Is the price right

I guess I am just getting old and cranky. This is the time of year when those who manufacture fly fishing equipment bombard us with news of their newest and vastly improved products. I can remember a time when $25 bought a top-of-the-line plastic-coated fly line. While leafing through the latest issues of fly-fishing magazines, I came across two product reviews that left me shaking my head. One fly line company touted its new “super flotation technology.” They claim that their new fly line has a “super buoyant under coating combined with a super smooth outer coating that will allow you to cast farther than ever before.” The gentleman who tested this fly line made a surprising statement regarding plastic-coated fly lines. “Eventually, this line will sink just like all the rest. It just won’t sink as soon or as often.” How many times have I been asked by people who are surprised that Barb and I fish silk lines, “but don’t silk lines sink?” Here we have a writer admitting that plastic lines also sink occasionally. The fact is that all fly lines will sink if fished for a long enough period. The fly line described above can be bought for only $64.95. I’ll pass.

The second fly line review described a new fly line which, rather than being super smooth, was touted as having a finish as rough as a shark’s skin. The manufacturer claims that this line will “float higher, cast farther and last longer” than their previous lines. The price of this line will cause you to visit your local banker, seeking a loan. You can fish with this product in 2008 for a mere 99 bucks. No, that is not a misprint folks. They are asking you to pay that amount for a plastic-coated fly line. There are at least two big-box stores that will sell you a graphite fly rod, a reel and a fly line for less money than that. Did you also note, gentle reader, that one manufacturer is hyping the super smoothness of their line, while the other touted the fact that their line has tiny peaks and valleys, giving their line a rough surface? I guess you pays your money and you makes your choice.

My experience has been that, after two or at most three years, a plastic line needs to be replaced. When Barb and I first began to fish with those old-fashioned silk fly lines, our friends were shocked at the price of them. I must admit that $250 is a lot of money to pay for 90 feet of string. When the lines arrived, I cut both the three-weight and five-weight double taper lines in half. Thus, Barb and I each had two new lines. We have fished those silk lines for seven years and expect to fish with them next year. This means the cost of these lines has been just over $30 a year. That is about the same cost of a $99 plastic line, provided that line lasts for three years, which it may or may not.

Ah yes, but the knock on silk lines is that they do not float well and they require a great deal of fussy maintenance. I treat my silk lines the same as I would treat a plastic line. After fishing, I strip the line off the reel, wipe it clean with a Kleenex and allow it to dry overnight. Before starting out to fish the next day, I dress the line with red label Mucilin, and that’s it. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have had a silk line sink.

The fact that silk lines have a much finer tip than a plastic line means I can use a leader with a much lighter butt section than I could with a plastic line. My silk lines mike .023 and .025 at the tips. Plastic lines will usually run .031 and .035 at the tips. My leader butts are either .012 or .014 thousandths of an inch. For a plastic line, it is necessary to use from .018 to .021 for a leader butt. For a mediocre caster like myself, that finer fly line tip and very light leader help me to present the fly in a more delicate manner.

This past season, I returned to the pleasure of fishing with bamboo fly rods. It seems to me that bamboo fly rods and silk lines go together like ham and eggs. Why fish with a bamboo rod? Barb and I feel that fly-fishing for trout is a sport where estheticism plays a definite part. The fish we cast to, the streams they inhabit, the very lands the streams flow through are all creatures and places of beauty. Hiram Leonard, one of the great early bamboo rod builders once described a bamboo fly rod as “a useful thing beautifully made.” Amen.