Every angler has at one time or another experienced the pleasure of suddenly forming an unbreakable tangle in the line during casting. These are also called
wigs and can spoil your fishing day. If you leave them only partly in the line and have a knot, it can cost a fish, because especially such knots weaken the line.
If it is already too late
If you have a light wig in the line, it can often be easily loosened. It is important not to tighten anything and to patiently loosen everything. Unfortunately there is a high risk that the string will form a wig again, especially with monofilament (memory effect).
Check the reel
Stationary reels have a problem with their design: the line is deflected and this can cause twisting (i.e.
twist in the line). This twist should be prevented by the line roller. If this doesn’t work properly or is too heavy, you can easily move some string with pressure over the line roller and see if it moves. Often this is not so easy to see. If it doesn’t move, you should first try to loosen the screw next to the string roller a bit (on the left side of the picture you can see it). If this still doesn’t help, you should take the roller apart and oil it.
Another problem can be a bad winding reel. Especially problematic is such a roll in combination with braided line. If the line pattern is not clean you should use monofilament line.
In the meantime most of the fishing reels are winding reasonable top spinning reels you can find in my market overview here on angeltests.de >>
Before spooling up the line
Monofilament line can be softened by soaking it in lukewarm water for about half an hour before spooling it up. This way the line will adapt much faster to the new spool size of the reel and can be used more quickly
Winding up the line correctly
If the line is wound up wrong on the reel from the beginning, trouble is bound to follow, no matter how well the reel winds up the line. That’s why I’m writing here once again how to do it right and how not to do it.
How it doesn’t work (but it’s very common)
Letting a helper hold the spool with a pen and then winding up the new line is relatively comfortable and seems logical, but it’s about the worst method, because the line is twisted by 90°. This causes the line to jump off the reel quickly.
The best and easiest method
It is much better to put the spool on the ground and weigh it down in the middle or fix it flat to the wall (with a nail), then lead the line through rings of a rod to the reel. Now the Arbor knot or spool knot is the right one to knot the line around the spool. Note: the instructions are for right-handed people, left-handed people can use the other hand as described here.
Then hold the string with a damp cloth in your right hand at the level of the guide ring and apply some pressure to the string to wind it up tightly. The guide ring is the rod ring which is closest to the reel. Cranking is best done with the right hand and clamp the rod between the legs. If you let the line loose after a few turns and notice that it does not form any other rings than its natural ones and does not get caught, then everything is perfect. Otherwise you just have to turn the spool 180° and now the line comes off properly.
The goal is to get the line back on the spool with the same twist as it was wound on the original spool.
A few more tips on how to wind the line correctly
These tips can also be used to avoid trouble.
- Do not overfill the spool 2-3 mm below the edge of the spool, then the spool is sufficiently full
- The line must not become too hot when winding.
- Too little pressure so that the line is sagging is also bad – some tension must always be there
After winding the line
After winding the line you should not go to water immediately and let the line rest for at least 2-3 days. If the line comes from a larger reel, which is always the case, it has to get used to the new spool diameter – the memory effect of fishing lines comes into play again.
Don’t fold the bail automatically
Here’s a tip that not many people should know: folding the line catching bail by hand after every cast not only protects the spring and the mechanism, but also prevents wobbling. Folding down the bar takes the synchronicity out of the Anti Twist mechanism of a stationary reel. So every time something twisted deep down in the spool (you have just ejected it) no twist will get out and after many times of repetition the wig will come out.
Don’t hang over the spool
If you hang over the rod or directly over the spool you risk not only breaking your tackle, but the first layers of line on the spool cut deeper into the underlying layers of line. If the line is cut deep enough, it can also have damaged the line underneath or it can get completely stuck, which in both cases can result in a very long cast of the lure but a broken line. Everyone has probably seen how far our lure can actually fly when the line is no longer connected to it…
Use swivels
Sensible swivels prevent relatively reliably twist in the line. For light lures normal barrel swivels are completely sufficient. When trout fishing with Spirolino, double or triple swivels are ideal to prevent twisting of the line completely.
With heavy lures and when fishing with spoons and spoons you should consider using ball bearing swivels. Such swivels still turn reliably in both directions even under high pulling forces.
Use a good line
Very stiff monofilament line quickly forms ridges. Therefore soft lines are often better suited for beginners. The use of high quality lines reduces frustration when fishing. I recommend braided lines from Climax or monofilament Shimano Technium. In fact I had maybe 2-3 wigs with both this year with over 250 fishing days.
You can find a test of different braided lines here on Angeltests.de >>