Repairing and rejoining fly lines..

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Shortlite
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Repairing and rejoining fly lines..

Post by Shortlite » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:16 pm

Thought I'd throw this one up on here too, and maybe also in maintenance and supertuning (it's a tinkering question).

Has anyone repaired a damaged flyline, or rejoined a broken line, with good success? I was over on the Sexyloops site and read all four articles on smooth connections, dealing with just that. One method involved heating the two ends of the line in a piece of shrink tube to fuse the coatings together. As best as I can see, the join still has separate core ends, so all strength is due to the coating. Very smooth, but not strong IMHO. Other methods mentioned involved stitching the braided cores together, overwrapping it with thread, then gluing. Yet another uses a needle to string a frayed and trimmed section of core from one piece into the core of the other piece, then glue and draw up tight. Sort of like a needle knot, but no knot.

Has anyone else tried to repair a broken line? I think a solid method will make modifying lines and making permanent connections quick and easy. I will pester some FF buddies of mine to part with scrap lines and busted sections to try some simple tests, but in the meantime any extra input is most welcome.

Thanks,

Ted..

elrodphil
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Re: Repairing and rejoining fly lines..

Post by elrodphil » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:28 pm

Hey, I read the sexyloops article...I have tries the 2 ways they've suggested. I was on a trip to Naples Florida and I had a big snook saw my line off on he side of a bridge. The only thing I tried that worked was stripping the line down to the core and then tying the cores together with a blood knot. I used a chemical called knot sense to coat the section and let it dry. The knot sense really did the trick in maing the connection smooth. I would have really rather just have a spare fly line. Keep in mind that some of the older fly lines did not have a dacron or kevlar core...

Shortlite
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Re: Repairing and rejoining fly lines..

Post by Shortlite » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:54 pm

Cool beans elrodphil, thanks for the info.
Quite aware that cores differ nowadays, and also between lines and manufacturers. I am interested in tropical lines, with braided monofilament cores. I think the stitching through the braided core, wrapping with thread, then liberally coating it in Knot Sense is the strongest, though not necessarily the smoothest.

What went wrong with the methods you tried? I intend to mainly use shooting heads, but just like many ideas of mine, this one is definitely stuck in my head and I want to try and make it bear fruit. I figure the melting method fails from separation of the coating (no bond between cores). Mono cores would present a different problem. Can't sleeve through the core, only your blood knot would work well.

M2arms
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Re: Repairing and rejoining fly lines..

Post by M2arms » Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:09 am

At that point, I would just buy a new line. These lines now-a-days are engineered to work in a harmony that is completely lost by splicing and fooling around. I have had a similar experience in the field. I only lost the front end just ahead of the head. I tied a new leader directly to the line end (nail knot steamside - not fun). I kept fishing till the flies quit hatching.

Drove into West Yellowstone and plunked down the $55 (many years ago) for a new Rio

Bottomline
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Re: Repairing and rejoining fly lines..

Post by Bottomline » Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:53 am

I would not dream of trying to repair a broken fly line. Like what would be the point? You get a decent size fish on and the first thing you going to think of is my line going going to hold.

Bottomline

rico.29
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Re: Repairing and rejoining fly lines..

Post by rico.29 » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:49 pm

hi,
this is the link about repairing fly line
http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/smoot ... ons3.shtml,
don't if this method works... well , i guess it does till you meet big fish...

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