How to Spool a Carp Reel

Spooling a carp reel isn’t a difficult thing to do but if you don’t get it right you can quite often end up with line twist, there is a way to get your mono onto the spool and avoid line twist so let’s take a look at how to spool a carp reel.

How to spool a carp reel

If you have new carp reels that have never been spooled before then spooling your carp reel is quite straight forward, for this article let’s assume there is old line on the spool that has to be removed. I’ve seen some anglers use a drill to remove line from a spool but I’m not a fan and I prefer to do mine the old fashioned way. I simply prop my rod up against the wall, open the bail arm of the reel and just wind the line round my hand until it’s all off, it’s a little time consuming but once it’s done I tie the line off so it won’t spring into a big old mess and simply dispose of it in the bin.

Removing old fishing line from a reel

With the old line removed my backing line is exposed, I have enough backing line on my spools so that I only need 200 yards of mono to fill my spool to the lip. If you have new reels I’d highly recommend putting backing line on them or use spool/line reducers if you have them. It saves a lot of waste and with 200 yards of mono on each carp reel I can spool 2 or 3 carp reels more than once from the same 1000 yard spool of mono.

Spool the reel with backing line first

To spool your carp reel with mono, use the butt section of your rod, I thread my Line through the butt eye, open the bail arm on the reel and tie the mono to the reel making sure that the knot is at the back of the spool. You can use any knot you want for this and I usually use a couple of plain granny knots. You should never lose all your mono off the spool so technically as long as it’s tied on you should have no problem whatever knot you use, hence why I stick to a plain granny knot.

Gardner Pro Light Blend fishing line

With the line tied to the spool, close the bail arm and put a few turns onto the reel. Before you start winding your line onto the spool make sure your spool of mono is on the floor with the label facing upwards, the mono should come off the spool in an anti-clockwise direction, this is really important, if the line comes off the spool in a clockwise direction you’ll get a lot of line twist so always have the label facing upwards and the line leaving your spool of mono anti-clockwise. Once I’ve made a start I like to use a towel or tea towel, I wind the mono through the towel and onto the spool, this does two things, it makes sure the mono is clean as it goes onto the spool and it stops you getting friction burns, if you wind mono onto a reel under tension and you do it quickly you’ll burn your fingers without the towel so it’s better to use one than not.

Once you’re set up just keep the butt eye of the rod above the spool of line so as it coils off anti-clockwise it rises vertically to the butt eye then down onto your reel spool, fill the reel spool right to the lip if you’re using Mono and just under the lip if you’re using braid. Once you’ve filled your reel to the lip you’re done, just cut the mono and you can either finish tackling up your rod or you can clip the mono into the line clip on the spool of the reel until such time as you need it.

Spool a carp reel right to the lip of the spool

And that’s how to spool a carp reel, if you struggle to follow this article please check out the video above, sometimes watching it done is easier than written instructions and the 5 minute video is easy to follow. You should consider subscribing to my youtube channel too, like this blog, it’s full of carp fishing tips to help you put more fish on the bank and it's all free, I'll never charge for my content.

Tight Lines.

Mark.