How to repair damaged fly line?

[Bamboozle]

In regards to DT's, there are a few still out there and as a fan, I keep track of what is available so I figured I post my list of "true to weight," normal length, normal tapered DT's.

A few notes:

Not all lines are available in all sizes and some do have a few quirks which I noted but all are advertised as true to weight which is generally accepted to mean in the MIDDLE of the AFTMA range for the first 30 feet excluding the level tip or:

2wt = 80 grains
3wt = 100 grains
4wt = 120 grains
5wt = 140 grains
6wt = 160 grains
7wt = 185 grains
8wt = 210 grains

It should be noted that the Rio LightLine Double Taper is available in sizes 000, 00 & 0. However there is no AFTMA standard for those line sizes which only goes as light as a 1wt.

The Rio LightLine 1wt at 66 grains is a little heavier than the 60 grain AFTMA target weight so I would take the lighter sized line sizes with a grain of salt although sizes 2-5 are right on the money.

Here's what's available as a current product in 2023. Please enlighten me if I missed any:

Cortland 444 Peach DT (single color, loop on one end only)
Cortland 444 Sylk DT (single color, loop on one end only)
Cortland 333 Double Taper (single color, no loops)

Rio Technical Trout DT (longer front taper than most, different colors on each end, loops each end)
Rio LightLine Double Taper (compound front tapers, different colors on each end, loops each end)

SciAngler's Amplitude Textured Double Taper (textured, different colors on each end, loops each end)
SciAngler's Mastery Double Taper (single color, loops each end)
SciAnglers Frequency Double Taper (single color, loop on one end only)

Orvis Hydros Trout Double Taper * (different colors each end, loops each end)

406 Fly Lines Vintage Series Double Taper * (single color, varying front taper length by line size, loops each end)

​

* Sci Anglers makes the lines for 406 & Orvis​

Barrio DT Mallard DT (single color, no loops)

 

[redietz]

In regards to DT's, there are a few still out there and as a fan, I keep track of what is available so I figured I post my list of "true to weight," normal length, normal tapered DT's.


406 Fly Lines Vintage Series Double Taper * (single color, varying front taper length by line size, loops each end)

The 406 lines are 80 feet instead of 90.

 

[Bamboozle]

What about if the line snapped about 30 ft from the end? Happened to me recently, not sure how. Luckily I already had a replacement lying around, but just curious how I'd reconnect the two pieces without creating a big knot that will snag and hamper casting. I'm sure it will happen again someday when I don't have an extra line in the same weight and style handy.

I always have a tube of UV Knot Sense and the tiny UV light you can get for it with me when fishing because I am an idiot and have stepped on my fly line with studs more than once. The UV Knot Sense works like charm to fix small cuts or cracks.

One time I cut a line at about the 20 foot mark completely in half with new Kold Kutter studs. On that day I was far from the car and too lazy to walk back to investigate my options.

So I stripped the coating off each end of the cut line with my thumbnail to expose the core, made a small figure eight knot to join the two halves and coated the knot and exposed area with UV Knot Sense.

It was a LITTLE rough going through the guides but it saved the day.

Keep in mind I was fishing for trout, not tarpon.

 

[Bamboozle]

The 406 lines are 80 feet instead of 90.

Actually they are 80 feet in sizes 2 - 5 and 90 feet for sizes 6 - 8.

Since there are double taper lines at 70 feet (Rio LightLine in sizes 000 - 3) and the Barrio that can vary depending on the size, I consider a normal length line anything other than the 45' or so "small stream" lines like the White River Classic SS.

 

[PennKev]

Yeah, I’d say that one’s totaled.

Nah you can splice them back together. The spey guys were doing it back in the day to make custom lines and I've done it a few times to keep a line going until it can be replaced. Essentially a super glue splice by threading the core of one end of the line into the other. Works way better than it has a right to.

 

[Swattie87]

Nah you can splice them back together. The spey guys were doing it back in the day to make custom lines and I've done it a few times to keep a line going until it can be replaced. Essentially a super glue splice by threading the core of one end of the line into the other. Works way better than it has a right to.

Cool, had never heard of that.

I was BP camping/fishing a remote watershed a number of years ago. Got back in and got camp set up in the late afternoon only to have another group of guys come in to the area with rods and packs planning to camp and fish. We had a nice talk (or so I thought) and landed on a plan to split up the water so we weren’t fishing over each other the next day.

So the next morning I left from my site and began fishing up the branch we had agreed I would go up. I had two rods along. Left one of them leaned up against a tree in my campsite. Came back to find the fly line sliced the whole way across the reel. It just fell off the reel when I picked it up. Real nice. I get it, you don’t wanna run into anyone else when you hike in to places like that, but it’s public land, and you can’t control stuff like that. I was pretty pissed. I found their campsite on the way out, which no one was at at the time. They had a cooler full of food and ice. I contemplated dumping it and leaving a piece of cut fly line laying on it, but I chose to rise above. Still bothers me to this day. I wish I dumped it.

Don’t think the above would have helped save that line as it was in like 10 pieces, but good to know.

 

[krayfish2]

In regards to DT's, there are a few still out there and as a fan, I keep track of what is available so I figured I post my list of "true to weight," normal length, normal tapered DT's.

