Silk lines

After reading many ravings about fishing a bamboo fly rod with a silk line, I decided to get one. These days silk lines are rarely if ever used on modern graphite rods. Surprisingly there are still a few manufacturers of silk lines. The best known is Phoenix, followed by Thebault. Terenzio is another Italian manufacturer of silk lines. Terenzio also makes artificial 'silk' lines which means they need a lot less maintenance. Very interesting. There are also a few Japanese manufacturers, Yano being the best known.

I always thought silk fly lines were for the sentimental old fools who refuse to admit it's the space age rather than the Victorian period. One of the most interesting thing about fishing with silk lines is that since the silk is heavier than PVC, the silk lines are much thinner than PVC lines. So, silk lines cuts into the wind like a warm knife through butter. Quite an eye opener... Here's a nice article on how silk lines does has its advantages over modern PVC lines. Silk lines are more expensive than PVC lines. In fact I had to scratch my head before taking the plunge, but if taken well care of silk lines will last for lifetime. More info on silk lines can be found here.

I bought the Phoenix line because I heard it is fishable right out of the box, while other lines needed to be 'broken in' (the stiffness of the woven structure will soften over use). I think they mean that the line is very stiff and needed to be softened using the red Mucilin and cast some time before heading for the trouts. By the way, I needed a #4 line but bought a DT5 as people who fished with a DT4 from Phoenix said that it felt like a #3.5 rather than a #4. I haven't fished my Phoenix line yet. I'll keep it in the box until my Jennings rod arrives.


The myth of the DT line
The myth that one might cast more delicately with a DT line than with a WF line is just rubbish. The Double Taper is an heritage from the silk line as one can turn over the line to fish the fresh part when the front part is water logged and won't float anymore (usually after 3-4 hours). This way you can fish all day long. Both modern DT and WF lines (we are talking about models available in both DT and WF) have the same taper in the first 9 meters/30 feet. So, people telling you that a DT fishes more delicately better need to check their casting capabilities...

Maintenance of silk lines
Silk lines are always intermediate lines, meaning they will slowly sink when untreated. After treating the line with Mucilin it will float. The maintenance that comes with silk lines seems to be much exaggerated by most. I think it's a bit more work than a PVC line, but since I also clean & treat them with line dressing every evening after fishing I guess that's not much more work. Most important thing to do when fishing silk lines is that you need to DRY them completely in large loose coils after fishing. If not taken care of, silk lines can get tacky (sticky). Storing the line in the winter you'll need to keep it DRY and COOL and wrapped around in large coils. Using some of those moist wicking bags often found in medicine bottles is probably a good idea.


Update 2018:
Red Mucilin has been traditionally the recommended line treatment for silk lines. Recently a new line dressing called the Otter Butter was introduced by an online shop in the USA. Many fishermen prefer Otter Butter over Mucilin these days as the finish on the line feels less tacky and keeps the silk line float longer.