Phoenix Silk Flylines – a review from Australia

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Australia, benefits, casting, fly fishing, flyfishing, silk fly lines, user reviews

Part of the joy of making Phoenix Lines is the direct contact with our clients. The lines are hand crafted and, of necessity, take time to make.  It is therefore heartwarming, especially during the winter months, to receive reports from clients about their use of Phoenix flylines and their various adventures.  Here is one such report from Peter Elks in Australia, who has been using Phoenix since 2003, possibly longer.  We are hugely grateful to Peter for taking the time to write this and found it very readable indeed.

“I am still a huge fan of your lines as they really do outperform the moderns in categories that really do count when it comes to good fish coming to the bank.

It is very apparent in Australia that a great many flyfishers frequently overlook or simply don’t take the time to acknowledge the real benefits offered. Maybe it’s because many feel that modern technology overides everything from the past, and that modern must be better? So we stop both looking and thinking further!

The benefits of a Phoenix silk silk double taper are to my belief as follows —

Pick up and laydown is direct, accurate, slick and has less surface disturbance than plastic.
The way these lines float ensures they cast lesser shadows than modern lines.
The lines have practically zero memory yet are very supple.
The lines are naturally textured to assist in the aerodynamic efficiency and floatation qualities, yet they are soft and supple on the fingers.
Rollcasting and variations of such casts, such, as spey, are far superior to any other line I have ever used.
The tip diameter of the lines is considerably less than modern equivalents.
Low flash finish and a real time wind cheating ability due to the lines weight and diameter ratios gives additional edges over plastic .
Furthermore a greased line floats and an ungreased is a perfect intermediate yet both these qualities is stored on the one reel you fish with.

All these qualities then present a very fishy array of major benefits not found in modern lines and for me personally are the direct reason I’ve been able to outwit some truly well educated good trout in the past few years.”

Website:  www.phoenixclassics.com

Would like to know about care of a Silk Fly line:  Link

5 tips for Silk Fly Line care

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care, flyfishing, Kingfisher, Phoenix, Red Mucilin, silk fly lines

Silk lines, contrary to popular belief, do not require extensive amounts of care, but do require a little more than synthetic lines. Here are a 5 tips that are worth knowing about.

1. The major misconception about of greasing silk lines.

Only the lightest coat of Red Mucilin is necessary – apply the Red Mucilin with the pad provided and then wipe with a tissue or soft cloth to remove excess.  Over-greasing attracts dirt and scum and leads to the line sinking. Always make certain that the line is dry before applying Red Muclin.

Note: For Phoenix Silk Fly Lines, we recommend to use Red Mucilin only.

2. They need too much care when fishing.

No.  If one whips loops on to either end of a double taper line, it is a simple matter to reverse the line during a heavy day’s fishing (bearing in mind that 90% plus of fish are caught within 15 yards). The whole line can then be cleaned and put away at the end of the day. 

3. Check your tip ring regularly.

The most frequent problem with the use of silk lines occurs at the tip ring. Silk lines do not take kindly to being ripped through the tip ring before false casting. The fisherman arrives at the bank side, unhooks the fly from the keeper and drags the fly line through the tip ring, bending the tip of the rod almost double. The sharp bend here does not do the fly line any good at all – likewise a worn tip ring (or if agate, a cracked tip ring) will rip the coating off a silk line very quickly – most fishermen will know that the rings on a rod are expendable – they do wear and should be replaced as often as is necessary, especially with loop tip rings and snake intermediates.

4. Overloading the reel

The other problem is overloading the reel.  All the books say fill the reel to its maximum, which is fine when winding on line in one’s living room, but when at the water with a fish on, winding in line evenly is the last thing on one’s mind and it is all to easy to have the line unevenly wound onto the reel and scrape the line on the inside of the reel cage.  If the reel is overloaded, then reduce the amount of backing or use a larger reel with your rod.

5, Loose coils are good.

After a day’s fishing wipe the line dry with a soft cloth. If possible leave the line on a line drier or in loose coils until the next fishing trip. At the end of the season, leave it in loose coils between two sheets of paper in a drawer for example. 

If one looks after one’s silk line as well as the reel and the rod are cared for, it should give many years of service.

And a word of caution from the booklet Kingfisher issued with their lines:

” We do recommend running a line off the reel at the end of the day – or wiping it and then running it back on the drier – but some people never have done this and it hasn’t really mattered. After all, there are lots of things we should do but don’t – so if you are the type that doesn’t bother – we won’t either, though you may have to buy another line before a fisherman in Nottingham (England) did – his lasted 42 years before being caught in the propeller of a boat at his local reservoir.”

Making silk fly lines – the process

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flyfishing, France, Mike Brookes, Phoenix, silk, silk fly lines

Phoenix Silk Fly Lines will soon be celebrating 30 years of making silk fly lines, following the traditional methods employed by Kingfisher in Scotland. We are grateful to Noel Buxton who spent many years researching how Kingfisher lines were made, since all their records were destroyed when they finished trading. Noel Buxton rose Phoenix from the ashes of Kingfisher and was awarded the title of National Treasure in the England for his work. When his Noel’s health started to fail, he chose hand over to Mike Brookes, who has been continuing this traditional craft since 1998.

What follows is an outline of the process starting when the silk arrives at the workshop as 20/22 denier silk, which made up of between 7 and 8 strands of silkworm silk.

Silk as it arrives at the Phoenix Workshop

The silk is first wound on to bobbins to the required number of counts – for example a DT 5 line has no less than 120 of theses “ends’ in the tip and 216 in the belly.

The bobbins are then put on to braiding machines, which braid the silk into various thicknesses, tapered at either end (for a DT lines). Even the smallest imperfection in either the taper on the dressing can affect the line’s casting performance, so this braiding is done with the utmost care.

An antique wooden braiding machine.

Mike Brookes spinning a line.

After braiding the lines are either dyed green or left in their natural colour, which after dressing gives an attractive honey shade.

The lines are then impregnated with an enamel oil under pressure, causing the oil to penetrate into every strand. This keeps the line both soft and supple throughout the length of its life.

The braid is then coated with a second oil and the lines are then varnished and polished to the smooth and pliable finish required by the fisherman.  It is the degree of hand finishing and care that ensures the quality and performance of the line.

The finished product.

Do silk fly lines have any advantages?

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benefits, casting, flyfishing, Phoenix, silk, silk fly lines

In response to a request from a reader I have put together some thoughts on the relevancy of silk lines compared with modern lines.

The first thing to note is the diameter compared to the modern line (insert photo). A silk line is about 30 % thinner than its’ plastic equivalent with a correspondingly fine point.

When comparing size for size the silk has less wind resistance, and therefore cuts through the wind better. It causes less disturbance when landing on, and lifting off the water.

A silk line has very low stretch and so, when hooking a fish the hook sets more firmly and the ‘feel’ in playing the fish is greatly enhanced and the angler feels more in touch with the quarry.

The working life of a silk line can be a long time with the minimum of care and very little effort on the part of the angler. In general, once a sportsman changes to silk, he or she stays with them for the rest of their fly fishing life.