn’t think it through and ended up with the wrong side on top so the backing line was at the bottom. Didn’t want a tangle, so I meticulously pulled it all through my hands again onto my bed this time so that the braid is at the bottom and backing line on top.

Tied the backing line to the reel, got my son to come help me reel it in while I sad next to a blanket and kept pressure on the blanket while the line went through underneath it. Great plan, right? Keeping enough tension on the line to pack it nicely onto the reel.

Well after cutting the 3rd tangle and retying the line together, my son and I decided that this job was for the birds and we discarded all that line.

Just ordered some 6lb Sufix 832 braid, which seems to get a lot of good feedback as a low-cost, good quality line. The other one that people seem to prefer over the 832 for very light line is Stren Microfuse, but at $80 and exactly double the price of the 832, I didn’t want to put that on a $50 reel.

Oh well!