Fly Line Maintenance

For those of you here in Australia, you’ll all be well aware of the weather, accompanied by the closure of trout season in most states. Of course, there are plenty of other species to target locally like carp, murray cod and bream to name just a few. And, there are more than enough stillwater options for winter trout fishing in the lakes. But, many of you may prefer to spend the winter staying out of the weather, bunkered down at home. Having returned form a very wet and windy morning in a western Victorian lake today, I can certainly understand the appeal of the latter option.

For hose of you who are taking some time away from the water over winter, this presents a great opportunity to sort through you gear, clean it all up and get ready for the coming spring and trout season opening. So often we spend the winter tying flies to refill our fly boxes, cleaning and storing our rods and reels and yet we can overlook one critical element our rig. The fly line. It’s all too easy to just go from season to season witht he same line on your reels, simply changing out the leaders as needed and making do with the lines as they are. The crazy thing is, more often that not, a lot of us are fishing with lines that are in very poor condition and we don’t even realize how this is affected our chances of catching that prize fish.

It’s easy not to notice wear and tear on your lines as you become accustomed to their change in performance as they gradually degrade. What feels normal when casting can often be far from it and could be making you work a lot harder to get a poorer result. A simple cleaning of your lines can bring them closure back to their former glory. Applied with an old cloth, a cleaning product like Overton’s Supreme Fly Line Dressing can bring your line back to life, increasing floatation, and improving casting with a smoother running of the line through your rods guides. Then, a good stretching of the entire length of the line to remove it’s memory after extended storage on a reel will help you cast further, faster and with less effort.

Of course, it comes to that time when a fly line has seen too much time on the water and is beyond the help of a cleaning. This is when they start to look a little like… THIS:

When your fly line is worn and cracked like this, it presents all manner of issues in both casting and retrieving you line. The cracks capture and hold not only dirt, but water as well, adding weight to the line making it poorly matched to your rod. It can be not unlike trying to cast with a line one, two or three sizes too big for the rod it is supposed to be matched with. That just makes casting hard work. On top of that, the dirt in the line creates friction when running through our rod’s guides and slows the delivery of line on your cast.

If you’re fishing a floating line, as most of us do, you will also notice the line becoming waterlogged and beginning to sink after a short time on the water. The cracking allows water to get into the line’s core and reduce it’s ability to float. That’s from all the smaller cracks along the length of the line. Of course, a larger crack will open up to reveal a section of the inner core. Whilst you still have plenty of strength in the line, there is the chance of this gap catching in the rod’s guides. This can cause the line to come to a short, sharp stop when a good size fish goes for a run and takes line. What happens next? Lost fish.

So, the best solution when our fly lines get to this stage is to treat yourself to a new line or two. Trust me, you will love it. There is nothing like that new line feeling, especially when you have been struggling with an old, dirty and damaged fly line. Casting suddenly becomes easy, and your length and accuracy will sharpen right up without any effort. I just recently swapped out half a dozen of my lines with new Royal Wulff Triangle Taper models and couldn’t be happier. I’ve fished with these lines on a few of my rods for years, but the difference a brand new one makes is just a joy.

So, look after you lines, replace them is you have to. The next time you’re out on the water, you will notice the difference.