Fly Lines

[one trick pony]

I’ve inherited four fly rods / reels but I don’t know what type of line is on each. Floating, sinking, intermediate? Is there a way I can determine based on the color of the line? Or some other way?

Thank you.

 

[sparsegraystubble]

Many of us could make sort of educated guesses based on weights, colors and whether they are one line/spool per rod. But you would have to give us a lot more info to even try and the results would really be little more than a guess.

Faced with the same situation, I would take the whole load into a fly shop and see if they could make the guess with much more information.

But if they are all trout or other light rods and if there is only one line per rod and if those lines are light in color then the odds are that they are all floaters. Notice all the ifs in that sentence.

I would go to a shop.

Don

 

[flytie09]

Many older sinking lines are dark green, brown or grey...but you can't use color alone to distinguish a particular line. You could try a bathtub test maybe...or better yet.....take them to a local shop to see if they can tell you the condition and what they might be. Density, "does it float?" and taper should be a give away.

No matter how much of a proclaimed expert we claim to be on the internet......We can't tell you any of this without touching/feeling them.

When I buy a reel with an unknown line.....honestly I toss it.

 

[silver creek]

I’ve inherited four fly rods / reels but I don’t know what type of line is on each. Floating, sinking, intermediate? Is there a way I can determine based on the color of the line? Or some other way?

Thank you.

Put them in a bucket of water. Floating line FLOATS! The tips of floating may sink a bit but the rest of the line will float.

Sinking line SINKS. Sinking line is also usually of a grey or darker color like brown. It is also thinner than floating line because it is denser.

As far as intermediate line is concerned, it will float if treated with fly floatant. So if you have a slowly sinking fly line that floats when treated, it is an intermediate fly line. An intermediate line is the modern version of a silk fly lines since silk lines have to be treated to float.

Sink tips will have a color change to the darker sinking color at the point where the sinking is mated to the floating line.

Weight the first 30 feet on a scale to get the line wt according to AFTMA.

Use the Lefty Kreh method of marking the line.

Lefty’s Line Marking System | Temple Fork Outfitters

 

[dillon]

If you plan to use this equipment regularly, I'd suggest investing in some new lines. If the lines are old they probably aren't any good. If you are only going to use them occasionally and don't want to spend the money for new lines then the bucket test is in order. If you intend to sell the stuff the lines don't really matter much as they likely have little or no value. But, by all means post some pics and people here might come pretty close to what they are. Or, perhaps confuse the issue... JK

 

[one trick pony]

Thank you- I’ll try the bath tub / bucket trick!

 

[silver creek]

You didn't say whether the lines were old so I assumed that they were serviceable.

Examine the line coating. If there are cracks, buy new line. If they are not cracked, you can probably still use them.

I would prep the lines by cleaning them before use by washing them with some Dawn and warm water as in the video below. This is the best way to clean a line, but I admit that even a Stage One Cleaning is too time consuming for me to do it after every few trips as recommended on the video. I let the performance of the line dictate to me when it needs cleaning.

YouTube