To use cheap lines for practice or not?

[Valhalla 1]

"I'll use my cheap line for back yard practice and the Cortland when it counts. "

"Fodder for another thread.....Is that a good idea????????????"

Duckster suggested this, so I thought I'd start it up. Is it a good idea to use cheap lines for backyard practice to save wear and tear on your good lines?

Personally, I'd say not. Practice will yield the most benefit if you practice with what you fish. If I practice a roll cast with a cheap line and get it just right, what benefit is there when I go to apply it on the water and the fly goes farther than what I intended. It would be like practicing for NASCAR by driving around the track really fast in a Chevette. Technically, you are doing the same thing, but not.

Also, I like to practice on the water. It's alot more like fishing...well actually, it is fishing. Practice fishing is done on close local water, usually for panfish, so that I will be ready on those occasions where I get to go somewhere else and only have one good shot at it.

[sagefisher]

Valhalla1,

I know what you mean about practicing with what you use, but grass and gravel and parking lots are devastating to fishing lines. Grass, depending on the variety, will make thousands of minor cuts in your line. Parking lots and gravel will rough up the surface of a fly line and destroy it in no time.
The destruction of the line is why I maintain a number of Parking Lot or Grass fly lines for the purpose of practice and when helping out a new fly fisher at a club function.

In the long run it really does not matter that much that you are practicing on a different line. The main thing is you are getting your timing down and that is critical. Timing is going to change every time you go fishing, changes caused by wind direction, weight of the fly, distance you are casting, the amount of back cast room you have, a number of outside influences.

Often a person can end up fishing with different lines, on different rods all in the same day. I almost always have three rods rigged up when I fish out of a drift boat: One rod for nymphing, one rod for streamers and one rod for dry flies. Each rod has a different action from medium to fast and each rod has a different type of line on it from double taper to weight forward to a shooting head type nymphing line. It is very important for the fly fisher to be able to quickly adjust to different rods and lines and fishing conditions.

So, save your good lines for the water. Clean and condition the line every time you go out and they will last for years. Use old lines or cheap lines for practicing.

By the way, you are right when saying that the best time to practice is on the water, meaning while fishing, but we can nott always do that.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[Normand]

If I practice a roll cast with a cheap line and get it just right, what benefit is there when I go to apply it on the water and the fly goes farther than what I intended.

why would it go further if the amount of line out of the reel is the same????

[Valhalla 1]

why would it go further if the amount of line out of the reel is the same????

Good point, I should have said "behaves differently". I just didn't think it through when I picked roll cast as an example. 90% of my fishing is on a large river, and shooting line is a regular deal if you want to reach many spots, so I automatically think in those terms.

Larry, I agree with you...I've never cast a line on anything but water or grass...gravel is out of the question entirely...and grass never gives me the same feel. Picking up a line off the water feels totally different. I guess I am lucky in that I have a small river just 5 minutes away with some practice smallies to play with.

[Hoochman]

I generally use the same lines I fish with to practice with; just I never practice on gravel, asphalt, etc. They say grass wrecks your line. I'm lucky enough to have a pond close by, so I usually go there to play with my new sticks

[brhoff]

I ordered some seconds from Northern Sports to practice with at about $10 per line and found out I really like the lines...very supple, little memory, not so floaty on the end though...could be a deterent if trout fishing but for warm water, no biggie.

Anyhow, yeah, I would be hesitant to lawn cast my "good" Cortland Wind Taper as it would cost a bunch to replace.

[Colston Newton]

I use cheap lines for everything.

[Jeremy]

Valhalla,

Going out on a limb here, as in contrary to what you've been given for much of it.

I've had to rid myself of some really bad habits when I first began casting a decade ago. So I cast on my back yard lawn grass....nice, green "Barefoot" type grass and practice around 4 days out of every 6, for around an hour at a time.

Been doing this for over 3 and maybe 4 years now, religiously and have not hurt any of my SA GPX and XPS lines as yet.

I clean the lines with the SA cleaner EVERY time I go fishing and when they need it for back yard casting....which may be once every week.

No problems. YMMV....


Jeremy.

[rusty rat]

Hey Valhalla, I bought some Olympic flylines from the Cortland Outlet Store. I do not know if they are made by Cortland or not. If they are then you are getting the best of both worlds, namely, Cheap and Cortland. Maybe somebody can expand on this. RR

[Valhalla 1]

Just to clarify this, I just saw the suggested question in another thread and decided it was interesting enough to start it up. As I expected, there is fair amount of thought out there on it, but I'm already set in my ways...I'll always practice on water with what I actually fish with...not because it's the right way, just my way.