Thread: Spooling line on a Mitchell 302

Hope someone can help. I just took my newly acquired 302 to Cabelas to have them spool line on after about 350 to 400 yards the spool blew apart. The front broke off. They offered to replace it I called the reel Doc he's sending one but what should I do differently.

The line (mono) was put on too tightly.
The elasticity of monofilament line causes it to expand on the spool when it goes on under pressure (stretch), and with an old narrow spool like that the only way the line can expand is upward, thus 'blowing' the front of the spool off.

IF you have it done mechanically again, have them use only enough pressure on the line to keep it from backlashing.
You do not want the line to stretch when it goes on your spool.

Hope this helps!

Thanks David I thought that was it. I'll tell them that or just do it the old way and do it from the store spool at home.

Saw one do that on the pier this spring.
Cant remember who the owner was, it was a regular.
Reel was in the cart, in the sun, mono expanded and POP, top of the spool came off.
I believe those old spools are "pot" metal, not the strongest material in the world, fractures easily.

I blew one up on a shark a year or two ago. Luckily already had a backup spool.

'Old school' Penn 706s (green or black spool) have that problem too.
It was a hard learnt lesson back in the 80s when I did that to one in Ross Hutchisson's store.
We didn't have the 'interweb' or Google back in those days, just a landline telephone.
I like to never found a replacement!

I have a 705 that I put about a 100 yards of Dacron backing on after reading a post from John from J & M. I'm not sure the reasoning behind the Dacron backing but my reasoning is he knows way more than me! I also have line put on it at J & M with no issues. They seem to be extra careful when spooling line on that reel.

Thanks Travis in hindsight that would have been the wise thing for me as well, but I've been called a lot of things but was not one of them.

J&M would have been the best place,if you choose not to do it yourself

Dacron has little or no stretch, that is why its used a backing: it wont stretch & then compress, less chance of breaking the spool. Used it for the same reason on older conventional trolling/bottom fishing reels.