A few notes:

Not all lines are available in all sizes and some do have a few quirks which I noted but all are advertised as true to weight which is generally accepted to mean in the MIDDLE of the AFTMA range for the first 30 feet excluding the level tip or:

2wt = 80 grains
3wt = 100 grains
4wt = 120 grains
5wt = 140 grains
6wt = 160 grains
7wt = 185 grains
8wt = 210 grains

It should be noted that the Rio LightLine Double Taper is available in sizes 000, 00, 0. However there is no AFTMA standard for those line sizes which only goes as light as a 1wt.

The Rio LightLine 1wt at 66 grains is a little heavier than the 60 grain AFTMA target weight so I would take the lighter sized line sizes with a grain of salt although sizes 2-5 are right on the money.

Here's what's available as a current product in 2023. Please enlighten me if I missed any:

Cortland 444 Peach DT (single color, loop on one end only)
Cortland 444 Sylk DT (single color, loop on one end only)
Cortland 333 Double Taper (single color, no loops)

Rio Technical Trout DT (longer front taper than most, different colors on each end, loops each end)
Rio LightLine Double Taper (compound front tapers, different colors on each end, loops each end)

SciAngler's Amplitude Textured Double Taper (textured, different colors on each end, loops each end)
SciAngler's Mastery Double Taper (single color, loops each end)
SciAnglers Frequency Double Taper (single color, loop on one end only)

Orvis Hydros Trout Double Taper * (different colors each end, loops each end)

406 Fly Lines Vintage Series Double Taper * (single color, varying front taper length by line size, loops each end)

​

* Sci Anglers makes the lines for 406 & Orvis​

Barrio DT Mallard DT (single color, no loops)

Thought for sure you'd have Airflo in there ☹️

 

[wildtrout2]

Cool, had never heard of that.

I was BP camping/fishing a remote watershed a number of years ago. Got back in and got camp set up in the late afternoon only to have another group of guys come in to the area with rods and packs planning to camp and fish. We had a nice talk (or so I thought) and landed on a plan to split up the water so we weren’t fishing over each other the next day.

So the next morning I left from my site and began fishing up the branch we had agreed I would go up. I had two rods along. Left one of them leaned up against a tree in my campsite. Came back to find the fly line sliced the whole way across the reel. It just fell off the reel when I picked it up. Real nice. I get it, you don’t wanna run into anyone else when you hike in to places like that, but it’s public land, and you can’t control stuff like that. I was pretty pissed. I found their campsite on the way out, which no one was at at the time. They had a cooler full of food and ice. I contemplated dumping it and leaving a piece of cut fly line laying on it, but I chose to rise above. Still bothers me to this day. I wish I dumped it.

Don’t think the above would have helped save that line as it was in like 10 pieces, but good to know.

That's pretty low of them to do that to you. Hats off to you for being the bigger party. I don't know that I would have been as nice about it! Were you packing?

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Swattie, you're a better man than most. I would have left some mark that you knew it was them.

 

[Swattie87]

No I wasn’t packing.

I was with my wife, and there were three guys. Didn’t want to chance them being somewhere out of sight, or asleep in a tent where I couldn’t see them. But a couple times a year I think of that, and wish I dumped the cooler. If I was by myself I might have anyway, but didn’t want trouble for my wife.

What I presume was their vehicle was in the trailhead lot when I got back. Only other one there. But rule #1 of life is don’t mess with another person’s vehicle, no matter what the circumstances.

 

[wildtrout2]

No I wasn’t packing.

I was with my wife, and there were three guys. Didn’t want to chance them being somewhere out of sight, or asleep in a tent where I couldn’t see them. But a couple times a year I think of that, and wish I dumped the cooler. If I was by myself I might have anyway, but didn’t want trouble for my wife.

What I presume was their vehicle was in the trailhead lot when I got back. Only other one there. But rule #1 of life is don’t mess with another person’s vehicle, no matter what the circumstances.

You're a wise man Swattie.

 

[wildtrout2]

There's a particular remote stream I try to fish each year, where the "main camping site" is at the confluence of a trib (you know where). It's usually where I actually start fishing. I get there very early. On a couple of occasions I've seen campers/fishermen already there, still sleeping. I just very quietly, trying not to awaken them, get just upstream of them and start fishing.

I've often wondered if they can't figure why the trout aren't hitting?

 

[Bamboozle]

Thought for sure you'd have Airflo in there ☹️

I checked their website and I didn't see a DT...

However, I own one Airflo Super Dri Elite and it is a smidgen over the AFTMA target weight so I don't know if I would have included it in a lst of 'true to weight" DT's if it was still available.

 

[Bamboozle]

No I wasn’t packing.

I was with my wife, and there were three guys. Didn’t want to chance them being somewhere out of sight, or asleep in a tent where I couldn’t see them. But a couple times a year I think of that, and wish I dumped the cooler. If I was by myself I might have anyway, but didn’t want trouble for my wife.

What I presume was their vehicle was in the trailhead lot when I got back. Only other one there. But rule #1 of life is don’t mess with another person’s vehicle, no matter what the circumstances.

You have WAY more control than me.

Their campsite would have been scorched Earth...

 

[Swattie87]

There's a particular remote stream I try to fish each year, where the "main camping site" is at the confluence of a trib (you know where). It's usually where I actually start fishing. I get there very early. On a couple of occasions I've seen campers/fishermen already there, still sleeping. I just very quietly, trying not to awaken them, get just upstream of them and start fishing.

I've often wondered if they can't figure why the trout aren't hitting?

Yeah. That’s where I was. I’ve shifted my Summer trips there to midweek, or, I try to go in the Fall now. But am usually stuck dealing with really low water.