Line repair

[TakeMyFlyPlease]

Hi C, lov'n my new Blue Water rod. Bomb'n casts as far as with the 2 hander but with my preferred pleasure of single handed casting. Seem to have split my line Sunday, probably nicked it on a barnacle or muscle shell. After cleaning and drying the line have lost about 1.5 cm of the orange running line coating. Last night I applied a thin layer of epoxy, will see how well it set up later today. Should've asked first, but what is the recommended way to fix this type of line damage?

[dogtooth]

Hi Take,

destroyed, wore out, and purchased more defective lines than I care to mention.

1) If you damaged the line due to angler misfortune, you should see an irregular tear with a flap hanging out. If the line simply delaminated, the tear is usually a much cleaner break around the circumference, often with a gap where the core stretched, but the coating did not. On an old line, this is just natural degradation,usually in the first ten feet of running line, and once it starts, the running line is generally toast. If this is a new line, it is probably a manufacturing defect, and you should have it inspected by C. to see if it is covered under warranty.

2) If you end up having to repair the line, your options are:

a) cut any loose coating off and smooth the edges with a bit of flexible cement. Pliobnd is the best stuff, but knotsense or aquaseal can work. The goal here is to prevent further delamination, not to provide a replacement coating. use this technique if the problem is in a really inconvenient spot, such as in the middle of the shooting line or in part of the head, This won't repair the defect fully, but will buy you some more quality time with the line. Epoxy won't work, because it is too stiff and will crack fairly quickly, or the core will hinge at he edge of the epoxy and wear out.

b) remove the compromised section of line and splice back together with braided mono ( I like gudebrod 50#) . This works really well when the damaged section is in the running line near the head. just cut off the section between the delamination and the head and splice it back together. the splice should be just outside your rod tip or still on the reel when shooting the cast. You can also splice the head into a new running line. I have done this with a couple offshore lines when the running line wore out, even built my own lines with t-11, t-14, t-18 heads plus my shooting line of choice, and it works very well, holds up to tuna, pargo, etc. Let me know if you want more details on splicing.

c) Since the damage is not in the head, you could cut off the head and and turn it into a conventional shooting head. Splice a braided mono loop into the back of the head. Better to make these loops on your own vs. buying a pre-made loops if you can. once you have a head, you can loop it to any shooting line of your choice. This method allows you to switch lines by changing heads, so you don't need a separate spool to fish different line types.

Dogtooth

[TakeMyFlyPlease]

Thanks for the great info Dt! Much appreciated.

I hadn't considered that it may have been a defect, it was a clean break of the coating prior to the short section of coating falling off. But I was fishing a really barnacle and muscle shell ridden beach so wouldn't surprise me to have sliced the coating.

I've applied a thin layer of Barco epoxy to the exposed core and edges of coating, did this prior to thinking of asking for help, of course. As it sounds like this repair will only work temporarily I'll be looking at applying other of the suggestions you've provided.

Cheers,
TMFP

[btree]

where can one pick up a spool of that grudebrod #50 braided mono? sounds like really useful stuff. i'm guessing one could also build their own braided loops with the stuff.

[SalaR]

The Braids are readily available,we have lots about...9Cortland and Gudebrod)in fact we used to use that braid as a shooting line ,and still do but it is very abbrasive to skin...that is why many of us couldn't figure out why SA developed the Shark Skin abbrasive line...although they ar enow in advanced generations from the original...good idea for fly fishers not doing lots of casting;bad idea for Salt Water fly fishers not using gloves of finger sleeves!
C

where can one pick up a spool of that grudebrod #50 braided mono? sounds like really useful stuff. i'm guessing one could also build their own braided loops with the stuff.

[dogtooth]

where can one pick up a spool of that grudebrod #50 braided mono? sounds like really useful stuff. i'm guessing one could also build their own braided loops with the stuff.

Yep. The homemade loops are strong. The premade loops don't have a great reputation- single catch and pinned down with shrink tube- blech. If I used a premade loop, I would nail knot it on instead.

braided loops run through the guides more smoothly than factory welded loops, and you can make the loop any size you want. Might consider going down to 20 or 30 lb braid if you are doing this on a 6 weight or less. I don't have experience with the small lines.

Make sure to do a double catch loop, and that you only glue the braided at the very end at the nail knot. There are good instructions online, don't know what the policy is on this forum for posting links, but a web search on double catch braided mono loop should get you to some instructions. I use some single strand leader wire doubled over for my loop needle, but that is what I have handy.

Splicing lines is the same deal. You just skip making the loop & slide the line ends into each side of 8-10" of braided mono and nail knot both sides. smooth over the knot & braid end with some flexible glue. Back in action.

Cortland works fine too. Gudebrod weave is tighter, so I have more confidence in it, but no real evidence it is better.