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Spare spool for a reel? Yes if you might want to use 2 different lines on the same reel. I have 2 extras for my lamson 6wt reel, it's on my 9'10 4wt rod but I plan to use it for a 6 wt rod as well in the future, so i'll probably have it set up with a 4 at floating line 6 wt intermediate and 6 wt floating.

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If you're talking fly reels.... a spare spool can be setup and ready to go with a sinking fly line while the regular reel spool is sporting a floating line... In the case of big game reels ( minimum line capacity 250 yards of 30lb dacron or Micron backing and a full 12wt line....) I've found through hard experience that it's very handy to have a spare spool rigged and ready when you lose a big fish along with your fly line and 100 meters of backing (another of those "ask me how I know propositions" ). There is a small part of a small river that every now and then holds fish at the upper end of their size range (a 100lb fish in a river that's less than 100 feet wide is a handful ... ) and that one spot has cost me three fly lines plus backing over the years... We've lost entire fly lines in other places but that one small spot takes the prize... I'm thinking about it since we jumped off a big fish there a few days ago - and tomorrow I'm taking fly anglers there...

 

Seriously with a spare spool for your reel you have options... and that does make a difference...

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yes and no

 

i only fish weight forward floating fliy lines so i wouldnt need an extra spool for lets say a sinking fly line

 

but if you wish to use a reel for both floating and sinking lines then a spare spool is the way to go. cheaper then another reel

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Ok I have a 3wt for native Brookies generally around 6-7in. And I have a 6wt for rainbows, cutthroat, and browns in rivers. I have WF floating lines right now. I have never used sinking lines.

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I would recommend getting a spare for the 6wt, I really like the sa GPX hover lines add a versa leader and it fishes like a hinge free sink tip.

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I don't buy expensive reels so I buy spare reels, spool and all. Problem with this is I typically pick up a spare rod so I end up having no spare reels laying around. It's a vicious circle.

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Like flytire, I only use floating lines. So, no need for a spare spool filled with sinking or other types of lines.

When I am on the road, and hoping to get some fishing in, I carry a fly rod and a spinning rod.

If I find shallow water with enough room around it, I'm fly fishing. If it's too deep or too enclosed, I'm using conventional gear.

 

At home, I mostly fish from a boat. I have as many as 7 different rods with me, each rigged up with a different presentation. Again, no need to change spools.

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I have spare spools for my 5, 6 and 8 wgt reels. For the 5 wgt and 8 wgt reels I have a spare spool with a sinking line on it. The 6 wgt which is the one I use the most I have two spare spools, one with an intermediate line and the other with a sink tip line. Most of my fishing is done from the bank or in the stream or lake, so I don't have the option of carrying more than one rod. Even when I'm fishing from a boat I just carry two rods. Usually the 6 wgt and the 8 wgt.

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If the extra spool is expensive and you have multiple rods, that same money spent on a spare backup reel would make more sense to me. I bought an expensive reel and spare spool 15 years ago. I don't fish waters where I would switch floating to sinking line and also have different rod and reel set ups for different waters. I loaded the spare with a heavier front taper floating line for those "windy...short cast...obstructed backcast...kinda days". I carried the spare spool with the truck gear for 6 years before I switched it into the reel. And that was done at home the day before fishing it! For destination fishing, good insurance. Maybe, if you have two different weight rods and the reel fits both. Everyday use, it hasn't proven that valuable for me.

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In most of my fishing the need to switch to a different line is a spur of the moment thing. Like when a school of shallow pelagic rock fish show up in the fish finder while we are fishing bottom fish. Or I float past the mouth of a slough where I need a streamer for pike instead of a dry fly for grayling.

 

There is such a variety of species to fish in both fresh and salt water here.

 

For these reasons I always have more than on rod strung up and ready to go. Sometimes as many as four rods with different lines and terminal gear are ready.

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I had fast sink, slow sink, sink tip, DTF & WFF all in one weight once and used them all occasionally, all on the same reel & rod with spare spools, aside from the fact that at the time a spool was 1/3 the cost of a complete reel, when you walk and wade two spare spools in the vest weigh about what one reel does. I also had other weight lines on other spare spools that the reel frame could fit on other rods, I think I have 7-8 spares for that reel and only use it occasionally any more but every spool has different weight lines on them for test cast purposes when I acquire a new to me rod. I don't have great faith in the numbers marked on the rod label and try at least four line sizes to see what the rod likes best with my style. Are the spares worth it? The answer depends on who you are and how you fish, I no longer use WF or full sinking lines, I also live 1500 miles from where I did then and the waters are all different. If I had multiple rods rigged up in the way that some do, at least one would be lost or stepped on by day's end.

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Ok the spare spool for the 6wt is $61

You can buy a like new Pflueger Medalist 1494 or 95 for under $50 dollars. Like Poopdeck I always have a spare reel with same line and another reel with sinktip. It's just as fast or faster to change reels and not have to mess with getting spool on without pinching line. Slam new reel on and thread and go. 'Course I probably have a half dozen Medalists, a few Hardys, Classic pawl click Shakespeares, and some oddballs mixed in the dozen or more reels sitting there. Haven't counted since just adding a couple of classic all magnesium fully machined Shakespeares that are hard to come by.

 

Capt. Bob, how is you lose full reel of line? Surely your backing should be stronger than your tippet and that should break first I'd think. I know you probably have heavy leader and shock tippet but line and backing should be greater strength, aren't they?

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Vicrider, I expect the line was not broken off but cut off. Between the oysters bars and the mollusk encrusted mangrove roots it's like fishing in a razor blade factory. A 100# poon can be a hundred yards away in seconds, not even enough time to start the motor and put it in gear let alone give chase at a rate the angler can reel line up fast enough to keep tight. If it was in a smaller creek that fish may well have been around the bend, out of line of site, and dragging the backing across dozens of mangroves.

 

Swamp

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