Most saltwater fly fishers know the value of carrying a good selection of fly lines. Carrying a full quiver of rods and reels to match is an expensive exercise and not always practical. Spare spools are a good option but again these can cost more than many reels and you have to fill each with backing—on it goes.

The capacity to be able to change fly lines effectively while out fishing without turning both fly lines (the one coming off and the one going on) into a tangled mess is a real bonus, as is being able to change fly lines at home for a variety of reasons.

Up until now the ideal line winder has not been made. There are some good ones that attach to a bench and are practical for use at home, but are pretty hopeless to use when fishing. The best of the portable options is the Struble line winder, a good piece of equipment and I’ve been through two of them in the last decade. I suppose that’s pretty good considering the amount of use they had—try being on a trip with six blokes and having the only line winder!

Unfortunately the Struble is lightweight and if there’s any drag on the reel when you wind the line off, the arms collapse inwards. Being aluminium there is metal fatigue at the point where the two arms cross, and breakage is inevitable.

Enter Craig Radford and Tony Cranstoun. I’ve fished with these West Coasters a few times now and we’ve changed lots of lines. Damaged running lines, busted shooting heads, faster sinking or slower sinking lines all brought about the necessity to use my line winder. Blokes in the West have a ‘can do’ attitude and at the end of the last trip my winder stayed with them. We had discussed its short comings at length and within a month or so I had a brand new model on my desk.

This line winder is a beauty. It’s very well finished with gold anodising and the Fuji reel seat is changeable to left or right hand wind, and it all folds down to fit into a pencil-case sized bag. One of the arms collapses to permit easy removal or placement of the fly line on to the system. Most importantly it’s built from heavier gauge metal and stainless steel components.

They are not cheap at around $175 but that’s how much you’d pay for most spare spools and these line winders are far more versatile than a single spare spool. Several shops are stocking them—try the Alpine Angler or FlyWorld.