Description
The Rio Cranky Kit 2.0 is a fly-line winder that solves the problem of owning more lines than reels. Anglers accumulate specialty lines faster than they accumulate spools, and the lines that end up stripped into a bucket or coiled with a rubber band are the ones that develop permanent memory and get retired early. The Cranky Kit lets you wind a line cleanly off a reel and store it in neat, consistent coils until the day it is the right line again.
Version 2.0 adds a silicone shim to the design, which is the piece that makes the system genuinely tidy. The shim holds coils in place on the winder so a stored line stays in an even stack rather than spilling into a tangle the moment you set it down, and it lets you wind lines of different diameters without the coils slipping.
Key Features
- Winds fly lines off reels quickly for storage or for swapping between lines mid-trip
- Silicone shim holds wound lines in neat, stable coils in storage
- Stores lines out of tight reel coils, which reduces the set memory that develops over a season
- Compact enough to keep in a boat bag or gear closet with several lines wound on hand
Why We Like It
The real value here is that it makes line swapping practical. If changing lines means twenty minutes of untangling, you will fish the wrong line rather than change it, and you will buy a spare spool you did not need. Winding a line off takes a minute with the Cranky Kit, and the stored line comes back onto a reel straight instead of arriving in the coils it has been sitting in. For anyone who owns a Skagit head, a Scandi head and a floating line for the same rod, or who runs a quiver of specialty streamer lines, it pays for itself in lines that last longer and in spools you do not have to buy.