Spooling spinning reels with braid correctly is essential to avoid wind knots. Most manufacturers of spinning reels designed for braid use rotors and line rollers that fill the spool evenly with braid of a specified diameter. If you use the correct diameter line and spool it correctly, you are unlikely to develop wind knots during casting.

However, most spinning reels are designed for both braid and nylon. This can compromise the line lay, as nylon is thicker than braid. As a result, the line lay on the spool may not be optimal for either nylon or braid when the reel is spooled straight out of the box. To address this issue, most new reels come with a package of spool washers that allow anglers to fine-tune the line lay.

Uneven line lay can be a problem for any angler. It can lead to wind knots, line twists, and even lost fish. You can do a few things to fix uneven line lay on a fishing spool.

Check the spool washers.

The first thing you should do is check the spool washers. These are small, thin pieces of material that are placed under the spool to help the line lay evenly. By adding or subtracting them, they can adjust the line lay. To check the spool washers, remove the spool from the reel. Try adding (to shift the line 'down') or subtracting washers (to shift the line 'up') to adjust the way the line lays.

Adjust the line tension.

The line tension is the amount of pressure that is applied to the line while spooling. 

Braid requires more tension than mono or fluro - but if you spool mono or fluro with the same tension as braid, you might damage your spool - as mono can contract after being stretched during the spooling process. Many a spool has been damaged that way!

Re-spool the line.

If you've checked the spool washers the line tension is ok, and the line is still laying unevenly, you may need to re-spool the line. At this point - we would suggest you get in touch with us and see if we can help out by re-spooling it for you. We see a few returns on reels that are apparently 'faulty' - that end up being spooling issues, with either the customer doing it themselves, or getting another retailer 'professional' to do it for them.

We spool a lot of reels. So our guys know the best practices. Happy to help!