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There is no limit to the amount of stuff you can accumulate in fly fishing. After a while it gets tricky to wade through what’s needed and not, and where to sacrifice for efficiency. It’s rare that doubling or tripling up on something actually makes your life easier, but when you find those hacks, hang onto them.
For me, the big fix is spare spools.
Having extra spools is a bit of a lost art. Long before I started fly fishing, a lot of reels were made with plastic cassettes that cost almost nothing and made changing lines a breeze, When “Big Fly Fishing” realized they could get way more money by just making line storage fancy like the reels and creating “specialized” gear that required you to diversify, the trend died down.
Now folks like Cheeky are making high quality reels at affordable prices, and spare spools are pretty accessible. Spools give you inexpensive versatility across a range of fishing techniques and species. Here’s why you should do it, with a few tips to streamline your setups.
Success Across Species made Simple
One-species rods don’t exist. Unless it’s something highly niche (like a euro-nymphing rod for trout, for example), the right single-hand rod can easily handle fish all over the taxonomic spectrum without you having to change them out. Why should a reel be any different?
My eight weight gets used on carp, pike, striped bass, largemouth, and plenty more in a season. These fish get targeted at all sorts of different depths and current speeds, and with flies that vary greatly in terms of castability. The only core part of the rig that changes are my lines, which I keep on extra spools for my Spray. When trying to travel light, it’s a lot easier to deal with one rod and swap out lines as I see fit. It doesn’t take as long as you’d think. There’s not too much more to add here besides stating the obvious- this is much cheaper and easier than having a couple of rods and reels for completely different scenarios. You can just change one part of a single rig.
It’s not a cure all- certain quick-shot situations (many saltwater flats gameplans, for example) require multiple rods rigged with different lines and flies for rapid presentation changes. But for different species and different days, it pays off to mix and match.
Fit to the Right Rod
Using several lines on one rod is only effective if the rod can cast all of them. Usually, these all-purpose rods are on the faster-action side. Stiff rods won’t get overloaded by heavy full sink lines, but they still have finesse to launch delicate casts with floaters.
Be Picky With Your Lines
Now that you’ve laid the groundwork for the swiss army knife of fly fishing rigs, it’s time to load up those spools. This is a pretty open-ended question that only you can answer, and it all depends on where and how you fish.
If you’re new to the multiple fly line setup, the easiest way to begin filling in gaps is by asking “what presentations do I often wish I have?”. Maybe you’re struggling to keep your streamers working on the bottom in faster current, or have a callibaetis nymph suspend just under the surface on stillwaters. You might even want the option to convert to a mono-rig setup for a tightline nymph presentation. Intermediate, sink tips, 7 inch-per-second full sinkers- you don’t need them all, but at least one is a starting point.
And since the cost of lines can add up quick, be picky. Make sacrifices where you need to, knowing that having only a couple of well-selected lines for one rod can still leave little to no gaps in your game.
Stay Organized
As previously mentioned, excess gear can get out of hand in a hurry. Spare spools and lines can be inexpensive, but trust me- it still doesn’t feel good to misplace them. Especially when you drive them off the top of your car without looking back, assuming the light bump on your roof as you accelerated was a branch or an acorn… that’s another story. I’m not still mad.
My best piece of advice here is to keep everything together as often as you can. Most good reel packs with spare spools come in a nifty case where you can easily consolidate for travel or storage. Fly lines are often easy to recognize, but it never hurts to get labels for your spools to keep track at a glance.
Don’t push it if you don’t need to. There are plenty of examples where you’ll find having a couple of extra spools for your rig just isn’t necessary. But like all of the other quirks and tricks you have/will have picked up in fly fishing, keep it in the back of your mind. It could save a lot of time, money, and rerigging next time you’re plotting how to upgrade an outfit.
You’re a fly angler, and you’re destined to be a bit of a gear head forever. Chances are your collection won’t stop growing, and that’s fine, but it’s always worth going back to strategies that make the fishing part of the sport that much better. In the ever-widening world of new tools and must haves, spare spools are worth hanging onto.
Meet the Author: Ben Groppe is a multi-species angler and overall fish fan, dedicated to enjoying, preserving, and occasionally documenting the fisheries he loves. Off the water, he’s sharing his passion as one half of the blog Long Haul Fly Fishing.
