Rigging a fly line can be confusing for a beginner. Spooling the fly line onto a fly reel can be really hard without a spooling machine. Most fly shops can help you spool a fly line onto a reel, this is highly recommended so that you can avoid frustrating tangles.
The first thing that goes onto a fly reel is backing, most of the time no more than 100 yards of backing is required. At fly shops, backing is inexpensive and the fly shop employees know how to put it on the right way. The backing is necessary for two reasons, the first being that it provides a lot of extra line that you may need to wrangle in the fish of a lifetime. The second reason is that backing increases the surface area of the spool on your reel. A large surface area means that the reel is able to “pick up” fly line faster.
Fly line is the second thing that goes onto a fly reel. Most of the time fly lines have a loop at the beginning and the end of the line. If your fly line has no loops then you’ll need to tie a nail knot that attaches the backing to the fly line. Another nail knot is needed to attach a small portion of monofilament (or any type of leader material) to the fly line, a loop is then tied into the leader material. If your fly line has a premade loop at both ends, tie a double surgeons loop into your backing and then attach the fly line with a loop-to-loop connection.
Attaching a leader to the fly line is the last step. All this requires is a loop at the end of both the fly line and the leader. Just make a loop-to-loop connection and you’re ready to go.
We are always happy to help spool reels with new lines, stop in the shop and we can get your new setup ready to hit the water in no time!