Sinking Fly Line?

[foakes]

While strolling through eBay a week ago — I came across a newly listed group of (5) reels with a bargain BIN.

A Mitchell 408 high speed ultra lite, a gold Daiwa Mini-Mite, a DQ 45 fly reel, a Martin 65 fly reel, and an old lightweight metal Fury Diamond 150.

Of interest was the Daiwa, the Mitchell, and the DQ 45 Fly Reel.

But the price was half of what I could sell just the 408 Mitchell for.

When the reels came yesterday — I was surprised how heavy the little Martin 65 Fly reel was.  Upon examination, it was spooled with lead core trolling line.  The reel was barely used — so I'll just strip off the line and sell the reel.

Best, Fred

[jurelometer]

I learned to cast sinking fly lines on leadcore!

This guy  probably just loaded up the reel with some lead core to troll streamer flies, but lead core trolling line was a also a casting staple for West Coast fly fisherman until the new tungsten  impregnated lines took off  starting about twenty years ago.

Cortland LC-13 was the most popular leadcore for fly guys,  as it had the right length to weight ratio to make shooting heads for 8 to 10 weight rods.  Combined with a limp mono shooting line, you can  acheive  better casting distance and a faster sink rate than any modern integrated fast sinking line. 

LC-13 was also used for a sink tip on the mix and match shooting heads  invented by the west coast steelhead/salmon guys.  They would cut up shooting heads  and loop them back together in different combinations to get a variable sink rate head that matched a particular drift.  This eventually evolved into sinking leaders and the multiple-tip fly lines that steelheaders use nowadays.

The breaking strength on LC-13 was not that reliable, and the braided  line would wear faster from all the casting.  Plus it was a bit stiff. The fly line companies starting selling level tungsten sinking line by the foot in various densities (T-9, T-14, T-17), and improved mono running lines, but even these are getting scarce nowadays, replaced by prebuilt, fully integrated sinking head  lines that they can sell for 80-120 $USD each.  There are a few folks that still fish a straight sinking head with a mono shooting line for speciality situations, but even this is getting rare.

Nice haul BTW.  Good to see that you found a few  more reels to keep you busy

-J

[Gfish]

I like the Martin fly reels. If you don't want too much more than a sturdy fly line "storehouse" without the fancy-shamacy goodies so common nowadays...

[foakes]

Thanks, Dave!

That was a new one on me — appreciate the information.  I had no idea...

Best, Fred