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Thread: Will 1wt or 2wt or 3wt fly lines work as running lines with a Skagit head?

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  1. #1

    Default Will 1wt or 2wt or 3wt fly lines work as running lines with a Skagit head?

    I have several tinkering things to do with rods and reels. Only one Ridgeline running line. Can I use small wt fly lines as running lines? None of them are as big as the Ridgeline running line Poppy sent me.
    Jim

  2. #2
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    You could. I would gut the tapered part of the line off. The breaking strength of such light fly lines is fairly low. Rio publishes this for their lines and their 1 to 3 wt lines have a tensile strength of 12 to 15 lbs. I don't see where other manufactures publish this information but I suspect it is similar. Most purpose designed running lines break at 20lb or more.

  3. #3

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    I love the idea Jim. Who's to say you can't? Makes sense to me. Recycle, recycle, recycle.

    Jerry

  4. #4

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    Thank you tailingloop and Jerry. I was only intending to use them for test casting on a two hander. But wanted to know if the characteristics of the 1-2-3wt running lines would affect the casting. I just want to experiement with skagit heads to see what grain wts work on the (two) two hander rods I have, and the 3-4 more I am going to build out of blanks sitting around doing nothing.

    Just wanna get close enough to practice casting the rods with a skagit head. I don't think the running line has that much to do with performance of the rod and skagit head. At least I hope it doesn't as I have a lot of tinkering to do. Cannot afford a new running line for all the reels and rods I want to experiment with.

    I have a 10' 4wt blank of which I could add a 1' extension on if I want to.
    I have a 10'-6" 5wt blank of which I could build straight or add an extension to.
    I have a 13' blank with no designation on it....that I could build into a two hander.
    I am currently building a 10' 3wt full flex blank into a two hander with a 1' extension. Just cause the blank was around and I had no use for it.
    Going to try it out on inland trout. A wee trout spey rod if you will.

    So.....lots of tinkering to do.

    Thanks for the help and loop....for the tip on eliminating the taper.

    Thanks guys.

    Jim

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
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    If it's just for test casting, you can always just pick up a spool of 20-40lb mono fishing line and is it as a running line. Won't be quite the same as a purpose built running line but it will let you figure out which heads work best.

  6. #6

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    Joe Cool

    Thanks for the input. I have read that people actually use mono for running line. I just don't like the sounds of that. I would rather have a real running line. But anyway.....the reason for the question....

    You are correct in perceiving that I just want running lines for testing and tinkering. But....I was not contemplating going out and buying 1wt and 2wt lines to test with. I was not proposing this as some great idea. I just happen to have about 4 of them laying around with no purpose for them. Thus the question would they work as running lines.

    Thanks again for the input Joe.
    Last edited by Gemrod; 04-28-2010 at 03:05 PM.

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