I,ve heard the term mill ends being used countless times. i,m wondering where they origenate from. are they the ends from reputable line makers ?

they come from the end of the mill

They are lines that have a so called "defect". They include:
wrong shade of colour.
Slightly short
Little notches.

John.

The same few factories which make all the other lines....

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

Yeh i asked for that one Thanks folks always been curious about them.

Not everything runs smoothly in fly line production . Cores are occasionally defective - filamentation which causes surface blobs can suddenly manifest in the middle of a roll - colours can cook off to wrong shades - some clown can open the wrong door and dust or wet atmosphere hits - power varies - dies and irises wear or jam - coilers cut in the wrong place - there are well over 1000 potential causes of production defects - it goes with the territory same as in all production processes ( remember Toyota ! )

Now some manufacturers do not sell defectives 'mill ends' - they routinely destroy them as policy - and that includes Cortland and Scientific Angler .

Others , knowing that a fair proportion can be of some use to beginners sell them on to aid in cost recovery .

You will never ( I hope) see the worst ones because they are unuseable . However what you have bought very cheaply is a pig in a poke for sure . If you are lucky it was a colour problem - but if you aren't - you are on your own !

One problem all mill end sellers face is that of selling on to the very odd less than scrupulous dealer who (sorts) and then sells on as perfects - except the faults may not be immediately obvious to the semi amateurs who have played this game - if they manifest later in service - fun and games result ...... !

I can recall when ......... except I'd better not ! Life is far too short and lawyers have quite enough money already !

Put it like this - if I ever need major surgery I just hope and pray that the Surgeon isn't using mill end instruments !

After 28 years associated professionally with fly line manufacture every so often a new type of mill end emerges to surprise me yet !

Best wishes and good luck

Steve Parton

PS One silly tale - I once went to a meeting at a major company on fly line production and defending himself the guy in charge of production was incautious enough to comment 'They never complain about the quality of the Mill Ends !'
My rather vicious reply was ' Interesting, but I didn't think it was your job to make them in the first place !'
( He left very shortly thereafter ! )
But I was younger and far less tolerant then!!

How do they put the taper in the line ? and is it true that lines are stored on huge rolls of it ?

My lips are professionally sealed on this one - however if you'd care to send me say £200 via PayPal - I'll tell you all about it down the phone ! (Joke!!)

Which is more serious than it might seem - there was the guy who reacted rather badly to this proposition the other week when I indicated that I wasn't going to tell him foc all I knew about dyeing !


Best wishes

Steve P

I have to say that I've used Mill Ends for the last 20 years..... and never had a problem at all (and i'm guessing but thats probably about 40 lines in all)

I started to buy them as a kid because i couln't afford £20 a line on a paper round !

I think the represent excellent value for money in more ways than one..

Ok for my serious competition fishing i don't use Mill Ends....because i like to know the exact sink rate, of my line and know that it's the best available for a given purpose.

However for most of my bank work,fishing on Dams, on Rocks, or Gravel where lines can easily become damaged these lines are a bargain....at around £4 a line they are disposable after a season or two.

For making custom built shooting heads, cut to a length that will suit your casting style...again a bargain.

For a beginner....they's catch more fish if they invested £15 in a set of 4 mill end lines (floater, intermediate, medium sink, fast sink), than if they just purchased a £25 floater

If you were going to try Salt Water Fly Fishing, or Even Pike fishing on the Fly and wanted some cheap lines...again a bargain.

Ok they may have a slight inperfection (although i'd say it's very slight in most cases) but who wants to ruin a £50 line to make a shooting head or on a dam wall ??

At the end of the day it's only a £4 gamble......so why not...i'm betting that you'll be surprised ??

If you were buying parts for a jet engine,etc...then i can see the point of never buying seconds, overruns,etc....but lets put the thing into context.....were only fishing and whats the worst that can happen ?

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end of the mill....

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I HATE BUNGS.........