How to Calibrate Your Line-Coun

How to Calibrate Your
Line-Counter Reel

New Reel to You ; OK, you just bought your new line-counter fishing reel, but more often than not owners manuals (if provided) don't have a lot of good instructions. Some information somewhere may say to have a full spool of line. What does that mean? The mechanical counters are made to relay the spool revolutions into distance, BUT this is generated off the diameter of the spool. Is it a full, empty one, or somewhere in between? These mechanical ones do not have the ability to differentiate between a full spool and a partly full one, therefore if you get a correct reading with a full spool, as the line goes off, the numbers will be inaccurate the farther you go out. So IF you have filled a spool and reset the counter at Zero, as the line goes out, say to 50', are you actually out 50' of line because as the line goes out so does the spool diameter decrease.

Then if you are using different line weights (different diameters) how does the counter know this? As with smaller weight (12#) line on the spool, the spool diameter stays larger if 200' goes off than compared to using 25# line. Spool diameter is what the mechanical line counters use to give their reading. As line goes off, the diameter of the filled spool gets smaller and the reading uses averages, there us no way to know unless you actually calibrate it.

One other thing, not all reel manufacturers make their spools the same size, so if you plan on outfitting your boat with line-counter reels, you might consider having them all the same make and model, AND/OR AT LEAST calibrate them all. It may also be best to spool them with the same line (same diameter) and the spool filled to the same amount (diameter of spool). This is to ensure that when you tell your buddy that you just caught your fish at 45' that when he lets his out to 45', that you will both be close, otherwise he may be shallower or deeper than you were.

The old way of telling how much line you had out was by stripping off line from the reel to the first eye of the rod, (usually 2', and called pulls) which worked/works fine, but some people do not understand that, and just stripped line out at 1/2 that or what ever was comfortable to them. There needed to be a standard. However your number of may not have been in feet, but if all on the boat understood the length of a pull, it made no difference as it was only a reference anyway. The same with these line-counter reels, except here, the constant is the diameter of the spool. The other method was to tie bobber stops on your mainline at predetermined distances.

Establish a Known Distance ; Your only way to be sure is to measure off a known distance, (longer is better up to a point), but remember this will be just an average so if you calibrate it at 100' it will be different at that midpoint (50') than if you actually calibrated it at 50'. Some say 100', but initially for me, 50' seemed to fit my type of fishing better, and it cuts down on my walking during the calibration. I measured this by using a 25' carpenter's tape measure.

With a full spool, your diameter will be largest for the first few passes of the line going out, as it goes out farther the line on the spool decreases in diameter, effecting the true readings.

The calibration method used here is to stretch your line out to your known target point and then compare that to what the reel's counter says. Don't be surprised if the two are not even close.

Measure your distance. I just happen to have a fence post that is just 50' from a shop door edge, and another 50' to a window edge, which works for me. However mark them so you remember. Spool your reel with nearly as much as the spool will hold without running over. This is usually suggested to within an 1/8th of an inch of the spool rim. But don't cut the line. At the start point, (my fence) I attach a downrigger clip onto the top fence wire, then insert the line into and it and clamp it into this clip at a point where you think the spool is full at. Reel in until your rod tip is touching the downrigger clip, and reset the counter. Now put your reel into free-spool and walk back to your known mark, stretching the line tight enough that there is not a lot of slack. Position the rod tip at your mark and read the number on the counter. Ideally the two will be the same, but if not, you may have to add some more line to the spool, OR take some off, which is usually the case.

Adjust The Spool Diameter ; If your counter says 46' and you are standing with the rod tip at a known 50', you would need to do walk farther, to get it to read 50' (add line). If you are a mathematician (which I am not) you could calculate the diameter of the spool, the line diameter and how much line you would have to add.

However if you are like me, where I have a backing under my mainline, either Mono or Braid, with a shock cord o n the terminal end, you can not just add it to the end, but you have to strip off and add it to the backing to INCREASE the diameter of the spool.

