I am kind of new, and have a question about retying lures.  How often sould you do so?  With enough hits and bumping on the bottom, the line above the lure gets a little knicked over time, so instead of losing a nice bass I assume most have a set time period for cutting off a foot or so of line and starting over.  Is this correct?

Two other quick questions.

How often do you replace your entire line?

Finally, I use a black jig with uncle johnsons pork most of the time.  I fish for an hour or 2 each night.  I don't really want to buy a new jar every 5 days, so I leave the jig in a cup of water in the garage to keep the pork wet.  Would you recommend retying my lure before I start every night, or would the line sitting in the water for 18 hours not really cause the knot to loosen up?  

Thanks in advance for your help.

retie before starting each trip,  and constantly check youre line for nicks and abrasion.   You cant retie to much

If you use braided line I dont believe you'll have to retie as much, as braided line resists tears and abrasions and things of that nature.

I use Braid with a Fluorocarbon Leader...I mate the 2 lines with an Albright Knot.

http://www.animatedknots.com/albright/index.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

I keep my Spool of Fluorocarbon handy and I retie after every 2-3 fish and/or snags.

If I feel it has been stretched I will retie regardless.

I also put on a new leader every time I head out.

Losing a fish and losing a lure just plain old SUCKS !

Nobody can tell you: you 've got to retie every X casts or every X minutes or hours, that 's something that depends exclusively on how much wear the line gets. It may be hours of casting or after each cast.

Nobody can tell you how much line you have to cut either, it depends on the extent of the damage, it may be a few inches or several feet or yards of line you have to remove, the only way to determine how much is by checking your line visualy and by running it through your fingers, in case of monofilament lines ( nylon, copolymer, fluorocarbon ) the line surface must be smooth as glass, if you feel any roughness then you have to remore that portion.

Same thing goes about when you have to respool.

The more often the better with-in reason each fishing situation will differ; catch ratio/cover/open water/rivers/ect- you can just plain waste your line and time if you do it unwarrented.  Feel for nicks/abbrasions/strech if its good keep swinging if not re-tie.  

...lure gets re-tied after every fish caught

Nobody can tell you: you 've got to retie every X casts or every X minutes or hours, that 's something that depends exclusively on how much wear the line gets. It may be hours of casting or after each cast.

Nobody can tell you how much line you have to cut either, it depends on the extent of the damage, it may be a few inches or several feet or yards of line you have to remove, the only way to determine how much is by checking your line visualy and by running it through your fingers, in case of monofilament lines ( nylon, copolymer, fluorocarbon ) the line surface must be smooth as glass, if you feel any roughness then you have to remore that portion.

Same thing goes about when you have to respool.

X2  

Re-tie immediately after having a fish break off or losing a lure to a snag ;D (sorry, couldn't resist)

i would just check every 6 cast or so

Re-tie immediately after having a fish break off or losing a lure to a snag ;D (sorry, couldn't resist)

HAHA!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I always rety after catching a fish of good size, knowing full well the next one will be a lunker and thus break the weakened line.

I always rety after catching a fish of good size, knowing full well the next one will be a lunker and thus break the weakened line.

Be careful !, there 's huge pile of BS right there, don 't step on it !.

I hardly ever retie when I am out fishing.  I just check the knot and make sure there is no damage to the line.  I DO retie after I catch a pickerel or two though.

...lure gets re-tied after every fish caught

that could be a lot of re-ties.