This article is going to be a bit different than most of the ones I write. I’m not an Instagram guy and I don’t even have an account; I don’t want one and I’ll likely never have one. My lovely wife, on the other hand, gets on these video-watching binges some evenings and every few seconds she’s giggling and showing me cat videos, dog videos and anything else she can find on there.
All of her Instagram scrolling finally did me a solid, however. As she was scrolling last week she said, “Honey look at this!”
I looked, fully expecting to see a one-legged cat riding a jetski or something but it was a video of someone spooling a spinning reel in a crockpot. They put some water in the bowl, put a spool of line in the water and ran the line out of the hole located on the lid.
A good idea? Yea, I thought so. But I needed to do some experimenting on my own. There were a few flaws I saw with this video so I wanted to check it out for myself and see if it was worth sharing with all of you.
Turns out, it is. Hang with me for like two minutes and I think you’ll appreciate this fairly smart approach at spooling a spinning reel.
The premise behind the technique
Spooling spinning reels can be a real booger, if we’re being honest. If you spool ‘em up the wrong way you’re likely to deal with maddening line twist no matter what method you try to counteract it. It has been well known, however, that placing the spool of line in warm water can help relax it and minimize line twist and other common line management issues.
When I was in elementary school, I’d take a big plastic cereal bowl, fill it with warm water and take it out to the driveway and spool my spinning reels in preparation for upcoming pond-fishing trips. This water theory is legit and really works. But there is a problem with it.
It makes a royal mess
This is a big issue with putting a spool of fishing line in a bowl-full of water; it will spray water everywhere and make a giant mess as you reel it onto your spinning reel. It’s not necessarily a big deal in the warmer months when you can do it on your front porch or driveway, but the low temperatures here are supposed to be in the single digits next week—I ain’t going outside and spraying water everywhere in that kind of weather. Here enters the crockpot lid.
A lid changes everything but be very careful
The Instagram video my wife shared me, as mentioned earlier, showed the guy putting the spool in a crockpot full of water and reeling it onto his spinning reel with the small (I guess it’s a pressure release hole or something?) hole in the lid. The big problem with the video, however, was the lid hole insert was made of metal.
We have a bunch of those kinds of lids in our cabinets, so I gave it a shot. I followed the video step-by-step and just as I suspected, that jagged metal insert absolutely ruined my line; you might as well take a piece of sandpaper to it. So while the theory makes sense, it definitely needed some refining.
A rubber grommet is required, no matter what
Don’t go try this little trick with the metal inserts we just discussed and send me nasty messages about your line messing up. But I’ve realized that a lot of these newer crockpots that most of us have in our kitchens have a glass lid with a steam hole adorned with a rubber grommet insert. If you can find this in your kitchen, you’re in luck. This rubber grommet will protect your line and eliminate almost all of the friction so you’ll be able to use your new line without any worries of line failure.
The end result
This is an outstanding idea, in my opinion. It’s a great way to quickly spool a spinning reel while getting the line to pack tightly on the reel. The closed lid allows you to do this in your kitchen, living room, college apartment… heck, anywhere. Your line will sit better on the reel, it will have a lot less memory than what you’re likely used to and you’re not going to have to clean up a bunch of water in the process.
Am I telling you it’s imperative to do this? Absolutely not. But man, if you have one of these cheap crockpots laying around in a random kitchen cabinet, I promise you’ll love me for this suggestion. Your reel will perform better and you’ll get all of your spooling chores done in just minutes. Give it a shot and let us know what you think on our Facebook page!
