does it make a differance on a line counter reel if its full of line or not? in the measurement?

Absolutely!!! you must have a full spool and then it will read right on. When you lose some line it will be off and the more line that is off the worse it will be magnified. I had one that I had lost about 150' off of in the summer when the fish were deep and during a drop, I said put it down to 65' and I watched it on the graph and it was only at 51' as you will see it makes a huge difference.

Here in lies the problem. When you are off that much every time you see fish at a certain depth you will always want to either put it just above them, or in alot of cases you will drop thru them and reel back up above them. So by being off you will never really know where you actually are and it will cost you strikes believe me.

To add to what Dan said, a full spool will also keep your drag system working properly. The more line out or missing means the drag is actually tighter. Thats why you might hear some people loosening the drag while playing a big fish. Drags are designed to start at there setting with a large rotation. (full spool) With lets say a half spool the spool spins around twice as much. The drag is tighter. You have the potential for breaking off big fish when fishing with less than a full spool.

thanks alot!!! its the little things that make a differance.i thought so because i didnt have a full spool and my rod is 7 feet and i let out 7 feet but it only showed 6 feet on the counter.so i took all that line off and respooled to get it full. and it worked correctly.thanks again im still learning these little tricks of the trade.

No problem atvman, Actually you were very perseptive to pick up on the little thing so quickly, you will go far Daniel-son. And thanks to Bob for picking up on the detail of the drag that I failed to mention.

Good info there guys.

I worked on a few counter reels and the gear theat spins or turns the numbers on the counter is geared directly into the spool gear. more line or less line the spool still turns the counter gear the same so there is some inaccrucy at some point. I use a $9 bass pro line counter that I clamp onto my poles just above my reel and it counts the line that actually leaves the reel, so it's more accurate. After I let out whatever line I want, I just twist it to the down side of the rod out of the way.