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Why is the line of my new fishing rod loose?

I recently bought a fishing rod that I have online used twice. The problem is, the reeling line is really loose and wavy, and I don't know why. Are all new fishing rods like this, or is this a quality problem? How can I fix this? It's a Shakespeare fishing rod, if that matters.

Public Comments

1. It sounds as if the line just hasn't been spooled under sufficient tension.If you can find somewhere out in the wide open put your reel onto your rod, thread it up, fix the end of the line to something, open the bail arm of the reel and walk backwards letting the line strip off the reel. When all the line has stripped off ( that is likely to be a couple of hundred yards line) close the bail arm, run the line through the palm of your right hand, grasp the rod with the little finger of the same hand and begin reeling in, applying a bit of resistance to the line as you do so. You will obviously have to walk back towards where you secured the line as you go. Once you've done this I doubt that you'll need to do it again. The resistance produced by normal use of your reel should keep the spooling reasonably tight. Hope that helps.
2. Did the line come on the reel? If so, take it off and put new line on it. Reason being, a lot of lines that come euipped on reels are very poor quality, and will cause problems. Look into Stren, Trilene, and Suffix lines. Is the line "loose" around the spool? If that's the case, then no, it shouldn't be like that. Again, I'd take it off (if it came with it) and replace it with a decent quality line. If you put it on yourself, you either didn't apply enough tension while reeling, or you've been using light tackle. If you are talking about the line going through the actual rod, it does happen. Again, usually this is due to cheaper end lines. New line should fix this issue. Keep in mind, when spooling the reel with line, you need to keep tension on it. Don't just reel it freely onto the reel.