Swapping/storing line to/from reel to reel

[jimbofish]

I recently started actually fishing some of the reels I've gathered. Most of them are without line. I have no desire, or money, to keep all of them spooled with usable line just to be fished occasionally. I've been swapping line as needed from one to another, usually placing something heavy on the full one and hand winding it to the empty one.

Trying to improve on this, I attached two old rod handles nose to nose. Works but it's a bit clumsy and awkward to use, so I'm thinking of making something more stable. Attaching two reel seats to a platform would be the basic idea, something like the Berkley Line Winding Station. I've been formulating various configurations with advantages and drawbacks to each.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to do this, so I'm wondering if anyone else here has their own contraption/method to do this before I start and have a moment.

[Midway Tommy D]

You could get 2 very basic spinning or fly reel seats for practically nothing, slip them over the same ID to OD PVC and tape or glue them to the PVC. If you leave appropriate space between the seats you could screw attach that to a board that could be squeeze clamped across the corner of just about anything flat. The whole thing could be transportable and 18" or less long & 3 or 4" wide. You could also just screw the reel seats by themselves to a board.

Tom

P.S. Having the wife or one of the kids hold the one you're taking line off of is always a good option. Then they feel needed.

[OCauto]

Buy a couple of the display reel seats from the ORCA store. They are easy to position and cheap to boot.

[Bill Sonnett]

My problem has always been that I wanted to use some "backing" with the 50 yard spool of the braided casting line to get the spool as full as possible for good casting. When I transfer the line to another reel the backing ends up on the outside of the spool. For years I used an intermediate reel to solve that problem and simply laid the reel to be emptied on its side with the handle up. Unless there was a problem with the line being tangled somewhere on the spool being emptied, it worked fairly well. When working on a reel and making adjustments that require me to re-spool in between adjustments (then back out to the backyard to make a few casts to see if the problem is solved) I now use a old line dryer that can remove the line in a hurry and its already in the right position (backing on top) to put back on the reel or any other reel that needs a few cast to determine problem areas (if any). It would be very easy to build a basic line dryer that looks like a Ferris wheel with a hand crank. I would make mine as big in diameter as practical to facilitate fast line removal.

Being impatient I once tried using an electric drill with a fitting that went over the handle nut on that intermediate reel. It was very fast, but when things occasionally went wrong with this arrangement-----they went very wrong in a hurry! LOL

[bvandeuson]

Here is the fly line dryer/transfer device I made. Not pretty, but for transferring from one reel to another, it is great. If you wish to separate backing and fly line, just wind the fly line towards one side, and the backing towards the other.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feature ... /rc336.php

BBNC

[Bill Sonnett]

Very ingenuous --I'm going o try this out!

[Brian F.]

That's a great idea. I suppose you could use a garden hose reel for big game reels too.