Fly Line Help For Kid

[drews]

Ok one of my students brought his reel and fly line in to show me what his girlfriend got him for Christmas (Okuhma (sp) and Lefty SA line). Any way no one in his family FF and he was so excited to get his line on his reel he put the line on but didnt think he needed it all so he cut the fly line! He has no backing on the reel and there is a lot of room between the line wound on the reel and the reel guard. He could have put all the line on the reel and still had room. Any way he asked me what he should do and I didnt know what to tell him. Im pretty sure he cut off the majority of the front of line (1/3 of it Im guessing). Should I just suggest backing or is there an effective knot to combine the 2 sections of fly line. This is a nice kid and is VERY interested in FF. I have given him a bunch of flies and would like to help him out. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[shortrod]

If it is a double taper you can just reverse it.

If it is a weight forward line, you can try to spice the two back together. Take a razorblade and make a long taper on each of the two ends. Use a flexible cement and glue the tapered sections together. Wind over the splice with fly tying thread and coat with another layer of cement.

 

[drews]

Its not a DT it is a WFF ... never thought of the glue.. sure it would hold?

How would it affect the use of the line with at least most of the floating end missing? Should I just use backing to fill the rest of the reel?

 

[ryguyfi]

Backing on 99% of trout caught will never be seen. The advantage of backing is to fill up the reel for a larger return of line per rotation of the reel. It also helps with less line memory as tighter curls in the line will hold more memory. I almost always fill my reel up to it's maximum capacity. A good trick of the trade (even if it can take forever) is to wind everything on backwards. Start with the tip of the floating line, wind it all on, then add enough backing until the reel is filled. This takes the guess work out of it. Then take it all off, and wind it correctly.


If you are uncomfortable about splicing the line, just have him buy a new line off of Allen (link to the right of every page). He has some deals for board members and you can probably get a WF line for $10 or less. I have a few and they look and feel just like the more expensive lines on the market.

 

[Fishidiot]

As pointed out above, a splice is doable - I'd use kevlar fly tying thread and Superglue. However, getting a good splice is tricky. In this case, I'd think a new fly line would be the better bet.