Good to hear you decided to calibrate your new line counters.I added two more rods this off season.I spooled and calibrated them couple weeks ago.Marked 50ft in my basement and used that length to calibrate.I actually add 40ft to the reel after i'm spot on due to occasionally taking off 10ft and retie a snap on.i go several years before taking off 400ft and respooling reels since we fish only 12 times a year.
You can actually get pretty close to having the proper amount of line on your reel without calibrating.The charters change their line at least once a year and i don't think all of them calibrate their reels.One captain i know,told me he doesn't calibrate his 20 reels with the braid he uses.He said he calibrates one reel and then matches the same diameter of line to his other identical reels.That gets him pretty close to having the proper leads to all his rods when fishing.March finally here.Ice should move out and melt soon.