Line Lay Problem on Shimano Spin Reel

[Rocket75]

I have a problem with my Shimano Sahara 4000.

Regardless of what type / size line I spool up with, I always end up with an unusual line lay as per the following picture.

As you can see, the line is sitting in an "hourglass" shape.

I know that adding or taking washers from underneath the spool can effect line lay, and have tried this, but all I seem to acheive is moving the hourglass to differnt spots on the spool.

Anyone else had this problem before or got any idea how to fix it?

Thanks

Rocket

[Feral]

Fixing for the particular set of line is easy enough, if tedious.

Wind most of the line off, certainly well below where you think you will use it to.

Then just build a little hump in the line in the middle of the spool by manually winding it on.When you think the hump is high enough, just wind the rest on, hopefully if you judged well it will be pretty right.

With a baitcaster you do this by winding it so that you go one full pass over the centre of the reel until you have passed the edge back to the centre, then pulling the line off against the drag until the bit at the edge has come off. Unfortunately with a spinning reel the line lay setup is way to rapid to do that (in changing over the height of the spool), so its a by hand job.

Much easier to do it in the backing material which is usually thicker!

Doesn't look like it needs much, so be worth doing.

[Rocket75]

thanks Feral, will give that a go.

bit of a pain as I have 4 spools for this reel that will all need doing!

any idea what it is that causes the problem?

[kriso]

actually mine do the same thing.

[Feral]

I suspect it is because the height movement is to much for the height of the spool. It means extra line is built up at each end. I reckon if the spools were a mm or so taller it would not be a problem.

[Keechie]

i have the same with a few of my reels and i havent seen it to affect my casting ability, nor any other part of my fishing.

Nic

[aichepee]

my symetre 4000 has it. never had a wind knot ever and i use it for tossing slugs

[straddiebrad]

would it have anything to do with where the line first meets the bail arm,i mean staying at the bottom and when you wind it goes straight to the top instead of staying in the middle of the roller,just a thought.brad

[Rocket75]

I've been experimenting tonite with some different methods to try and "fix" this issue.

I tried adding and taking away washers, but that didn't help.

So I tried Feral's suggestion of manual line lay to pack out the centre of the spool.

this worked to a certain extent, but I found it hard to get an even distribution by hand.

Same theory, different material....I got out the electrical tape and used it to bulk out the spool, first with full tape width wraps, then with half tape width wraps, centered on the spool to create the right shape as below.

Using layer after layer of tape made keeping levels easier compared to working with the round profile of mono backing.

A bit of trial and error involved, but now my braid is sitting much neater and and runs off the spool much easier.

Looking forward to getting out and catching a fish on it now!

If anyone else is having this problem and has the time (like during a dust storm!) to go through this process, you might want to give it a go.

rocket

[HookedOnTackle]

it is probably just with the level reel and the tolerances/extras, my sustains don't have the problem nor my sol. but the sahara i just sold did it a bit... not worth worrying about too much i don't think, as you said it doesn't seem to cause wind knots.

[Calif Kid]

I am having this exact problem with my Shiimano 5000 nasci . I just purchased these reels Jan. 2020 . I have never had this with any Shimano reels that I have owned. Is this done by design  for the maker ?

[Gad]

with the receipt for it, take the reel and line back to where you purchased the reel and get them to spool it up for you, this way you learn how to overcome the problem for future re-spools 

 

[Carl Sammut]

I'm having the same problem here. i recently just bought a Shimano Nexave 4000 reel, and with it i bought some braid. I decided to buy a lower quality braid since I couldn't spend much money, and this was half the price.  I was aware the higher quality braid would be smoother, cast a bit farther and would feel better, however I didn't expect the lower quality braid to come with this much problems. i spooled it at home, with a very bad technique, however we do this every time with no problems. After the first 5 uses of this reel, every time i would get big wind knots which would sometimes leave me with no option but to cut the braid. I then decided to get it spooled from where I bought it from. They told me that it was spooled wrong, and they said that they will add backing and will respool it properly. They said that it should prevent wind knots, but it didn't.... To add onto it, from the first time we spooled it at home and after i got it spooled properly the line layed in an hourglass shape. I've tried messing with the washers but i saw almost no difference. Any suggestions?