Fly Line Care in our Winterizing Tackle Segments
Fly lines today are well made and have durable finishes. With reasonable care they will continue to cast well and give us good service for five years. The killer is when we get dirt on the line and allow it to remain there when we are casting. Not only is this hard on the line, it is hard on the fly rod guides.
Here is the procedure I like to use in cleaning my line after every fifth trip.
- I suspend my fly line from nails on each side of my basement. Apply Dawn dish detergent to a damp paper town and scrub the line up and down its full length twice.
- Moisten another clean paper towel and rinse all of the detergent from the line. Do this by making several passes up and down the whole line. Using another dry, clean paper town I dry the whole line thoroughly.
- Apply several drops of Glide Line Dressing to another dry paper towel. Now rub this up and down the whole line several times. Using another clean dry paper towel I rub the whole line down by making five passes up and down the length of the line. This last step is very important because the Glide dressing which adheres to the microscopic pours of the line helps the line float well, shoot well, and last long. If excessive line dressing is permitted to build up on the fly line it will attract dirt and cause poor casting and cause the line to wear out before it should.