How do you store your silk fly lines?

[Bobby Marlene]

Good morning,
I got two silk lines for my #4 and #5 weight rods from Mr Zhu. I cannot comment on their quality, I have no experience with silk lines. I onderstood that I have to treat them with Mucilin (Mr Zhu supllies treatment with the lines but I have no idea if I should use it) and that I have to dry them after use. But I do not know how to store the line after drying. Do you keep it on the reel or on separate larger diameter spools?
Any thoughts on Mr Zhu lines are most welcome, too! Thanks for helping!
Best, Bobby

[Watermole+]

Good morning to you Bobby,

The best way by far to store a silk line when not in use is to lay it in loose, figure-of-eight coils in a paper-lined drawer, where air may circulate around it but it is not exposed to strong light. The figure-of-eight configuration avoids line twisting.

After fishing-and whatever time of the day or night that may be-I always run the line off the reel onto a floor somewhere and allow it to dry out. It only takes a minute to do and is really important as being stored wet is will rapidly shorten the life of a line-and doesn't do a lot for the reel either!

When the line has dried after a few hours, draw it through a pad of Red label "Mucilin" to clean it and coat it for the next time you go fishing. Don't use the GREEN label Mucilin as it contains harmful silicones.
Then simply lay the line in loose, open coils on paper in a drawer until you need it again!

The biggest destroyers of silk lines are being stored wet on reels and grit particles.

If you do this every time, the line will last forever and you will never need to buy another.

wm+

[Bobby Marlene]

Thank you very much! Good idea to store it loose in a drawer. Best wishes, Bobby

[SeanM]

Hi Christoph

Being a lazy person I just drape my Mr Zhu line over the back of a chair for a few days and put it back on the reel. The night before going fishing I give it a light coat of the dressing supplied. I've found that giving the line another wipe with the dressing at lunch time helps when doing a full day's fishing. I've been using a 5wt Zhu line for several years now and I'm very happy with it.

I suspect that Watermole's method is much better though!

Sean

[Bobby Marlene]

Thanks Sean! I will try to follow the wm+ procedure but it´s good to know that it is not too critical as long as the line is dry. Best wishes, Christoph

[OldTackle]

Hi Bobby,

I am using a quite high standard hand made Phoenix line and therefore made me a line dryer to take care of it. I simply mounted two stems on the side of a wooden board and made two depressions on top to take a axle. Nothing fancy - my axle just sits in the depressions and can easily be taken off. I took a coping saw to cut three 20cm disc's out of a 4mm thick wooden handicraft board. With a circle I marked a centered line with 18cm diameter and divided that by 16. In those marked spots I drilled holes just large enough to get some thick bamboo skewers (gardeners ones) in. All that glued in place made me a very nice and useful line dryer for two lines. The advantage is that I do not have to avoid tangles. The line remains attached to the reel and I fix the tippet to one of the skewers and simply roll on the line from the reel until I reach the backing. I use it for drying the line between sessions, to maintain it with Mucilin and to store it over winter (in that case I put a cotton towel over it to keep UV light away). To make this it did only take me one evening and I couldn't be more pleased with it.

Of course I am happy to provide a picture if you're interested.