Fly lines

Some thoughts on fly lines…..

Fly fishers used to have it easy when it came to picking what fly line to use. In the old days you had a silk line, that was it, just one line, there was nothing else. Hours of work went into maintaining your silk line as it required cleaning and dressing. Then along came plastic lines and suddenly everyone’s horizons expanded. Lines which floated without the messy and tiresome treatment that the old silk line required was just the start. Lines designed to sink gave anglers of my generation the ability to pick between fishing on the surface or close to it with a floater, or switching to a sinking line to get your flies down a bit. So things are still pretty straightforward up until this century started. After that, it all got very complicated.

Look inside the tackle box or bag of a modern competition fly fisher and you will be greeted with a score or more reel spools, each holding a different fly line. A change from one sinking rate to another can make all the difference to these anglers, so they need every option available to them. Us pleasure anglers are less needy when it comes to lines but from what I see when ghillieing, an awful lot of money is lavished on spare spools and oodles of different fly lines. Do we really need all of these bits of fancy string?

I have to fess up here – I own a heck of a lot of fly lines myself. Some of this is due to the wide range of different forms of fly fishing I had done over a long lifetime. I have for many years had three double handed salmon rods, each casting different line weights. So that equated to floating, sink tip, intermediate, medium sink and fast sinking lines in sizes 9, 10 and 11. That there is 15 fly lines right away and that is only my salmon outfits! My trout outfits for river fishing are less demanding as I only every use floating lines on both the 3 and 5 weight rods. My three lough rods are in 6, 7 and 8 weight (the latter is used for salmon on still water), then there are other odds and ends like a 10 weight for salt water and pike work. All in all, I own north of 40 fly lines. The question is do I need them all or would I be seriously handicapped if I had to lose some of them. In truth, most of those lines have not been hard used and if I had to fish without some of them I doubt if I would notice a drop in action.

Fly lines have always been expensive. The production of complex tapers and use of a range of chemical additives mean they are not cheap to produce and as they not a high volume product any manufacturer needs to make a healthy profit on each sale. Prices seem to increase every year to the point where you can now easily part with €100 for a top grade trout fly line and nearly double that for one of those fancy multi-tip skagit salmon jobs. That is serious money in my book and I have to question just how many more fish you will land just by forking out that amount of cash. A lot will depend on where and when you are fishing. For example, if you on an expensive lower beat of a Scottish salmon river you usually need to be able to throw a thirty yard line. If you can’t do that then you are in all probability going to be struggling so a top quality line is a prerequisite. Anyway, what is another few pounds given the cost of the rest of the trip?

I personally don’t spend much on individual fly lines now, for the types of fishing I do the need for extremely long casts is rare and damage to lines is a common problem. Seeing a €100 line chewed up by a propeller or accidently ground into sharp gravel under my book is not going to be pleasant, so I don’t own any top end lines. The ability to take a lot of punishment is more important to me personally than being good for an extra yard or two in perfect conditions. If a fly line lasts a couple of hard seasons I am happy enough, as long as I have not parted with a king’s ransom for it in the first place. If I see a bargain I often buy a line for later use. It’s usually pretty easy to find lines at either extreme of the weight range at a sale price but the more common sizes of 5 – 8 are harder to find. I happily accept my own requirements are light years away from other anglers needs. I guess if I was into prowling the tropical flats for Bone fish I’d have a totally different take on lines.

The thorny question of line colour is something we all ponder. If a trout can spot the difference in shade of the hackles on a size 16 dry fly how come they are don’t flee when they see it close to a dirty great length of bright blue or yellow line? Would that trout we spooked while casting a white line still be feeding in front of us if we were using a more natural coloured one? My own view is that subdued coloured lines are probably best in terms of not spooking fish but on most days the difference is likely to to be minimal. I recall fishing the river Don in Aberdeenshire many years ago. This was hard fished club water where the trout could often be seen rising up from the depths, inspecting the fly and then turning away in distain. Frequently the fish would drift under the fly as the current pushed it downstream, apparently scrutinising it in detail, all the time my bright yellow AFTM6 floater being 3 yards away. At the time I was amazed at this and the more I thought about the more I surmised that the trout had to be able to see the line, it just did not think it was a threat. I have no way of proving my point of view, but having fished with just about every colour of fly line over the years I still believe in 99% of situations line colour is not a huge factor in scaring fish. Excessive false casting with a brightly coloured line I think should be avoided but that is about it for me.

I am the first to agree that a wide range of sink rates is very useful on stocked reservoirs where rainbow trout are the main target. Slowly drifting or anchored boats are a good platform to allow the lines to sink as they are intended. It is very different here in Ireland where on many days afloat we contend with high winds and superfast drifting. No matter how fast you line sinks, if the boat is barrelling along due the the force five behind it, the line doesn’t get a chance to sink more than a few inches. On the lough I usually have a floater, an intermediate and a medium sinker with me. I would suggest that is the same type of lines as most other pleasure anglers use here in Ireland. I have a personal love for a sink tip when salmon fishing so there is always one of those either in use or tucked away in the bag when I am chasing silver.

The dizzying array of line profiles makes my head spin. We have come a long way for the old days of a trusty double taper covered all of your needs. Now I fear you require a degree in physics to comprehend the advertising blurb around these new tapers. I simply do not know enough to pontificate on the vast range of line shapes. I will say that some lines do not appear to be very exact regarding AFTM numbering. I am not about to chop up lines to weight them and find out exactly what is what, and it could well be that the AFTM rating is actually correct but the line just ‘feels’ too heavy/light for the AFTM number on the box. For me, Rio lines have always been excellent casting lines but they are very expensive so I have not bought a new one in a while. I have probably used Cortland lines more than the others and can vouch for their products. Products from most of the leading manufacturers have found their way on to my reels over the years and all I can recommend is to try and get a trial of a line if you possibly can before buying. A fishing buddy might be using a line you are thinking of buying so see if you can borrow that reel/line for a quick trial on your rod. It could save an expensive mistake.

With such an important piece of kit and so many options to pick from, every fly fisher will have his or her own views on what is the best. Fly line quality is generally pretty good these days as long as you stick to the well known brands. But go and try others for yourself because what suits my style of fishing may be useless for your own. If I have one view to pass on it is that balancing the line to the rod is what really matters, everything else is secondary.