I got my Daiwa Magforce dial direction screwed up in my head, cranked it to basically zero braking rather than the max I wanted to test, then whipped out a strong cast and produced the most wicked birdsnest I've every had. I had to cut it out and was left with half a spool of line remaining.

 

When I look at the spool the line is still relatively even with the line guide and looks like it would cast/feed out just fine if I didn't respool right away. I estimate I lost 50% of my line, which suggests I have about 87 yards of the 175 yards of 10 lb. mono remaining.

 

Guess I'm asking if a baitcaster is as sensitive to spooled line level as a spinning reel? If it casts fine I'm inclined to fish with awhile, then respool the whole spool. I don't want to be bothered by that line splice knot.

Half spools are bad. Loss of casting distance; lowered effective gear ratio; poor spool control; among others. I'd simply splice and refill. The splice won't affect anything at 87 yds, but if it messes you up mentally, go ahead and respool the whole thing with fresh line.

It will work. But casting distance will suffer. Not sure what bothers you about the line splice knot. 

Only reels I own that don't have a line splice are new. I never empty a reel to add new line. Plus if you use braid it will lay better with a mono backing.

2 minutes ago, Russ E said:

Not sure what bothers you about the line splice knot. 

Only reels I own that don't have a line splice are new. I never empty a reel to add new line. Plus if you use braid it will lay better with a mono backing.

 

This is a new reel I had just filled , although doesn't really matter. I don't like the knot being near the bottom of the casting distance. When I started the post I thought I was going to be closer to the knot, but after converting the stated line capacity of 14/120 to the 10 lb. line I preferred, (10/163 yards) and estimating I lost half my line... that suggests I have around 80 yards to respool on top of the remaining 80 yards on the spool. Since I'm only casting half or less of that distance I don't think that knot will be appearing while casting for awhile.

13 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Half spools are bad. Loss of casting difference; lowered effective gear ratio; poor spool control; among others. I'd simply splice and refill. The splice won't affect anything at 87 yds, but if it messes you up mentally, go ahead and respool the whole thing with fresh line.

^^^this^^^

Whatever IPT you had will be reduced about 50%, mono line is inexpensive respool over what is left.

Tom

Sucks but it happens. Just re-spool the whole thing. Picking out a birdsnest that bad, you could have kinked/damaged whatever's left on the spool.

2 minutes ago, ResoKP said:

Sucks but it happens. Just re-spool the whole thing. Picking out a birdsnest that bad, you could have kinked/damaged whatever's left on the spool.

If you make 40 to 45 yard cast and you already have room  to spool 80 yards of line on the real, why would you suggest removing the other 80, at this point it is just backing.

5 minutes ago, Heartland said:

If you make 40 to 45 yard cast and you already have room  to spool 80 yards of line on the real, why would you suggest removing the other 80, at this point it is just backing.

Oops misread. Yea he can just splice and fill up the rest of the spool

Feel free to go out and try it but I have a feeling you're going to be like "why can't I cast far? This reel sucks!" and then realize that you have it only half spooled and aren't getting a proper usage out of the reel as a result.

So with the fishing season pretty much getting underway down there about now (I have a few more months to wait), it's time to get some fresh line on your reels anyway, so I would say go ahead and respool (tying on line and using what you have as backing is also fine). And fortunately it's mono, as it's much cheaper than superlines.

I typically use only enough backing to leave me with about 80 yards of main line.  Not that I can cast 80 yards, but sometimes casting with the wind, you'd be surprised by how far a a cast can be.

 

Since you're using mono, you will likely have 'break off,' and with each one, be getting closer to your splice knot.  Act accordingly 

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Half spools are bad. Loss of casting distance; lowered effective gear ratio; poor spool control; among others. I'd simply splice and refill. The splice won't affect anything at 87 yds, but if it messes you up mentally, go ahead and respool the whole thing with fresh line.

I’m getting Post Traumatic Splice Disorder just by reading this thread.

34 minutes ago, CrankFate said:

I’m getting Post Traumatic Splice Disorder just by reading this thread.

Don't they have a pill for that yet?

38 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Don't they have a pill for that yet?

It’ll throw off my entire reaction time on the hookset.