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coinman66

Fly Line Cleaning

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Just cleaned my 6wt Cabelas brand line with Palmolive and warm water. Line is 5 years old and hurts like hell when I strip in a streamer. Like sandpaper almost. Gonna spray some silicone on it now, to slicken it up. It says its safe for plastic? Whats everybody think?

Thanks

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If you waited 5 years to clean it, I would agree with everyone else, time for a new line.

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Before you give up hope you may want to try one of these....Flyline-Cleaning-Pad-Scientific-Anglers.


The newer lines have chemicals that ooze through micro-pores and the pad helps open the pores.


You also want to get something similar to,or these 3M microfiber cleaning cloths for a quick rub down stream-side. The cloths will also blot and clean a slimy dry fly and a quick rub of your rod surface will polish it up nice ans slick.


A12E_1_20120807_17739185.jpg



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These are three products, that are in my kit , used on a regular basis for nymphing and strippin' stuff:

 

imagephp_zpsad5fcdd0.jpeg

 

...for my lines

 

stripee_lg_zps543b66f1.jpg

 

....for my fingers

 

udderlysmoothuddercream_zps0ffc8d96.jpg

 

...for my hands

 

I learned the hard way...tongue.png

 

 

PT/TB

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Utyer i am guilty. I was under the impression that once a year is good enough, but i guess thats not the case. Hairwing and Planettrout, i will def give those products a try and thanks for the heads up.

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If you fish warmwater, your line should be cleaned after every use to get optimum performance out of it. I'm not that diligent myself, but I don't use them more than 2 or 3 times between cleanings, and my lines typically last me 5 seasons or more.

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I fish salt water, so regular cleaning is a must. I also use Palmolive and warm water, rinse thoroughly. and wind the line back on the reel through a clean damp rag or paper towel - that'll get rid of any residue. Works great. A clean line should feel slick - if it feels like sandpaper, it's shot. If you got five year of regular use out of a line, you've gotten your money's worth.

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After how many hours in fresh water should the line be cleaned? I only got about 1 hour on my line, but I didn't clean it after I used it about 2 months ago..

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I can't say my fresh water lines are cleaned more than yearly but my salt ones are cleaned every outing. I just use warm water, run through dry rag then apply line treatment.

The silicone spray works fine, I used one designed for window curtain rails or general household stuff.

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I fish the saltwaters of Florida and when I am done for the day wash the line,reel and rod with Wool Lite. then air dry everything. This I have been doing for years and it has worked very well. Then dress the line with Slick line dressing. Hope this helps some.

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I fish in salt, brackish, and freshwaters (the Everglades is an amazing place) and the only thing I ever use to clean my lines (or my customer's lines) is the Scientific Angler's cleaning pad. If we're on the water and one of my angler's lines aren't shooting properly (dirty, sticky, etc) then we just use the pad right then -no matter whether we're in salt water or not... I have my angler strip out the entire line into the water then I briskly clean it up and down using medium pressure and the coarse side of the cleaning pad. Once the line is clean I work it through my polishing cloth back and forth until the line feels new again (my polishing cloth is the end of an old white cotton sock that has a fair amount of residue from the Scientific Anglers line dressing) and we're good to go for an entire day. One of the best fly anglers around, Chico Fernandez advocates doing this twice a day on the water but I rarely take the time...

 

After a day or two on the water (or the first time I have the opportunity if we're going continuously...) every fly rod that's been used gets the line stripped off down to the backing and thorough freshwater rinse (everything, rod, reel, line) and while wet the line gets the scrubbing with the pad, then a tiny drop of line dressing on the polishing cloth is used to restore the line to new condition. When the line is done it's wound back on the reel (which is still wet from the freshwater rinse, the drag on the reel is backed down to zero -then the rod is stood up with all the others (I keep six or seven ready to go from a 7wt on up) and allowed to dry without the reel cover in place. The reel cover only goes back on when the rod has dried for at least one day...

 

I make a point of never using any type of detergent or soap on my fly lines (or on any fly reel) since they degrade the plastic coating on the line and will actually remove the lubricants from that expensive fly reel... (ask me how I know....).

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

(954) 435-5666

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