Dear Board,
A while ago I bought an Ocean City 76 fly reel. It came with an old dark green line on it but since it was set up for RHW I put it aside until today.
I cleaned and lubed it and switched it over to LHW today and removed the fly line. It turns out it is a silk line and once 15 feet of line is stripped off the reel it is in surprisingly good shape. The first 15 feet are a little dried out. It looks like a DT line but it was tied to the reel arbor with a quadruple square knot so I'm not sure it can be reversed.
Is red mucilin still the dressing to use to restore the line? It's not frayed or damaged and I'd like to treat the line and give it a try
Regards,
Tim Murphy 🙂
Tim:
I fish real (new) silk lines and can't say enough good things about
Otter Butter.
It contains NO silicone which can cause refinishing problems if used with a varnished bamboo rod and in my experience, an application of Otter Butter lasts WAY longer than red Mucelin. Usually a good 8 hours plus, especially on a sunny day.
In your case I'd remove the line from the reel, ideally on some kind of line winder and apply a "coupla-two-tree" coats of Otter Butter to the ENTIRE line using the enclosed leather pad and allow it to harden overnight on the winder or in loose coils. Then run the line a few times though a clean rag to remove the excess grease, spool up the line and go fishing.
After fishing, you need to get the wet line OFF of the reel and allow it to dry completely before applying more grease for the next outing. Most folks accomplish this with a line dryer/winder, in many cases a vintage Hardy or Farlow that holds your reel while you wind on the line.
I have a bunch of the vintage winders, but I much prefer the unfortunately discontinued line winder sold by Tibor a number of years back to a Hardy Compact, the benchmark for field work.
My MO with my silk lines during & between fishing trips:
I carry the line dryer with me when fishing but it stays in the trunk. When I am done fishing, after I put away the rod, I attach my reel to the winder and while pinching my line between a rag, I will wind up the amount of line I was using plus another 10 yards on to the winder and leave the rest on my reel...
UNLESS the reel took a dunking or it rained, in which case I'll wind up the whole line.
I'll wrap a neoprene reel pouch around my reel while it is still on the winder, set the winder & reel on the back seat or somewhere else where it is safe for the ride home. Once home I'll remove the neoprene reel pouch and put the winder and reel someplace safe to allow the line to dry, at least overnight, but usually longer.
After the drying period I'll reapply a "coupla-two-tree" coats to the JUST the line on the winder, allow that to harden and dry (it really only takes a few minutes but I'll give it an hour plus), pull the line through a clean rag to remove excess grease, rewind the greased line & go fishing.
It sounds like a lot, but as someone who ALWAYS allows ALL of my my reels of any type to sit out overnight sans cases to dry out AND someone who cleans my plastic fly lines, I actually find the care & feeding of silks lines to be a bit easier because I haven't yet cleaned my silk lines between fishing trips.
I just dry & re-grease...
Feel free to ask any questions.
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