After seeing a picture of a corroded 30s spool after the spectra was removed, I decided to wash mine and check out my reels before my Nov 10 day. Took a few pictures along the way to show how I do it so any comments are welcome.
First of all you need a few things:
Heavy duty line winder
Swifty line remover
Swifty spectra washing spools, I’ve heard of others making their own but these are pretty inexpensive and very handy
Mount your washing spool on the linewinder using the swifty line remover plates
Tie you spectra off to the washing spool (duh!) and start removing the line from your reel
NOTE: do NOT wind tight remember the object is to wash the spectra so just wind it on loose. We will handle it being loose later.
And that’s it ready to wash
Take the line remover plates off the washing spool (duh!)
And drop them in a 5 gallon bucket and fill with fresh water
I have heard of people putting these in their toilet tank and leaving them there for a few days. I just change the water every few hours and hose them off. After a few days in the water they seemed to be salt free. This will sound silly but lick the spool and see if it tastes like fish! I mean salt .
Now just lay them out to dry. This takes a few days depending on how tight you wound it on .
Ok now that our spectra is dry and clean lets put it back on. You will need and empty spool for this step. The bigger the spool the better this will make it easier to apply tension to the line later.
Now put the line remover side plates back on the washing spool with some all thread or swifty makes a tool for this part. And start putting your spectra on the filler spool.
Try to get it on as tight as possible. This is difficult because you remember we have the line on loose on the washing spool. What I found was if you use heavy zig zagging or criss crossing it will help later when we spool the reel
Now that we have the spectra back on a filler spool and we can fill our reel as you normally would.
NOTE Be sure to put the reel in low gear and wind it on slow to avoid heat buildup
And there you have it ready for topshot!
A few notes: Using this method will turn you spectra over as in the line at the bottom of the spool will now become the line at the top of your spool. If you have a lot of splices you can just repeat the step of adding it to the filler spool to turn it over. Also a heavy duty line winder is a must to get the spectra on tight.
Good Luck and good fishing
