My experience with Rio seems to get worse every year, so I’m thinking of trying a SA or airflow line for this one and probably others moving forward.
Here are a couple pics from the seller, I’ll try to get some up close ones when I pick it up:
And...hate to be a bad influence, but this seller has the same rod in a 5wt for a similar smoking deal. PM me if you’d like info.
You're going to get me in trouble!! I told my wife when I got my Meridan recently that I was done buying rods, and now this.
Seriously, I just finished building an Epic 476 Fastglass II, which can actually cast a 5-weight fly line pretty well, as long as it's not an aggressive taper like a GPX. I have cast 2-weight through 6-weight lines on it; it's sweet spot is a 4-weight line, but it easily goes +/- one line weight so smoothly you'll think the rod was designed for that line. That's one of the great things about glass, the rod loads itself and does not depend as much on the weight of the line to do so. The rod does more of the work.
Two things to point out re: the Airflo Elite DT. First, the taper is actually slightly different on each end. One end is geared more toward dry fly presentation, and the other end is geared more toward tossing heavier flies and fishing in wind.
Second, I have had my leader cut the coating on my fly line loop. That is not the only manufacturer with which I have had that happen, but just wanted to disclose fully. It was a hand-tied leader with a thinner diameter butt section than your typical off-the-shelf extruded leader, and that may be why it cut. In any case, I started using the braided double-loops that Ard makes on that line and all lines, and that problem is eliminated, while still leaving you the convenience of a loop. Ard's double-loops do a great job of protecting the fly line loop. I did fix that cut with some Loon UV Knot Sense, and have had no issues since. I use the Elite WF6F on my Radian, and have no problems with the loop being cut, even before using Ard's loops.