Well, I for one have to watch my pennies! Since retirement EVERYTHING keeps going up and what I have coming in no where near keeps up. I remember when you could buy that line backing for .50 cents - then the movie "A River Ran Through" and the fly fishing market exploded. Suddenly the backing was $1.99, then $2.99 and I think the last time I glanced at a backing spool price it was crowding five bucks. Did manage to have some backing passed on to me from a fella that simply quit the sport (health reasons). No way in hell am I going to pay anything near that price for another "strand" - I'll even revert to using a length of monofilament line (in spite of the warnings that the sky is falling and the end of the world is at hand).

Thanks for posting about the mason line as that will be the next thing I use. How come someone as smart as me never comes up with a great idea like that ...?