I just noted, I bought a new fly line, the Rio AquaLux Intermediate Lake line. A couple things to not do first of all (I always share most of my mistakes….I can’t share them all or I’d risk total neglect by my visitors)….when you buy a new fly line, it will almost always be on a two piece plastic spool and inside a box.

Now when you take the spool out of the box there will be a tag end sticking out that may have a sticky label noting it is the butt end of the fly line, which should be joined to the running line on your fly reel. Usually, a nail knot is a good choice on joining running line to the butt end of the fly line.

You will also note there may be one or more twist ties wrapped around the coils of fly line. Ideally, you remove those ties but do not separate the two halves of the plastic spool which the fly line is wrapped neatly around. Attach the butt end of the fly line to the running line with the nail knot. This will require unwinding the new fly line just a bit to give you room.

Now you are ready to wind the new fly line, some 100′ of nicely coiled fly line, onto your reel. You may or may not have help. This would be nice as you wind, someone holds the plastic spool and the fly line gently rolls off the spool as the reel handle is cranked. Use your off reel cranking hand to guide the line back and forth onto the reel so the layers are  nicely spaced.

Now if you don’t have help, DON’T DO WHAT I ACCIDENTALLY DID! DON’T SEPARATE THE TWO HALVES OF THE PLASTIC SPOOL AND ALLOW A HUNDRED OR MORE COILS OF NEW LINE TO TUMBLE TO THE FLOOR ATOP PENNY THE CAT! SHIT!

A good 45 minutes later of the most exasperating unraveling of a new fly line and devilish efforts by the cat and loving intrusions by Emma the Lab and I had the new line onto the reel. I used the damn, two piece plastic spool to house the old intermediate line. I decided to keep it just in case. I wrapped it on the spool tip/leader first so the butt section is last. I grabbed a marker and wrote on the spool ‘old intermediate, ok but ‘coily’, Cortland, 2012′. I put the spool back into the box the new line had just arrived in and stuck it in a drawer in the garage to be re-discovered years later.

Ok, the new line has a loop at the end. I usually nail knot the butt section of a stout leader to the end of the fly line. I have not been a fan of loop to loop connections especially for lake fishing. But, I am going to give it a shot, once again. But, I have noticed that after tying some of my loops the line (leader) tends to slightly angle off at a less than true direction. I offer a few versions of loop knots here (PERFECTION LOOP) and two other over hand knots.