A solvent would remove the grease. Petrol would do it - there are recipes for home-made floatants that are candlewax dissolved in unleaded petrol. I assume petrol would do the de-greasing job, or better would be dry cleaning fluid (CTC). I always soak dry flies in a liquid floatant that leaves the d...

I did a bit more reading around. Here are a few answers to questions raised. Sorry about the long post. -Q1 Why did older flylines (and some cheaper ones today) crack so quickly? A1. The flexibility, suppleness when cold, low-memory, and stretchiness of PVC are indivisible. These properties are give...

Yes, RW apparently commissioned a chemist to formulate it: to quote him " discovered that the cracking of PVC coatings on modern fly lines was due to loss of plasticiser, brought about by a variety of factors including heat, the use of ordinary greases or simple time in storage....devised a spe...

Hi All Quite a few threads recently on line care, cracking etc. No-one has yet mentioned PVC replasticisers. A UK product "Permaplas" worked very well for restoring lines that were getting stiffer and starting to crack. I just finished my last jar softening some lines for freezing water us...

Dear Gordy I can confirm your arithmetic. The old line (1990s Wet Cel #7) weighed 12.8g over first 30feet / 9.14m = 1.4g/m and carried on being the same thickness until the rear taper set in. The average weight along the 43 feet / 13.1m aerialised head (including rear taper) was 1.23 g/m as you stat...

Hi everyone - this database is a brilliant project and will be very valuable resource. About 4 years ago I wanted to understand why some of my 6-weight lines cast well and others were lousy. So I weighed and measured them, and I found the weighing method as described above by Lars, was repeatable (u...

Greys GR50 is a crisper quicker rod than the old GR30 and I found the #6 weight 9 foot 6 version very good - now available for bargain prices well under £100 if you shop around internet (I think they might be phasing them out and replacing with GR60).
Kevin

Personal net recommendation..........Greys GX folding net (large). It has a deep rubberised bag that is ideal for fish recovery. It's also (nearly) big enough for most carp I catch. It is heavy and to hang it securely on my waistcoat I use a pair of 2cm magnets from here: https://www.emagnets.com/, ...

Hello all - I bought a GR70 after a lesson with an isntructor since it was the easiest rod to cast that I ever tried, and it is what that particular instructor finds easiest to cast for beginners (I'm not a beginner, though no expert caster either). This instructor had a Rio Grand along and it is (I...

Thank you all for giving me an "aha" moment. I have a super-fast-sink line, WF8, that really does not want to shoot. It is miserable to cast. That's why I have not fished it in several years. I have weighed and measured all my lines recently, including the running lines, and this WF8 is we...