If the numbers are the other way around, (like being 56' instead of the desired 50") then you may simply shorten it. have to add more line onto the spool, (that is why you don't cut it initially) until you have calibrate it. Like I said theoretically, just add or subtract the number needed (but what is the number? Well just shortening the number difference does not work out quite that simple as, I find (for 20/25# mono) one foot equals adding or adding or subtracting about 10 feet of line).

It may take numerous tries of shortening it maybe 50' or 25', until you get close. But remember this is an average. What I finally settled on was 47 feet of counted line at 50', then move to the 100' mark which for the majority of reels I tried came in from 102 to 106' at this 100' marked window mark, with one at 110'. This was a compromise, but that is OK with me, as I now know that I am a little short at 50' and a little over at 100, being real close at about 80'. And by the time I tie a swivel and snap on the end, AND after enough time on the water, if I trim a few feet off occasionally to ensure no abrasion, I should not be that far off, even after a few trims.

One thing to remember is to have the reel on the rod and measure from the rod tip. In reality using the PULLS method, I would normally let my line out and start counting from where it enters the water, but, what ever method you use, be consistent each time and it all comes out in the wash. If you are doing a reel that is not on a rod, you numbers will be off considerable is say you have a 9' rod.

As said above, you need to understand that if you calibrate your reel at 50', then at 100' your actual distance will be shorter than the counter says. However if you calibrated it at 100', your distance at closer distances will be off more the opposite way. So depending on your fishing area and methods, chose your poison.

As said above, you will have an average, when if your counter distance shows 10' your lure may actually be 9 1/2', and with the counter showing 35', you may actually be 36'. But this is a lot better than doing the pulls, or guessing. And you know (approximately) where you are at at all times, whether you reel in a few feet or let more out if you are trying to maintain being close to the bottom, which is hard to do if you are using PULLS and need to reel in a bit.

And in my type of fishing, (salmon trolling, or back trolling in estuaries) if I have to loose sleep over this insignificant small amount of error, I need to take up some other sport, as there are a lot more variables in this fishing game that are needed to turn fishing into catching.

Some makes of reels are very close with a normal full spool, like a Okuma Cold water was within 5" at 10', or 3' at 50' which is where I wound up with the one described above.

As seen in the photo below, the downrigger clip is your adjustment so you secure, but do not cut the mainline, (possibly too short) for this calibration process. Reel down so the rod tip touches the clip and reset the counter, before you move out to your established distance.

If you change brands, or size of line, you will need to check your calibration out again. And the line counter reels that I have encountered are designed for mono. Since Braid is a lot smaller, the numbers shown on the reel will be considerably off.

My 50' numbers above are probably because I mostly fish salmon, and I tend to use a bit heavier line (like 25# mono) than probably intended for these line counter reels. However one reel, an Ambassadeur 6500LC, where I was using 15# came in at 47' at the 50' mark and 110' at the 100' mark, indicating that everyone can be different. Even gear ratio may effect the outcome numbers.

I can just about guarantee that if you try to do this on your existing rod/reel combo, you will be cutting off even up to 150' of line.

Here you see the downrigger clip attached to the mainline as a temporary attachment

Line counters are the rage now, and soon I suspect digital ones may come out that you can calibrate a lot closer than these current mechanical ones provide.

And Braid being a lot smaller diameter in size, will react differently, usually needing a FULL spool to be close.

However, the old way of stripping off line, and counting your 2' strips has caught a lot of fish, and is/will still be viable under many situations.

Now remember that if you calibrate the reel, with the end of the line at the rod tip, that is where your line out numbers starts. If you are using the chart shown below for actual depth of the lure, you will need to reset your reel line counter to where when the line enters the water as you are trolling.

This chart gives some computer driven numbers using the known angle

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Originated 02-11-2018, Last updated 09-10-2023
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