Want to try something different? Recently, I bought a Terenzio artificial silk DT5 line from Herndon Rod Company. The lines are handmade in Italy, and Terenzio has been making them for over 20 years. It looks like real silk, is made like real silk, casts like real silk, and will last like real silk, but being made of synthetic fibers instead of silk, does not have the maintenance requirements that a real silk like has, namely having to take the line off the reel to dry it after each use to keep it from rotting. The Terenzio lines, be they real or artificial silk, are good for 10 to 15 or more years of constant use, and will pay for themselves many times over compared to a plastic fly line. Yes, you do have to coat the line once in a while with red tin Mucilin to keep it floating, but that's really not a big deal. The line is also is about 25% thinner that a comparable weight plastic fly line, and it shoots much more easily into the wind, and it also lands on and picks up off the water more gently than does a plastic line. With top end plastic flylines nearing the one hundred dollar mark these days, $168 for the Terenzio artificial silk is a bargain, seeing that it will outlast several plastic flylines. Terenzio also makes real silk flylines for less than $200. If you have never experienced casting a silk fly line, you ought to give it a try. They aren't just for bamboo rods, either. Mine is a pleasure to cast on my glass and graphite rods, too. There are a couple of other brands of real silk lines out there, but they cost more and only Terenzio offers one made from synthetic fibers which doesn't need so much maintenance. He also includes two handmade real silk leaders and a generous supply of line grease with his lines. The lines and leaders have end loops woven into them also, and it makes connecting leaders to lines and tippets a breeze. Check them out, they might just open up an entirely new experience in flyfishing to you.

Bill Anderson, SW Missouri

You know you're getting older the day you realize your get up and go got up and went.....