I was driving through Grand Junction, CO today and used the occasion to visit my first ever Cabela’s store. I spotted this product while browsing their fly shop and bought a set. All of my lines are set up with amnesia loops. The concept of a loop that would keep the line tip floating interested me.
Are they good enough to warrant cutting off my amnesia loops and replacing them with this floatinig loop? How do you heat the shrink wrap that fastens the Cortland loop to the line?
They are good enough for regular old trout fishing, but if you are targeting lunkers, stick with the amnesia. I never reslly noticed them keeping line afloat…maybe it’s in interpretation? As in, braided loops for floating lines as opposed to floating braded loops?
When securing the shrink tube, be real careful of the heat…fly line melts fast. Try using a hair dryer or boiling water. Alternatively, you can just secure the loop with CA glue. Make sure to push it all the way up…like a chinese finger trap…Or heat a knife blade, then use that to shrink the tube…
I just use no-nail knots nowadays. Too cheep to buy the braided loops.
I have not used the Cortland braided loops, but I have used the loops from Bass Pro…I don’t recall the name.
While I was researching switching over from Amnesia loops to braided loops, I saw that Cortland made a few different kinds. Only one kind was “floating”.
But I don’t know what’s different about it that make it more buoyant than the other types.
In the last couple weeks, I’ve put quite a few on my fly lines, including a couple silk lines I have. Here is my 2 cents:
I like they way that they go through the tip top of the rod. A lot smoother than the knots associated with the Amnesia loop system.
I like to bond the connection under the shrink tube with some glue. I bought some Pliobond just for this and I like it a lot. I like it better than the CA glues. I like it better for two reasons: first because when it sets up, it’s not hard and brittle like CA glues. This makes it go through the tip top better. I also like it better because it sets up quickly (but not too quick). So you can shape the glue as it sets up. This will allow you to taper the glue at the connection…also making it go through the tip top easier.
When shrinking the tube onto the connection, be careful. I use a small heat gun. And I protect the areas on either end of the shrink tube with tape or something to shield it from the heat. Be quick with the heat and use it sparingly, just enough to do the job. It’s easy enough to melt the line.
I actually just cut off the supplied shrink tubing and use my own. (I use 2.5mm heat shrink tube) I have different colors so I can color code the lines. I also use a fine Sharpie marker to write on the shrink tube before I shrink it. I’ll make a note like: 6 DT…or 5 GPX. That makes it simple to know what’s what.
On my silk lines, I use a connector at each end with different colors on each end. I put a large loop in the backing to connect to. This makes turning the line around a lot easier.
As far as fishing them, I haven’t had a problem. I think the biggest fish I’ve landed on one of those connections is about an 18" rainbow. I do apply some red Mucilin to it before fishing, just to improve floating.
Be sure that the connector is the right size for your line, you don’t want it to go on too easily. It has to be tight enough to engage the chinese-finger-trap or it will likely fail.
I bought two different sizes from BassPro…some for line wt1-4 and wt5-7. But I’ve found the wt1-4 work best for most of my lines.
Take it from me I have one left out of a pack years ago before they started using welded loops on lines and I could never keep the tips floating,had to start putting umpqua wrap on indicators to keep the tip up.
I don’t know how they will behave in the long term. They do look like they are prone to getting dirt and sinking. I haven’t run into that problem yet. Hopefully mucilin will help as well as a scrubbing with an old toothbrush as needed to get crud off of them.
That reminds me of one thing I forgot to mention. I put a dab of Pliobond on the end of the fly line (before feeding it up the braided loop) to seal it up to prevent water from wicking up the end of the fly line and submerging it.
The amnesia loop is just a piece of Amnesia line (a brand of mono running line) that is attached to the end of your fly line. Usually, I have seen it nail knotted to the fly line with a perfection loop at the end to attach your leader to. I used it for a long time. But I always had trouble with the tip of the line sinking for whatever reason.
Now that is very cool and very intriguing; have not seen that before. It’s hard to imagine that it stays tight, but I guess it must if you guys are using it.
I guess I couldn’t remember what they were.