TYING THE LINE TO THE SPOOL
Whatever type of fishing you plan to do, you will be faced by the dilemma of how best to attach your line to the spool of your reel. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the commonest questions asked by novices. It may surprise you to know that there are multiple ways of doing this and that one way is not necessarily superior to another as it can depend on what the angler wishes to achieve. I will explain.
Many are concerned about line slippage rather than the strength of the knot, particularly with braided lines. A popular recommendation is to tie an Arbor Knot and then wrap some electrical tape over it to keep everything in place. This knot will lightly secure your line to the spool and provide little resistance should you be in danger of being 'spooled'.
The alternative school of thought is to use a much stronger knot to connect to the spool. In reality, if the fish has already pulled off so much line that it is now pulling against the spool, it is unlikely to be stopped there! However, the thinking is that providing your leader is weaker than the main line in whatever type of fishing you are participating, be it fly fishing, game fishing etc., a strong knot at the spool will cause the break to be at the leader end rather than the spool end resulting in you loosing only a few feet of line rather than the whole of the line.
"So, what kind of knot should I deploy?", you ask. If you are using monofilament or fluorocarbon as your main line, you can probably achieve moderate performance by wrapping your main line multiple times around the spool before applying a Uni Knot or San Diego Jam Knot. These materials are quite grippy and will afford you some security. With braid, and particularly fine braid in the 10-12 lbs class, it's a different story. Even though the type of knot I have just described will work very well with hooks and swivels using braid, a reel spool is different. You see, all connection knots rely to some degree for their performance on the item they are being attached to - the more awkward the shape, the more difficult it will be to get a slippery material like braid to grip.
That's why you should be looking to use a 100% non-slip loop. Whatever the line material you may be using, a non-slip loop relies for its strength solely on how well you have tied it and nothing else. The width of the attachment cannot affect it.
A strong Bimini Twist would certainly be a good candidate. Make the loop long enough so that when twisted, it fits over the spool at least twice. If you are using fine braid in the 10-12 lbs class, you will need to use x50 wraps in its composition. I am not alone in thinking this. See the 100 Percent Arbor Knot.
Good though the Bimini Twist undoubtedly is, I would like to suggest an alternative loop knot that has the added advantage of being adjustable - the San Diego Jam Loop Knot:
I successfully tied my 11 lbs braided line to my metal Shimano spool with the above knot as a single loop around the spool and in crossed-over doubled loop format. Both times, it went the distance.
Once you have tied your line to your spool, you will wish to ensure that you wind the line on in the correct direction to prevent it twisting up. The following diagram shows you the correct way:
Hopefully, you will now have a better understanding of the choices available to you when making this most important of decisions.
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