Interesting comment about Rio Gold being a good line for slower to medium action fly rods. I know Winston rates the BIIX as fast action, but being predominately a Sage guy, I find them to be medium action. Granted I haven't spent enough time with my 486 BIIX YET, but I've got it paired with Gold and in my limited experience, I think that's the line for it.
Maybe I'll give the the SA textured a shot when I need to replace my Grand on the Z Axis. I too have heard my share of anglers who have had problems with Rio cracking. I've had problems on a line or two but not enough to make me switch to something else...yet.
Hi Jaybo,
I have had several of the Rio Gold lines break down within a few weeks to even a few days after being loaded new onto a reel (a couple cracked right behind the welded loop, one line cracked down to the core 6" behind the loop, had a 2" long piece piece of the outer line break off one fly line, and even had a Gold flyline completely break while fighting a fish). During one of several phone calls I had with Rio customer service, they readily stated that they were having issues with the outer coating on the Gold, and that it was a manufacturing issue. The issue was bad enough that they put a hold on the manufacturing process, such that I had to wait several weeks to even get a replacement line for one that I returned. I do not know if they have resolved their issue, but I will not put a Rio Gold line back on any rod that is rated faster than a medium - they just cost too much for very poor service life! I have now had 2 different fly shop owners who both have said that the Rio Gold lines are great on medium rods, but should be used with caution on any rod faster than Medium, depending on your casting style and fishing methods. They are just seeing too many lines being returned for replacement due to breakage in the outer plastic coating.
As far as the Rio Grand lines are concerned, I put 2 Rio Grands on a pair of fast 4wt and 5wt rods. The 4wt line lasted a grand total (pun intended) of less than 3 months before it also cracked all the way down to the core right behind the welded loop, and then after I cut off the loop and installed a perfection loop of Amnesia line it cracked again a few inches up the line - this is the line that I replaced earlier this year with the SA Textured GPX mentioned in this posting. FYI - the 2nd Rio Grand on the 5wt managed to last a bit over 6 months, and then the line also cracked down to the core behind the welded loop while I was fishing it a couple of weeks ago. I simply cut off the welded loop and attached a perfection loop of Amnesia line, but I have already noticed another crack forming about 4" above where I nailed the perfection loop onto the line. So my impression is that Rio is apparently still having the same issue that I saw with the Gold lines, where the outer coatings of their Grand lines are simply too soft for Fast rods.
On the other hand, I have an SA GPX on a Med-Fast 6wt that I have been using since 2007 with no problems at all. Granted it gets used only about half as much as the 5wt, but that is still the equivalent of 2 years of fishing - and it still looks as good as the day I loaded it. I can guarantee I am not a Rio hater (I have purchased more than a dozen Rio lines), nor an SA lover (the 6wt SA GPX was actually the first SA line I had purchased in several years prior to buying/testing the 4wt Textured GPX); but I think I will be buying another SA GPX (non-textured) to replace the broken Rio Grand sometime in the near future!