Reels and Backing

Time after time I have witnessed a customer say:  I want  XYZ  line and 150 yards of backing on the reel.

I then ask them:  How do you know it will fit?

Without experience, some fly fishers do not understand that a reel will only hold so much.

The next question I hear is: How much backing should I put?

My standard answer:  Fill up the reel. 

The truth is that if a fish were to run off 50 yards of line on a typical NC creek or river, he is going to be gone or you had better be running on the water to catch up with him.  Of course the ocean is a different story. 

A properly filled reel minimizes line curl due to being so close to the center of the spindle.   Likewise it can prevent the friction of line rubbing against frame parts.  

I see reels come into the shop where another store has simply overfilled in order to get the sale out the door.  A number of times, I have had to take off a line, remove an amount of backing, then reattach and rewind the owner's line.