Tuesday Tip - Line Maintenance

Fly fishing is an expensive sport, there’s no getting around that, and fly lines are no exception. With today’s high end lines costing around 75 bucks and select specialty lines peaking over the $100 mark, this definitely adds a chunk of change to people’s yearly fishing bill. However, like most anything, a little cleaning and maintenance can extend the life of your lines.

The easiest thing you can do is simply clean your line after every use. This only takes a few minutes. Just fill a sink with warm water and strip the line off the reel until it’s all soaking in the water. Allow it to soak for a minute or so, it doesn’t have to be very long. Then reel it all backup while drying it with a paper towel. It’s that easy and quick, but the benefits are well worth the time.

Sometimes cleaning isn’t enough or the line is old enough that the plastic coating has started to deteriorate. There are line dressings out there that are perfect for those conditions. Both Rio and Loon make great line dressings. The dressing will help the line float again. Dressing a line will not help if you have cracks or cuts in the line. Once a line begins to crack it’s time to get a new line.

Not all cracks spell the end of your line, however. If you have an isolated crack or cut then you can patch up the line using Loon UV Knot Sense. This is really useful especially if you have a cut near the end of you line that’s making your line sink. First step is to make sure the braided core of the line is dry. Then apply a thin film of Knot Sense to the damaged portions of line and then using either the sun or a UV light lamp cure the glue. Usually when you start doing these types of repairs the line is on it’s last legs but it works as a stop gap.

It’s easy to ignore line maintenance, especially after a long day’s fishing and all you want to do is sit down and pop open a cold one. Take it from us though. Maintaining your line will not only increase the life of your line but improve its performance while you have it.