This weekend I drove back out to Sooke to pickup a fly rod and reel from my parent’s house. The reel already has backing line on it but I have no idea if it is still good. I figured learning to re line the rod/reel is a perfect place to start my inquiry. I began researching the line and was quickly surprised as the process itself is much different from a regular rod/reel and there are a few different things that go into choosing the right line. There are different weight lines, tapers (weight forward, double taper, and level), and different lines for different purposes (floating, sinking, and sink tip) https://theflyfishingbasics.com/fly-lines-101/. The first step was figuring out what fly line works best with my rod. My rod is fairly old and hand made in Canada. It doesn’t have the rod length or line weight listed on it, only its name, “Neptune Custom”, rod number, and “made in Canada”. I measured it and it’s 10.5 ft long and pretty wippy. I put this info and pictures of my rod into Chat GPT, it couldn’t identify a make or model but it recommended starting with a 7 wt weight forward floating (Wf7f) line and working from there. I also need to pick up some new backing line (the reel I found has some but it’s old) and a tapered leader. About 75-125 yards (depending on reel) of backing line is attached first using an arbor knot, it’s important to make sure there is tension on the line so that the line spools up tightly. The next step is attaching the fly line to the backing, there is usually a welded loop at the back of the fly line that can be easily cinched onto the backing and spooled up. The next step is attaching the leader once again using a welded loop and then pulling it through the rods eyes and attaching a fly (https://www.fishuntamed.com/blog/how-to-set-up-a-fly-reel). I plan to pickup the necessary line on Wednesday and practice my casting this week using YouTube videos to help model the correct movements. I plan to hike up into the Sooke hills in the next few weeks and try my luck at some remotely stocked lakes. Here is a picture of my rod:

Here is a photo of the reel itself and the old backing line.

Here is a quick and simple YouTube video that helped me a lot, especially with the knot tying.