low memory fish line

Question
Jack, I spend half my time untangling and swearing at spools than fishing...Have tried a variation of lines trying to cure this problem. Tired of it.....what is the BEST 12 lb LOW MEMORY line for bass. Top water bait. How full should the spool be?
I have used with mixed results Reel Ease it's use seems to vary by type of line............please advise
Thanks, Frank

Answer
Frank; One thing to begin with is that all lines have some memory BUT it is usually not the memory that causes the difficulty.  Since you did not say whether you are using a casting reel or an open faced spinning reel (I do not consider the closed face spinning reel as a good tool for a serious fisherman)  I can tell you two things that will cause twists and snarls in any line on any reel and I see people doing them all the time.  One is reeling in line without any steady tension on the line as it goes onto the reel.  The other is continuing to crank the reel handle while a fish is taking out lint.

Any time you crank your reel handle the other hand should have the thumb and index finger on the line keeping tension on the line just before it goes onto the spool.  If slack is left in the line at this point the line will go on  loosely and allow the next turns of the reel to let line fall under the loop above.  Only a few of these and you have one heck of a mess the next time you try casting.  The only time you should reel in without your thumb and finger on the line is when you have a fish on or have a heavy piece of trash that does not spin but keeps a tension on the line.  But DO NOT REEL if the fish is taking line off your reel.  Never use the reel to land a fish, USE THE ROD.  By that I mean keep a tight line on the fish and if he runs and takes out line let him run but try to get your rod pointing as nearly vertical as possible.  The fish will be fighting the bend in the rod.  When he stops running crank in line as you lower the rod while keeping the line tight then using the rod try to lift the rod back to vertical while the fish moves toward you.  Repeat these steps until the fish is close aboard and then holding the rod tip high use the net or lip the fish into the boat.  Never use the rod to haul the fish aboard unless the fish is so small It will scarcely bend your rod.

One more thing that causes snarls is reeling in a fouled lure, a hook and sinker or any kind of in line spinner without using your thumb and index finger to keep tension on the line.  A lure working properly usually will not spin unless you try to reel it in too fast.  Keep the lure working right up to the boat.  I have had fish grab the lure just as I was lifting it out of the water to make another cast.

Even with these precautions a line will eventually get twists in it.  To get these out cut everything off your line and trail it out behind the boat at idle speed and let it trail for 5 to ten minutes then reel it in using the thumb and index finger as explained above.

A spinning reel will normally cause more troubles than a casting reel so take extra care to follow the above with it.

I use one brand of line and have since many years ago and all the new ones have come and some have gone and I still trust my mono.  I can see no use in paying a huge price for the newest line out nor do I use the cheap stuff.  I believe if you will follow the steps above you will find your troubles with snarls will diminish greatly.  You may have to put on a new line because the old one probably has been twisted and snagged so much as to have been weakened. You would not want to lose a really big fish because you were using old line.

One more thing; when you put on your new line put on about half a reel spool full of cheap line then wind the good line on above it.  You will seldom use more than 100 yards of line at any time so why put 300 yards on.  You can change lines three times on a 300 yard spool of good line by doing this. You can either tie the two lines together or tie the bottom one off with several half hitches then tie the new line on using whatever knot you would use if you were tieing it to your spool.

I hope this helps solve your problems.  I know it is frustrating to have line mess up time after time because I used to do it until someone told me about the things above.  I seldom have problems now.

Thanks for calling on me to answer your question.

Jack AL. Gaither            (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia