Last year at the camp site I was sharing with @Sliverfly I was watching him getting every ready for the next day of albacore he was laying out the line on his 12wt and wiping it down with a paper towel. I asked him what he was doing and he said cleaning his line. He had a line dressing on the paper towel. I asked him if I could use a little of his dressing and I couldn’t believe how much filth came off my line. I bought some SA line cleaner, and now I clean my lines at least every year at the start of the season. The first time I cleaned my line at home I removed it from my reel and put it into a pot of warm water with a small amount of cleaner and let it soak for about 10 minute. When I pulled it out of the pot it was a mess I attached it to my reel and with a wet paper towel I spent way too much time fighting with the mess I had made reeling it back on my reel while pulling it through the wet towel. Now I just leave my fly line attached to the reel and lay it in the pot of warm water with the cleaner. After a 10 minute soak I reel it back on my reel while pulling it through a wet paper towel. Way easier. I’m not sure it helps catch fish but when you get into some albacore with the blood and the slime on the deck you can’t help but get a filthy line. So cleaning my salt water lines I will keep doing.
I’m I the only one that didn’t know this?
- Thread starter Bagman
- Start date
I don't fish salt, but streams and rivers quite a bit. I clean my lines after every use. A dirty lake will take the float out of line really quick, and the deteriorating particles are hard on a line, can leave blotches, and can make backing icky. If I leave the rod stung I'll just pull line out and wipe as I go, usually just backing up across the parking lot or yard when I get home. Usually though, I break every thing down, wipe the rod with a microfiber cloth I polished the car with, and clean the line on the really-good-line-winder. Takes a couple minutes at most. Some lines are late 70's vintage and still perform well. But my wife says I'm beyond OCD.
I just pull the line into a pail of warm water with a little dish washing detergent. Then run it through an old dish cloth into a pail of warm clear water. I then run it through a towel as I reel it back on. It only takes a couple of minutes and clean lines cast way better and float much higher than dirty ones. I do it before each trip and daily when fishing dirty water or water with algae.
David
David
This post reminded me of a good object lesson my young second cousin Matt learned when he was in his early years of fly fishing. I started teaching him to fly fish when he was nine. Sometime in the late 1990s we started taking him on our annual trip to Lake Kabetogama in Voyageurs National Park. I had built him a nice 7 weight rod several years earlier equipped with reel and line which he used down in Alabama when we fished together. Matt wasn’t the most patient of anglers and would visibly show frustration if things were not going well. So one windy evening after dinner we went out on the lake to a secluded cove targeting Northerns. There was a particular spot that always held fish but was a bit difficult to fish effectively. Where a steep rocky cliff entered the water there was channel of deep, open water about 30’ wide that ran a least a 100 yards along the shore line. The open water couldn’t be reached by the boat as it was protected by another 30+’ of thick, impenetrable weeds. You had to make casts close to 40-50’ to drop a fly in the open water. I managed several fish out of the channel before Matt went into one of his frustration tantrums. He just couldn’t reach the channel with his casts. I thought that was unusual as he was a competent caster. I said we could switch rods to see if mine had some magic in it for him and his was cursed or something. It was. Unknown to me was that the line I had given him years before HAD NEVER BEEN CLEANED. I couldn’t get any decent distant with it. It was utterly filthy and Matt conceded he had never cleaned it since I gave it to him. That evening we cleaned the line and it performed well for the remainder of the trip. LESSON LEARNED.
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The green Mucilin with silicone, when wiped onto a fly line, is amazing. In my experience, it can take a used fly line and make it cast as good or better than new--even if you don't clean the line first.
avidangler.com
That said, I only really do it when a line seems to be underperforming--every few months or so and not as often as I probably should. My usual maintenance with freshwater is to leave the reel on the rod, and with saltwater to chuck the reel into a bucket of fresh water for the duration of the ride home.
Mucilin With Silicone
Mucilin works great as either a line treatment, leader and tippet floatant, or as a fly floatant. Mucilin with silicone is best used on modern fly lines and will not deteriorate or change the coating of your line.
avidangler.com
That said, I only really do it when a line seems to be underperforming--every few months or so and not as often as I probably should. My usual maintenance with freshwater is to leave the reel on the rod, and with saltwater to chuck the reel into a bucket of fresh water for the duration of the ride home.
I’m one of those people the really hated silicon, on anything.The green Mucilin with silicone, when wiped onto a fly line, is amazing. In my experience, it can take a used fly line and make it cast as good or bettere people that heat than new--even if you don't clean the line first.
