This post was last updated on January 9th, 2014 at 04:41 pm

Fly Line Care

Fly fishing line is an essential part of your gear, but very few people understand just how important it is and how to properly treat your fly line. If care is taken your fly fishing line will last many years for the average fisherman, but if neglected and treated poorly you might be lucky to keep it floating for a season.

Common Reasons that Fly Line will Deteriorate and Begin Sinking

• Insect Repellent: All fly fisherman are familiar with biting insects, when the flies are biting fishing is usually at it’s best! The number one reason a fly fishing line will be easily ruined is because you are handling it with hands covered in deet. If you are liberally spraying yourself before a fishing trip be sure your fly reel and line is far away from any over spray. If you were to directly spray fly fishing line with insect repellent it would practically melt before your eyes. So even small amounts on the palms of your hands will slowly turn your weight forward floating into full sink..
• Don’t Stand on Your Line!: If you fish regularly from a drift boat you have probably witnessed or potentially been guilty of having some of your line beneath your feet. You can rest assured that your shoes, sandals or wading boots have sand on them. The sand will chew away the coating on your line and turn even the nicest fly line into garbage fast. Please control the amount of line you have laying at your feet and you will burn through a lot less of it.
• Clean and Rinse your FlyLine: After a full day of hauling in huge brown trout, the last thing you want to do is go home and clean your line, but you need to! You don’t have to clean it every trip but you should every few. The dirt and grime will eventually begin to take a toll and shorten its life. You can easily wash your line using soft type soaps and even dish soap. You obviously don’t want to use anything with a strong detergent, because it will possibly hurt your line.

Fly fishing line is possibly one of the most important parts of your fishing arsenal, not to mention it can cost a small fortune! So if you can learn fly line care, even the most active fisherman should be able to get 2 seasons out of a good line. A sinking fly line that is supposed to float can literally ruin your trip, so be careful with it and it will not let you down.

What if My Line Starts Sinking?

Let not your heart be troubled, because there are many different products on the market that can help your line fly line float better. I usually use mucilin for this scenario, but there are plenty of others that will do a good job. It’s hard to get a decent drift in faster water when the first quarter of your fly line is underwater. Care for your fly line is essential, or you will be shelling out 70$ a year for new line when you really don’t need to.  Fly line care is a great way to save some money and prevent a great trout fishing trip from turning into a full day of bad drifts.