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Shock leader (generally speaking) should be twice the length of your rod plus six turns on the spool - this allows the rod tip to recover after the cast and minimises the leader knot rattling through the tip rings. If you are fishing a pier with a long lift like Shields you will want an even longer leader - I once lost a very good fish by stupidly trying to lift up the side at Shields and my 15lb mailine went ping As for filling your spool, just fill as normal first time round and it is always worth trying to get the spool balanced at the same time. But then if you need to replace your line just strip back as far as you think you need to go (I have no idea how well you cast or how much line you tend to lose - I rarely ever crack-off so just strip back to about 180 yards worth as for me taking more line off is a waste of time and money - why replace line that never has and never will see the light of day?)I'd also add that 12lb line and filling to the brim on a 525 Mag (Mk 1?) is not a great idea for a learning caster. 18lb and filling a couple of mm down from the spool lip will make for a much more controllable reel, along with a couple of drops of car engine oil in the bearings...
Shock leader (generally speaking) should be twice the length of your rod plus six turns on the spool - this allows the rod tip to recover after the cast and minimises the leader knot rattling through the tip rings. If you are fishing a pier with a long lift like Shields you will want an even longer leader - I once lost a very good fish by stupidly trying to lift up the side at Shields and my 15lb mailine went ping
As for filling your spool, just fill as normal first time round and it is always worth trying to get the spool balanced at the same time. But then if you need to replace your line just strip back as far as you think you need to go (I have no idea how well you cast or how much line you tend to lose - I rarely ever crack-off so just strip back to about 180 yards worth as for me taking more line off is a waste of time and money - why replace line that never has and never will see the light of day?)
I'd also add that 12lb line and filling to the brim on a 525 Mag (Mk 1?) is not a great idea for a learning caster. 18lb and filling a couple of mm down from the spool lip will make for a much more controllable reel, along with a couple of drops of car engine oil in the bearings...
