Fly lines are the heart-beat of the perfect fly fishing experience.
It's this simple, fly lines are the be-all and end-all of fly fishing... and it's a much more crucial piece of kit than in other forms of fishing. For example, in spin fishing it's the weight of lure that enables the fly fisher to cast the fly, but in fly fishing it's the fly line weight that does the floating work.
When it comes to fly line floating, ask yourself the important questions.
What type of fish do you want to catch?
For example, do you want to catch trout, salmon or bass? Assuming you already have a fly rod and fly reel, now you need to match the fly rod weight and fly reel to what you want to catch. You should only for fly lines that have an identical weight match.
Do you want a floating, sink-tip or full sinking line?
Next you need to decide what type of taper you want the fly line to be. In the majority of fly fishing approaches, the weight-forward taper is the preferred option. Especially when trout fishing, the WF taper should be the first thing you buy.
What colour fly line works best for you?
As we've covered in other sections, the colour of the fly line is purely for your benefit – so you can see what you're doing and easily tell the difference between different bits of kit. You need to know what's going on in a huge range of differing daytime lighting conditions.
Do you need a second fly line?
This is one of the most common questions fly fishers ask themselves. Specifically many new fly fishers debate whether they should purchase - in addition to a weight-forward floating fly line, which is best for trout fishing - a sink-tip fly line to cover nymph or bass fishing.
Where to buy your fly lines?
Offline, you can go to any number of well known, established fly fishing shops, all of which should stock a wide range of fly lines fulfilling all your needs (salmon specialists may be light-on with a narrow skinny of fly lines. Online, Amazon has arguably the biggest selection of fly line available.
