Well with people in the other thread talking about keeping your line clean and stuff i was wondering whats the best way to take care fo your line?
Ive heard its bad to use line cleaners and conditioners too often. When i bought my bottle the guy said use it halfway through your season and then once at the end. I fish year round so i guess thats every 6 months with a line cleaner.
ZipCast is the only way to go (IMHO), although you should use it after every day or 2 of fishing. You won’t need much & it’s very easy to apply…it both cleans & treats the line. It really IS great stuff.
Mike
Twism, you’ll hear yelling and screaming about this but I use Armor-All cleaner-protectant and have saved a few otherwise ‘shot’ fly lines doing so. Don’t try it on a good line though…find an old dried out fly line that won’t shoot and feels rough as a cob and use it on that line. just wipe it on and reel it back up just before you head out to go flyfishing and you may be pleasantly surprised at the difference.
I’ve tried all sorts of things with Cortland, SA, RIO, and Sage lines. In the end I’ve found that just using a clean, soft wet rag every 4-5 times out to clean the line keeps those lines in great shape and performing well.
I never noticed that any of the myriad treatments improved the performance of my lines much more (if at all) than just cleaning them. And when I think it through, it makes sense. The line was sold clean and without any of those treatments and was great. Why add extra gunk to it, just clean the dirt off.
The best thing about Zipcast is that it’s easy and quick to use - which if you’re like me means you’ll actually use it. My favorite way to use it is to pick up a bag of gun cleaning patches, strip the line off the reel while it is still attached to the rod, then pinch a patch with a couple of drops of Zipcast on it around the line. I do this with the same hand that is holding the rod, then reel the line back in while guiding the line evenly back on the reel (sounds harder than it actually is ). If the line is a really dirty one, I run the line through the patch as I strip it off, flip the patch, and reel it back on. I do this at the end of each days’ fishing.
Using this method, your bottle of Zipcast will last a VERY long time, and you’ll have a clean and slick line every time you fish. Fly lines are just too expensive to NOT take care of them, and this is by far the best way I’ve come across to get the most life out of them.
Dotman (Jerry Brumfield) is an FAOL sponsor, and also a friend of mine - he’s the most honest person you’ll likely meet and you can deal with him with complete confidence. He’s a great fishing partner too!
Norm - I’m always looking for something better. I use these four performance features to focus my search:
1 - Easier to use.
2 - Takes less time and effort to apply.
3 - Cleans better.
4 - Lasts Longer.
I’ve found other line cleaners/treatments that do one thing better, but not all - and none cleaned the line any better (not even the oft recommended soap and water cleaning), which is primarily why I use Zipcast. So while I’m still searching, my lines get cleaned with Zipcast - it’s certainly better than doing nothing at all.
If you’ve found something better in all four areas I listed above, perhaps you’d like to share it with the rest of us.
I wash my lines with a bit of dish detergent and warmwater. If they’re really nasty, I’ll scrub them with a Scotch Brite pad too.
Then I use the Armor-All. Contrary to rumors passed around on the internet, Armor-All is little more than silicone and water and will not harm your line
I won’t even chance using Armor-All. It’s not worth the risk on considering the price of good fly lines lately! Sure Armor-All is cheaper by the gallon but a real line conditioner doesn’t cost all that much and is known to be safe to use.
A friend blamed the brand of lines he used for being junk. He’s still using the lines that he got on warranty replacement for them but then he stopped using Armor-All on them too.
I tried the quick-fix line treatments and wasn’t overly impressed. They, like Armor-All, wash off all too quickly. I’ll do a little more work up front for a more long-lived conditioner like Rio Agent X or Glide.
As for detergents, I bet there is a reason the top line manufacturers recommend NOT using it! Ivory bar soap works fine.
Oh, and every single one of my lines are slick as new. They might not look too pretty from practicing on dirt, grass and parking lots, but they’re all slick and crack-free.
Thaty Scotch Brite pad is made by 3M, the very same company who owns Scientific Anglers and who makes a special micro-abrasive pad just for the purpose of bring a fresh finish to the surface of their lines. That makes for a very good, dry slickness.
If I made fly lines I would want to make them so nothing, Nothing, NOTHING,would actually stick to them. Any thing that could stick to them might actually hurt them. So, I would want everything, Everything, EVERYTHING, to slide off.
I do find that is about the way things are today. No matter what stuff I put on my line, pretty soon it’s gone. Some seem to clean the line of surface dirt in the process, some better at that than others.
Probably a good thing the stuff washes off, I likely would have screwed up several lines over the years if it had not. I don’t mind ‘dressing’ my lines, kind of gives me some sense that I am actually accomplishing something. Maybe be glad you haven’t found something that actually changes your lines.
Just a thought… After you treat your fly line don’t neglect the rod it self. I’ve found even a slick line will drag because of line slap on the blank. I use Amorall and buff it up nice and shinny. Don’t hit me but I use the stuff on my cane rods as well. Makes "em all work and look good.
Hello Normand, would you mind mentioning what you use to treat your fly lines with?
I ask because I read the Zipcast website and apparently Zipcast is designed to eventually wash off opposed to lingering and gathering dirt, algae etc. I’m still trying to find something
better than the Armor-All cleaner-protectant that I use, which also washes off, though after reading at Zipcast, maybe that’s a good thing.
I am in the Albolene camp. Use it for everything like my fly line, flies, squeeky ore locks on the boat, sticky latches on the pickup tail gate, my hands in the winter to shed water, It is low cost and readily avalable. $12.00 gets you several years supply. Contains no silicone for those of you that don’t think silicone should touch your fine bamboo rods.