Label up or down doesn't matter? Since when?

It's physics, plain and simple.

edit: Unless the manufacturers are pretwisting the line as they wind it up on the spool but I doubt that very much.

Line twist is caused by the way the line is wound on the reel. Label up always would apply only if the spool on your reel was the same diameter as the supply spool but I haven't seen too many 4" diameter freshwater reels lately. Your reel spool is making multiple revolutions for every rev the line makes coming off the supply spool. It's going to twist.

Bob

There's actually many ways the physics part will work for and against the line twist effect. One of the biggest line twist is the result of line memory. If it coils it will twist through the dynamics of physics itself whether the line moves through air or water or in a vacuum space. That part has nothing to do with label side up or not and has more to do with the line roller ball.

Not all fishing line spooled on comes off without twist. Just take the line off the spool and walk a little distance and let it go, it will twist and coil onto itself. Now that maybe line memory or something else like the 'garden hose effect', but it twists. Let's just say some spools are worst than others and it does vary from line type to manufactures.

Spool size difference. Now you'd think that same spool size would eliminate line twists but in fact it doesn't. It makes sense that the same spool size would reduce line twist just to do line memory coil. It's the same size, but distance that line travels from spool to spool and how that's manages can effect the line twists. Try taking line off of one spool and onto another spool of exact same size and you'll still get line twists. I think it's the 'garden hose effect' at work here, I can't be sure. Maybe it's the tension of line on spool and that being relieved while it's off the spool and then the tension from line roller onto spool causing line twist that's all a result of the reel itself.

Now that leads to the reel design itself. The nature of line twist by a spinning reel. All I can say is braid lines are terrible on cheap budget spinning reels. You get the absolute worst line twists that leads to a big fuzz ball of braid line you'll be convinced that braid lines users are dummies. Then again it could be the simple notion of operator error.

For some odd reason I get far less line twist from a small bulk spool rather than a single service spool like ice fishing spool. I can't figure that one, but maybe they've reverse twist it onto the bulk spool - now that's just wishful thinking.

I think many are confusing line twist with coil memory.

The line is spooled onto the supply spool without twist but over time will retain some of the memory of being curved around the spool. This is apparent in what we experience when the line coils up like a spring. This also happens to line that has been resting on a reel spool for extended time. Although I've noticed that Fireline doesn't seem to do this. Dragging the line behind the boat won't eleviate this problem any more than just using the line.

Line twist is caused by wrapping of the line horizontally around the reel spool and is very much the same twist you would get if you rolled the line between your fingers. Dragging the line behind the boat will eleviate this problem because it allows the line to unwind. This twisting is far more troublesome than memory coils because severely twisted line will wrap up on itself and cause the infamous bird's nest. This twisting is often the result of cast/retrieve action. Every time you cast out your line and retreive it, you twist it because of the way the reel wraps it horizontally around the spool. This is why baitcasting reels are better for cast/retreive. They don't twist the line around the spool. Try this. Cast out a jig on a spinning or spincast system, crank it back in but stop when you have about 6 feet of line still out and lift the jig out of the water. You'll see the jig start turning as the line unwinds.

Bob

Well I'm no physicist so can't comment on the physics lesson, but I know for sure I can spool a spinning reel up all the way without twists and coils iffin I have the spool of line laying the right way, label up usually, label down now and then. I'd think cranking it on for X amount of cranks and then flipping it for another X amount of cranks again and again is only gonna make a twisted mess on my spool!!!

I've tried up and down and sideways, flipping and flipping again, on the same reel and different ones. What I have found is some spools of line twist bad, right out of the box, and others don't. I now tie on with an arbor knot and throw the spool into a trash can, feather and reel. It doesn't seem to be any more or less effective than anything else, but it sure is a whole lot simpler.

I'm sticking with "label up". Great discussion though.

When I would use Berkley XL or Stren Magnathin I would load up my spools in the boat with the label up and as soon as the spool was full I would let all the line drag behind the boat at about 5 MPH and then wind it back on. Now I tend to use Gamma just it just dose not cause the line twist problems.

It's true that the line memory coil twist is one thing and the nature of the spinning reel line wrap twist is another thing, both still lead to undesirable line twist in the end. Even I didn't believe the difference of an expensive reel vs that of the cheap budget reel, but when you don't have to even worry about line twist on the expensive reel after a whole day of fishing casts after casts, you begin to appreciate those minor details taken into consideration. All of that is a result of a combination of things like line type, rod, and reel.

That's why even when you have the spool lable up, that some reels will still get a considerable amount of line twists. That's also why that you eventually get line twists after fishing for a while even when you spooled the line on without any noticeable twists.

great debate!!!!!!!!!!!

The stiffer a line is the less it will twist...

I'm quite surprised you let out all your line and you still say there is a problem.. did you let out all your line with NOTHING on it? no clip nothing? That is what is needed.. NOTHING!!

Line twist in my opinion is 100% operator error in my opinion! I dont mean to be rude, dont want to hurt feeling, but its my opinion and I am sticking to it. Either the way you rig a lure, how you put it on, how you reel in the lure, how you reel against the drag, how you flip the bail over,, all affects line twist.

Some can help in this, but it really still falls back on your own shoulders!

Yes, I did let all the line out without anything on it. However, I do have it spooled on a budgeted reel. This will be replaced with a $100.00+ bait caster with a counter and superline for my trolling applications.

Any suggestions on bait casters?

I guess I don't understand how there could be a difference between the quality of the reel in whether it did or didn't cause line twist. The functioning is the same - the wire jobberdo closes, the thingy in the middle goes around and the line comes in - doesn't it? Curious to know what the difference is.

Thanks

Jobberdo and thingy, I always wondered what they were called.

Try putting the spool of line in the water when you put it on your reel. That way it can spin freely the way it wants to.

Forty-five or 50 years ago I read in a tip in Field and Stream to remove line twist in mono. Let all the line out behind the boat with nothing attached to the line, the retrieve with a thick rubber band instead of just your fingers to "feather" the line.

This also works on land, just be careful not get the line tangled.

You can easily test this method to see if it will work in your situation. Just take a rubber band and rub it on the last five or six feet of the line. If the the line twist situation improves, this likely will work for all the line on the reel.