Shelf Life of Fishing Line

[marko]

Cleaning out the garage and doing the winter chore of organizing and revitalizing my gear, I came across some old line still on a spool. It is too brittle to use. However, I began to wonder how long fishing line can be expected to last on the shelf. A few years ago I started marking the spools with the month/year acquired. This old line was unmarked and clearly too old to be of any use. Still what can one expect? Yes, I have too much time on my hands.

[CHUMSALMON]

not sure on an exact shelf life, but as long as the line is in a dark area it will last a longgggggg time, the sunlight is what normally breaks down the line. :smile:

[ampersat]

i've actually wondered the same thing myself. when i pick up line, it's usually the big spool of berkeley big game. i normally only respool the second half of any reel when i do it. this means a big spool of line will last me for several years. any info on this would be appreciated.

[Hawaiian]

Keeping them in the refrigerator helps to keep them at a constant temp. Temperature change affects the line. The worst place is in the garage.

[Snagly]

I live in the tropics where the indoor temp is 77F year round (that's where we set the A/C at night -- by day it's in the low 80's indoors. You get used to it.) The humidity is a constant 70%. I suspect that this is too warm for optimal line storage, and probably ideal in terms of moisture content. Most of my long-term storage line is Maxima Ultragreen in utility spools, 10-20lb test.

So my experience is going to differ from yours, but here goes:

1. All non-braided line is stored in the dark.

2. I recently read that line coatings, esp on co-plymer lines, evaporate over time. Storing line in sealed Zip-loc bags retards evaporation, so I'm doing that now

3. Maxima line when fresh typically breaks at 10-15% above rated strength. After one year, the line will break at rated strength.

4. After two years, the line breaks at around 95% of rated strength (9.5 lbs for 10lb line that actually broke at 11.5 lbs when fresh).

5. Beyond 2 years of don't test the line.

(All these tests are done using dry, not soaked, line and hand scales.)

My big unanswered question is how much age affects ABRASION RESISTANCE. I've corresponded with line guru Bill Nash (check out www.hometown.aol.com/billsknots/index.html and have a poke around at his line tests and articles -- he also has a great book on fishing knots esp. for fly fishers) on this topic and he doesn't know either.

My conclusion is that I'll only use line less than one year old (and bought in the spring so I don't get last year's new-but-in-the-warehouse-line) on the business end of my reels. The > 1 but < 2 year old stuff gets used as backing and is blood-knotted to the new line. The > 2 year old line is filler -- I use it for the first 200 yards on large capacity fly reels, then knot it to "proper" Dacron or Spectra backing and so forth.

Line is cheap relative to my other fishing expenses so I end up giving away a lot of > 1 year old Maxima spools with > 1000 yards still on them. Why take a chance with a fish of a lifetime?