[Kym Goldsworthy]

Hi everyone
After a while just watching and reading, this is my first post, so hello to you all from downunder.
I'm planning to dye the first 40 ft of my white gt140 a shade of brown or olive, partly as a stealth thing and partly to help quickly identify this Barrio line from the other couple I've got.
Does anyone have any tips or warnings before I get going.
I was planning to mix Dylon Hot dye with vinegar (to help set the colour though I'm not sure if it's necessary) and hot water, then feed the first 40 ft of line in and let it soak for 5 minutes, then rinse the line.
Does this sound reasonable or like sheer mad folly?
cheers
Kym

[Ben Dixon]

I've got Veniard dye I keep meaning to try on a flyline.  May have a crack at it tomorrow, if so I'll post back.

Cheers

Ben

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Kym
Welcome to the forum

I'm afraid I can't be much help with your question as I've not tried to dye a fly line before, although I know that folk do. I have heard of them using Dylon, but I haven't heard of using vinegar? Perhaps other forum members can hopefully give us some feedback on this?

While we are on this subject, I have a more subtle/stealthy fly line being manufactured at the moment and this new line will be available soon.

Re: "Does this sound reasonable or like sheer mad folly?" ....... Sheer mad folly of course, you shouldn't have asked the question!    

Best wishes
Mike

[Kym Goldsworthy]

Cheers Mike and Ben
Thanks for the replies. To be honest, fly line colour usually doesn’t worry me especially if you’ve got 12-18 ft of leader and tippet between line and fly. If you lob the fly line over the trout it won’t matter what colour the line is because the fish will be well and truly gone.
Changing rods and reels/spools a lot I find it’s handy being able to tell the difference between lines at a glance. I do mark up the end of my lines with a permanent marker. One long black mark means a 5wt. One long mark and a small mark above means a 6 and a long mark with a small mark below is a 4 and so on. Problem is that I have to strip the whole line off to know what it is .
Actually, come to think of it there’s no reason why I couldn’t put the same marking system on the line just where the head ends instead of at the end. Maybe I’ve just solved my own problem! 
Kym

[Peter McCallum]

Or even at the front of the lines? That wqay you don't have to strip any line off to identify it

[Hamish Young]

I'm no chemist, but I'd have thought there would be the potential to seriously weaken the coating of the line by introducing a 'softening agent' (vinegar)with the dye..... all sorts of chemical cleverness going on that I don't understand but I think the coating would suffer badly. Wouldn't it
Wouldn't you need to cure the line somehow then re-coat with a floatant of some kind Hmmmmm. I really don't know Interesting to see if it work though.......

Permanent marker sounds like a plan

H 

[Fadpasser]

Hi everyone
After a while just watching and reading, this is my first post, so hello to you all from downunder.
I'm planning to dye the first 40 ft of my white gt140 a shade of brown or olive, partly as a stealth thing and partly to help quickly identify this Barrio line from the other couple I've got.
Does anyone have any tips or warnings before I get going.
I was planning to mix Dylon Hot dye with vinegar (to help set the colour though I'm not sure if it's necessary) and hot water, then feed the first 40 ft of line in and let it soak for 5 minutes, then rinse the line.
Does this sound reasonable or like sheer mad folly?
cheers
Kym

Hi kim, dying the end of your line kinda makes sense for recognising distance ect. . but as far as stealth goes I`m not convinced, invested in a few slime lines a few years back (don`t talk to me about line memory) and dont think the clear line hade the impact as far as scaring fish that the makers claimed, prefer to go down the road of longer leaders. good point though, let me know how it all end up.

[Allan Liddle]

Hi kim, dying the end of your line kinda makes sense for recognising distance ect. . but as far as stealth goes I`m not convinced, invested in a few slime lines a few years back (don`t talk to me about line memory) and dont think the clear line hade the impact as far as scaring fish that the makers claimed, prefer to go down the road of longer leaders. good point though, let me know how it all end up.

If looking up even a clear line will just look like a black line against the lighter background (assuming you're not fishing at night  )
There's scope for a more visible tip on the line for better bite indication (compie guys need this to prevent rule infringes when French, Czech, Upstream or even plain Nymphing) so there is scope for it.  I think it needs to be as a manfactured line and not added later for this though? 

[Derek Roxborough]

many years back in a fishing mag some one wrote an article about dying a fly line, the mordant for this was salt not vinegar, if you use dylon they reccommend salt , I tried dying a white line but it was wishy washy,wouldnt try it again
easgach 1

[Peter McCallum]

I've recently marked an orange line to give a zebra effect with a black marker so maybe you could do a full line this way??

[Ben Dixon]

The vinegar is used to fix the dye although it may have other effect such as softening the coating of the line.  Won't know until I try and it will probably work out differently for different lines.

CHeers

Ben

[Derek Roxborough]

A mordant is what the dye fixer is called, Dylon Dyes recommend salt, you could use urine if you're not fussy , vinegar is an acid, and mordants are more usually alkaline, easgach 1

[Rob Brownfield]

Google is your friend...

http://www.iffa.org.uk/dyinglines.htm

There is loads of information online if you fancy going through the forums but general opinion is that you must wash, wash and wash again the line to remove all dirt, grease and dressing before attempting to dye and do not use hot water as recommended on the sye instructions, go for luke warm.

As for marking fly lines with a marker pen, thats not advised due to the solvents used. We are not allowed to mark our climbing harnesses with a marker due to the solvents attacking the webbing and stictching.