Uses for Old Fly Line

[Zach Matthews]

So a couple years ago I was cleaning out my line box and I realized I had like over a dozen old fly lines. I was trying to come up with ways to use them for something.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2009/12/tie-your-own-duck-hunting-lanyard

Then I stumbled onto that article and it wound up being a great inspiration. I braided both a duck call lanyard out of parachute cord (which looks great by the way) and then a fly line lanyard using the same weave. I use the fly line lanyard for my Buice turkey trumpet, which is valuable enough that you don’t want to just stash it in a pack to get broken. They’re pretty fragile.

I saw on Facebook that there’s now a company called FlyVines making stuff out of old fly line. Actually kind of a cool concept — I know a lot of guys in the industry make sunglasses lanyards out of old line (Steve Hemkens at Orvis worked out a cool way of doing it).

And then of course there’s the welding technique. Provided you have some clear polyolefin heat shrink tubing and a heat gun, you can use old fly line to make welds and loops in new lines (best to use lines of the exact same type from the same manufacturer). This excellent thread does a better job than I did in my article of explaining the various options, and I would advise using the heat-shrink to get the best possible final product.

No one has ever put it on the web but I am confident you could also fix broken lines using the same technique as the Spey Pages post with the pink loop, by laying two short sections of old fly line over the original broken point and welding all together. You might also be able to fix chewed up line using the tubing alone, to act as a mold form while you liquefy the messed up coating with the heat gun.

Fly line is pretty versatile. I’m sure y’all have seen other ‘hacks’ for old line — if you have, post them up. I’ll post a pic of my turkey lanyard later.

Zach

[Colin M.]

Anxious to see how this lanyard came out.

[Zach Matthews]

Yeah I’ll get a pic. Although I suspect you’re making fun of me. 🙂

[Zach Matthews]

Here we go.

[Buzz Bryson]

I’ve used fly lines for lots of things, but never got creative/artistic with it (no braid/weave). Used on glasses/sunglasses, with just a nail knot on each temple. Have some clippers I hang around neck using fly line, with just a nail knot on the overlapped ends (effective, albeit ugly). Made a shoestring for wading boots once, cutting off a few feet of the running line. Carried a length of parachute cord ever since. Good for jug fishing – – – oops, did I admit to that??? I do keep a few worn out lines around the house, though. Great string substitute. I don’t use rods for tomato stakes (although I’ve had a couple that would be good for that, and little else), but I have used old fly line to tie tomatoes onto wooden stakes. Wrapped some Xmas gifts for friends using old line for “ribbon”. They seemed to think it was funny; not sure if “good funny” or “bad funny” . . . Used an old one for a clothes line at a lodge once. Got plenty of comments on that. Never tried, but would probably make a nice grip on a wading/walking staff.

Endless possibilities . . .

[J. Evans]

Gee, and I thought I’d be on the cutting edge with “tying up tomatoes”.

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