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Keeping your gear in good shape with proper maintenance is key to having a fun and successful time out on the water.
Maintaining your fly line is a crucial step in the process that often goes overlooked. Keeping your line clean and conditioned can help prevent damage, improves distance when casting, and helps with overall performance. It is important to lightly clean your line every 2-3 sessions, and do a deep clean and condition every 10-12 sessions. You should also deep clean your line when switching bodies of water to help prevent cross-contamination of bacteria which can be harmful to fragile ecosystems.
This guide is specifically designed for those using floating lines. If you use sinking line I suggest going to another source on the internet that can provide more accurate information for maintaining your setup.
What you will need.
- 2 buckets
- dish soap or mild detergent
- a microfiber cloth or towel
- line conditioner kit with micro abrasive pad (I personally use this one)
Let's get started
Part 1: Deep cleaning the line.
1. Fill up your two buckets with a few inches of warm (not hot) water.
2. Add dish soap or gentle detergent of choice to one of the buckets. Make sure to shake up the water until it becomes sudsy.
3. Grab your reel and unspool the line into the soapy bucket. Make sure to remove your leader and tippet if you haven't already. Stop unspooling when you reach the end of the Fly line and leave the Backing line wound on the reel.
4. Let the line soak for a couple of hours, 1-2 is sufficient.
5. After soaking take one section of your cloth or towel and strip the line through it until you get to the end. Feed the clean end of the line into the other bucket of clean water to soak.
6. While your line soaks in the clean water, Empty the soap bucket and rinse it out then towel dry the interior.
7. Strip the line through a clean section of the cloth and feed the end into the dry bucket.
8. Grab your micro-abrasive pad that should come with your line dressing and strip the line through it (use the abrasive side not the spongey side) and feed the line into the water bucket.
9. Repeat step 7. Then pour out the water and towel dry the inside.
10. Add a few drops of line conditioner to the spongey side of the micro-abrasive pad and strip the line through it. Do it again a second time to wipe off the excess.
11. Allow the line to dry and then wind it back onto the spool. To make it easier you can attach it to just the handle section of your rod as pictured.
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