Tight Lines and Big Tines!

DOES IT COME IN PINK? HOW TO DYE YOUR OWN FLY LINE.


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If you ever decide to walk into your local fly shop and ask for pink fly line, expect a laugh. Despite over 18 million of us women participating in fly fishing, pink fly line is virtually nonexistent. But that shouldn’t stop you from making your fly line your own! One thing I love about my Allen reels are the wide array of colors they come in, but why stop there? With just a few clicks on Amazon and only 15 minutes of work, I was able to easily and safely customize my line. Here’s the recipe:

Dye

Ingredients and Supplies
1 Bottle of RIT dye in the color of your choice (I used fuchsia)
1 Spool of white fly line
1 1/2 qt. water
1 small pot for boiling
half a shot of vinegar (optional)

Directions
Bring 1 1/2 qt. water to a boil and stir in 3 tsp. of RIT dye. Then turn off the heat and simply drop the loosely coiled spool of fly line into the concoction for 20 seconds. Remove the line with some tongs and immediately rinse under cool water. If your line hasn’t absorbed enough color, simply return it into the pot and repeat until you’ve got your desired color. Half a shot of vinegar will help with the absorption and honestly for the brand of fly line I had on hand, it took me a full ten minutes to get it to reach the right shade of pink.

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And that’s all there is to it! The process is easy, safe and applicable for any color you desire. You can also dye the backing, but take extra care to avoid birds nests. Untangling fly line is overwhelmingly easier than untangling backing. If you decide to customize your line, let me know how it turns out!

Tight Lines and Big Tines!

Desiree Le

Co-Founder, Tight Lines and Big Tines!