Can a broken fly line be repaired???

[nb_ken]

Seems to be a lot of line conversations going on right now, so I thought I'd add one more. (BTW, great job stepping up for the kid with the cracked line.)

I was fishing for silvers off the beach on Puget Sound with a Rio Outbound shooting head line. If you're not familiar with the Outbound, it has monster 30' head (28.5, actually) and a thin running line. The preferred setup for beach fishing is stripping as much as you can throw into a stripping basket and casting from there.

No matter how much you stretch it, or how careful you are about stacking it in the basket, you've got a lot of that thin running line bunched up on you hip and it's not a matter of 'if' it gets tangled, but how often.

Anyway, on one cast I flung my line and a tangle got up into the second stripping guide. No big deal. I'd done that before. I pulled the line back through and started untangling. But this time there was a perfection-loop type knot that would not come undone. I picked at it for 45 minutes until I basically picked the coating off the inside of the knot.

It was late in the day and I fished with the line for a little while longer. The knot was about 65' back. Kinda took the fun out of things, though. When I got home I faced the fact that this line was ruined and cut the knot out. I tried repairing it with some braided mono (that chinese finger trap kinda stuff) but I'm not entirely satified with the repair. I had no idea what I was doing so maybe that was the right tool but with the wrong technique. Or maybe there is a better way. Or maybe it's a lost cause. The repair doesn't have to be seemless, but the more seemless the better.

Any ideas?

[tailingloop]

I have repaired several regular flylines, shooting lines, and integrated lines like the Rio Outbound by inserting the ends into about 8 to 10 inches of 50# braided mono such as that sold by Gudebrod and Cortland just as you tried. Insert the fly line into the braid and secure the braid to the line with a nail knot at both ends of the braid. For extra protection and to help it slide through the guides better, coat the nail knot with Pliobond, Loon Knot Sense or other flexible coating. The join with the braid is usually stronger than the original line was.

What was it that you didn't like about your repair.

[Host Ray]

Here's the best way to do it that I have seen, it requires melting the line back together again, very clean connection.
http://www.ukswff.co.uk/Tips_Flyline_Repair.shtml

[Colston Newton]

A method I used successfully not only in repqairing lines but reconfiguring them involves carefully peeling the covering material off the core then bending the two uncovered bits of cover over each other. (Take the left piece around the right and bring it back parallel to the rest of the left. Do the same with the part of the right the left is wrapped around. Apply glue and let dry. Once the glue has dried, starting above the exposed core and finishing below it, wrap the section as you would a guide on a rod. Glue that. (I suspect a strip of platic type material would serve as well as the wraps, but I would not forgo wrapping it, at least at its ends.)

[saltydancindave]

Here's a couple of flyline repairs that work : http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/flylinerepairs.shtml

[Clay]

Here's a couple of flyline repairs that work : http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/flylinerepairs.shtml

I had the UK repair link saved to my favorites from before but added this one as well. Hope I never need either one but liked them both. Good ideas for all of us to keep this type of information close at hand just in case.

[fishbum]

Use an epoxy splice. Better than anything I have seen here yet.

Strip the coating off 1 inch of the running line.
Use a needle to pull a 12 - 16 inch loop of unwaxed dental floss into the head end of the fly line.
Mix some 20 minute epoxy and soak the loop of dental floss and the stripped core of the running line
Pull the epoxy soaked running line into the head portion of the fly line
Clean up the mess
Let the splice set untill the epoxy sets.

I have been using this splice for over 20 years to make special fly lines for my own use.

Good luck with the project

fishbum

Soak the