LINE MANAGEMENT: LEWIS READ

It’s arguably the most important part of your set-up, and in a game of percentages, it really can make or break your session. Lewis Read explains how to load your line, and then look after it…

BY Lewis Read

Your main line: arguable the most important part of your set-up!

PHOTOGRAPHY Lewis Read and Joseph Brazil

Your main line is as critical to success or failure as a good bait or a sharp hook. No matter how thoroughly worn and decrepit your bankside tackle looks, as long as it is serviceable, it will do the job. But line, well that’s not an item you can really expect to take chances with, at least not without inevitably being punished horrifically, or perhaps even paying the ultimate penance of a lost leviathan… oh, the horror!

Whichever type of line you elect to spool up with, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. The best commodities of any type invariably cost a little more, but with that premium price comes premium performance. Higher performance line, of whichever type you use— be it copolymer or fluorocarbon monofilament, or braided—will utilise the better ‘ingredients’ from sources that guarantee greater consistency. If the better lines offer a solid 10 per cent better performance but cost you 50 per cent more, then that’s money very well spent in my honest opinion.

If you have gone to the trouble to find a great line, then the last thing you will want to do is undermine its performance. Here, then, is a rough guide on how to treat your line with some TLC, so it maintains its performance and has extended longevity.

Mono (copolymer)

Without doubt, when loading mono from a bulk spool onto your reel, it’s best practice to place the spool in lukewarm water with the bulk spool weighted down and the line coming up and off the spool in an anticlockwise direction. Both practically and mathematically (if you’re that way inclined), this methodology will give the least line-twist. In fact, if your reel spool and the bulk spool had the same diameter there would be zero twist, but in the ‘reel’ world, they aren’t, so you will need to bear this in mind.