I gave up on my wife decades ago to hold the tension properly because she got easily distracted. It always ended up in a mess so I put a pen through the hole of the spool and hold the pen between the toes of both my feet, applying tension by squeezing the bottoms of my feet against the spool. Same with fly lines. Hey, it works!

I received a Reel-E-Good winder a few Christmases ago. One of the greatest gifts ever.

never let a shop use a motorized line winder on your vintage reels.

I have several line winders, including one of the discontinued Struble winders with a line spool axle that can be attached.
But a long hanger on a pegboard works just as well.

I have a line winder I bought on Amazon. I can't recall exactly what I paid but it was cheap. $7? Anyway, it beats hearing complaints from whoever you got to hold the pencil. The mount works well on my kitchen counter. Better yet, my backing and line are on their reels better than before I got the gizmo.

I won some larger capacity reels that will take 200-300 yards of backing, hence my question. With trout I rarely come close to my backing but these reels I would use for hotter fish. Didn't want a shoddy application of backing to cause a break off. With my smaller reels I think I wouldn't always spool the backing on all that even. The reels are set up for RHW but I prefer LHW so the backing that is already on the reels (evenly) is going to have to be reversed

Hi fishing friends

I bought this at a Westfly auction years ago and oh yes I am so happy I did. Be worth you while to click the link because these are no longer made. One of you might want to make something similar. The fish shape makes it special.
https://www.salmonfishingforum.com/forums/thread50566.html

Good fishing to you all.

Paul

Ditto on what Bulldog said except I do it on all my reels.

For my small reels that will only be used on small fish in small places, I will use older used Dacron if I have any, and I sometimes even use old fly line that I will never use; almost anything to take up the space on the reel spool, except mono. My salt water reels are a different story and I use good quality Dacron for them. BTW, Dacron can be expensive and I have found some real bargains on NOS Dacron on the bay.
As far as spooling backing on the reel, I clamp a wooden dowel (pointing straight up) into my vice on my little apartment sized work bench and then slip the spool of backing over the dowel (the spool is now sideways). I put the reel on a rod so that it is easier to hold, tie the backing to the spool, and wind away until I reach the desired amount. I will hold the line in one had so as to put a little tension on it.
Joe

Thanks Crusty!

And I thought I was the only one crazy enough to do that.

I use all sorts of line winders for my fly silk lines including Hardy & Farlow cricket bat versions at home and Hardy Compact driers for the field (I don't like the Strubel at all in comparison). I use the Angler's Image or a Farlow for plastic lines.

However for winding backing, I prefer my cheap old Bass Pro Shops fishing line winder. Just about any conventional fishing line spooler will do the job as most have some way to apply tension. I prefer versions that only hold the line, not a reel because I prefer to use a regular rod section with a reelseat to do my winding.

It ain't pretty, classic or fast but it works and I also use it for my conventional reels.

This isn't my blog, but I built a similar spooling station and I love it. I made a few adjustments, however.

I added a compression spring on the bolt that holds the spool, so that I can adjust the tension and just use my fingers to guide the backing and line onto the reel. I have a nylon locking nut holding the bolt to the board, then a washer, then a spring, then a 2nd washer, then spool of line, then a 3rd washer, a regular nut, then a wing nut. I use the two nuts to lock the spool in place. I found that just a wing nut holding the spool on wasn't sufficient, the wingnut would slowly release and ease the tension.

The author mentions at the bottom he added a cheap line counter and eventually put an old reel seat on instead of the dowel, but I haven't done those things.

(It even works well for baitcasting reels, but we don't have to talk about that here)

http://www.tight-lined-tales-of-a-fly-f ... ation.html

Joe, if you use loop to loop, the tag loop on your line will not change, and you'll only have to tie a new loop on your backing.