Iron setup
 

How much line you guys put on your reels?

All of it...

It depends on the reel size. The taller the spool size the more line retrieved per crank. I just max all my spools out less 25 or so yards. I like having that extra room incase It doesn't spool on perfectly even when I retrieve.

None of my reels have more than 200 yards :rolleyes:

So 200 yards is good?

That equates to 600 ft of line. Are you planning on taking the yak out in to 600 ft of water? Or having a whale run your line out that far? I don't know about you, but I think catching whale is overrated anyway. No head-shakes.


My bass rig has a 100 yrd reel but I have braid on there, so itl hold a little more. My "Big feeesh" rod currently has 300 yards on it, but it's WAY too much for the kayak IMO. Looking to throw a 200 yard reel on there. Even then, I doubt I'll use 200 yards.

200 Yards is plenty for a dedicated YoYo rig

actually its for surface iron and sounds like I should be good even if I can 100yards (wishful thinking) :)

I may not know
 

What i am talking about. 80 -100 yards is generally more than you need for most fish , other than maybe shark, whale, dolphin, etc. But you still want line on your reel so your drag is not adversely affected. As the line decreases on the spool, the tighter the drag gets. If your drag is set on the tight side and you get spooled , the pressure or drag which now has increased could easily amount to more than your breaking strength. Just one thing to consider.

The avg. reels' line capacity is about 250-300. It will kind of depend on what you're fishing for & where you're fishing (open ocean/kelp).

I like 250-300 yds. on my conventional reels. If a fish can 'rip off' that much line he deserve's to go free! ::D (little advertised tip; if the first 100 yds. need to be replaced and you didn't bring a spare filler spool, use a line winder and turn the line around checking for frays & nicks and reel it back on...top line on the bottom again checking for frays, bottom unused line on top). CAVEAT: if the line is over a year old or coils too much from being too tightly spooled this tip won't work, THE LINE IS TOO OLD/stressed!

Hooked a bluefin off the Cortez/Tanner Bank once and had seen more Angler's with same issues, was trolling 80# w/ an "8 inch jet-head", fish hit the trolling rig, headed south and never looked back. :eek: :the_finger: He stripped off 450 yds on my 50W in 2-3 minutes. :eek: In a kayak that wouldn't have been a "sleigh ride" more like water skiing. (no icon for Cowboy...YeeeeeHaaaa!!!) Besides not too crazy about reeling in that much line once he's broken off, in this case, when I ran out of line I pointed the rod & "POP"!!! (Didn't bring spare spool of line on that trip fortunately the boat I was on had bulk spools for just this emergency & I reloaded with 100#. :mad: :hmpf:.

My fly reels have about 450+ yds. of POWER PRO backing (usually about 400 yds. of PP backing...50#-65#) gives me a better chance of landing a big fish that wants to head to Hawaii (or S. America) once hooked but it is a pain reeling in that amount of line if the fish gets off or having to reel in the fish. :doh:
FFY.

thanks for your input guys!