Mucilin With Silicone
Mucilin works great as either a line treatment, leader and tippet floatant, or as a fly floatant. Mucilin with silicone is best used on modern fly lines and will not deteriorate or change the coating of your line.
That said, I only really do it when a line seems to be underperforming--every few months or so and not as often as I probably should. My usual maintenance with freshwater is to leave the reel on the rod, and with saltwater to chuck the reel into a bucket of fresh water for the duration of the ride home.
If you folks can still find it, look for "Glide" line Dressing. Been using same bottle for 30 years. Doesnt take much to work.
Take a face cloth. In a corner, put some soap and water on it. Leave the fly line on the reel. Strip off however much line you want to clean. Run the line through your pinched fingers, holding the soap and watered down face cloth. Do this as many times as it takes until the line is clean. In other words, no more dirt, algae etc. residue shows in the spot you pulled line through.
Using the same face cloth, take another dry corner and just get it wet with water. Run the line through here with pinched fingers removing the soap residue.
Take another dry corner of the face cloth. Put a dab of "Glide" on. Run the line through your pinched fingers, as many times as you wish.
Let the "Glide" residue harden for about 10 - 15 minutes. This is the new "coating" to the line.
Take the last corner of the face cloth and wind the line, through your pinched fingers back onto the reel. Done.
"Glide" is pretty amazing stuff that works. Some of my lines are 20 plus years old and still in very good shape, after lots fishing. The hardened "Glide" residue allows the line to shoot out much farther than when it was "dirty".
Have a good weekend all.
Bob
BTW be mindful as your cleaning, if you have a cat around. I lost a brand new Fly Line this way.
Take a face cloth. In a corner, put some soap and water on it. Leave the fly line on the reel. Strip off however much line you want to clean. Run the line through your pinched fingers, holding the soap and watered down face cloth. Do this as many times as it takes until the line is clean. In other words, no more dirt, algae etc. residue shows in the spot you pulled line through.
Using the same face cloth, take another dry corner and just get it wet with water. Run the line through here with pinched fingers removing the soap residue.
Take another dry corner of the face cloth. Put a dab of "Glide" on. Run the line through your pinched fingers, as many times as you wish.
Let the "Glide" residue harden for about 10 - 15 minutes. This is the new "coating" to the line.
Take the last corner of the face cloth and wind the line, through your pinched fingers back onto the reel. Done.
"Glide" is pretty amazing stuff that works. Some of my lines are 20 plus years old and still in very good shape, after lots fishing. The hardened "Glide" residue allows the line to shoot out much farther than when it was "dirty".
Have a good weekend all.
Bob
BTW be mindful as your cleaning, if you have a cat around. I lost a brand new Fly Line this way.
wanderingrichard
Life of the Party
@Bagman;
Have to remind myself a lot to clean my lines. They cast better, reel in better etc when they're clean.
Wasn't something I was taught when learning to fish, but it changed a lot of things for me when I did.
Btw, theres also a line cleaner for mono, braid and fluorocarbon lines, too. And I don't mean Salt X
Have to remind myself a lot to clean my lines. They cast better, reel in better etc when they're clean.
Wasn't something I was taught when learning to fish, but it changed a lot of things for me when I did.
Btw, theres also a line cleaner for mono, braid and fluorocarbon lines, too. And I don't mean Salt X
A friend swears by the alcohol hand wipes you get with takeout food. Are those the same thing?
They make it without, too.
Greg Price
Steelhead
Has anyone tried using line dressing like "glide" brand on intermediate sink lines?
If so, does it affect the sink rate of the line?
I use glide on all my old, worn out floating lines. It does wonders to allow line to cast farther and float higher.
If so, does it affect the sink rate of the line?
I use glide on all my old, worn out floating lines. It does wonders to allow line to cast farther and float higher.
Hi Greg. I've cleaned up sink tips, and applied the SA brand line dressing. Even just dressing the floating portion, it gets on the tip. The tip section resists sinking for a while. I only use the dressing on floating lines now.
El Slicko!
Greg Price
Steelhead
Thanks, Tom.
That is what I assume would happen.
Maybe I should wash my sinking lines with a microfiber cloth and warm dish soap water, then rinse it.
"Lake Kabetogama"............... Ahhhhhhh, Lake Kabetogama................ I lived in Wayzata from '70 to '76 and grew very fond of Kabetogama. Lots of really great water. Thanks for bringing back those memories, Mr. Cline. Winnibigoshish is No. 2 as far as MN favorites go.....
