To cast easier and extend the life of your fly line, apply line dressing (lubrication) on your line regularly, and clean the line 2 or 3 times a season.
Although shops or manufacturers seldom highlight this, here is a simple and inexpensive way to both cast better and lengthen your line’s life– apply line dressing (lubrication) on your line regularly. While new fly lines are great because they still have hard, smooth finishes and inbuilt slickness, it doesn’t take long before minute algae and soil particles from warmwater rivers and lakes start to coat the line and cancel out that slickness. The line’s finish also chips and cracks with use. These factors add up and soon you have a line that doesn’t cast nearly as easily as it did when new. Unfortunately, most folks just grit their teeth, struggle more and work harder to cast the same distance with their dirty line.
To cast better, all you need is some line dressing and a soft cloth to lube your line
However, simply “greasing” your line before each use will have you casting easily again. All you need is one of the various line dressings on the market (or even the household product Amor All) and a small soft cloth. Add a small amount of dressing on the cloth and run the forward 50 feet of line back and forth through the cloth a couple of times. This isn’t permanent, but even with a beat-up and dirty line you will notice how much easier it casts for a few hours. Doing this each evening or in the morning before fishing can become a simple routine that takes just a few minutes. If the river you’re fishing is extra turbid (like many farmbelt rivers) dress the line again at lunch. This will keep the line sliding through the guides with ease all day, even in extremely dirty water.
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