sweetandsalt
Well-known member
I'm into trout season now so, before my memory dims, I am writing up my fly line experience from my March adventure in Andros. Unlike trout lines that last several seasons depending on use, flats lines take a beating. No, it is not really the blazing heat or salt, modern coatings and cores are designed for this harshness. It is not even fishing out of a boat, flats boots, and I often go barefoot in the skiff with only sunscreen on my feet, just have rubber soles, no caulks as can cut a trout line in half. It is the mangrove roots festooned with barnacles and coral with razor like protrusions that take a quick toll on flats fishing lines. We go to some combination of Bahamas, Florida Keys or Belize about twice a year plus stripped bass on the flats with the same tackle in the northeast and my wife and I add at least one new line a year each. This March I had (along with older good lines) three new lines from three different makers all in 8-weight configuration.
1. SA Mastery Textured Bruce Chard "Grand Slam". There is a mouthful. I do not know Capt. Chard out of Florida and sometimes Andros except by sterling reputation. His reputation is enough that SA designed with him and named for him their newest flats line for bonefish, permit and tarpon. Its taper is aggressive! It is a 100' long with a 40' head that is about a half size heavy with only TWO FEET of front taper for turning over long leaders with weighted flies but nearly 20' of rear taper to vanquish hinging and provide loop stability during long casts. It is a two-tone line with two colors variants, a pale blue head for tan bottomed flats and an olive head for fishing over turtle grass. Thought went into this line. It loaded my Hardy Proaxis #8 perfectly and turned over a hand built 14' Fluorocarbon #15 leader as advertised. Proaxis is a powerful rod with a fast tip and excels in windy condition which we had. This line cast great and despite its dramatic taper placed my sideways swimming crab flies with precision and deft. But to a man, our guides did not like it. They insist that the hiss of textured lines is transmitted through the line into the water and is a frequency the fish don't like when you strip the fly. I am aware of no evidence that this is true and I suspect it may not be. But SA has not done any research into this question and it is always hard to fish in a way that your guide disapproves of.
2. Cortland Liquid Crystal Blue. Introduced as a clear floating line, a blue tinted, translucent version was introduced this year for those, like me, who need to see where their fly line is. Not for the high-vis camp still but enough so I never lost a clear sense of where my line, leader and fly where in relation to my targeted fish. And it floated adequately too but not so high as to be blown about by the wind. Cortland's newest flats line is "unusual"; it eschews the typical braided nylon monofilament core in favor of a nylon monocore. And they coat it, not with PVC but with polyurethane. The core has a melting point a bit higher that the polymer coating so they actually fuse together during production. This means there can be no adhesion issues of coating to core and also the inherent stretch of the nylon core is all but eliminated by the no stretch coating thermal bonding to it. Different in design than SA's Grand Slam, Blue still is aggressive in its weight bias toward the front of the belly, a medium 6' front taper and glorious 26' of rear taper for maximum stability at distance. And distance casting is accomplished easily as this line is slick as slick can be. Oh, and quite too. Another perfect match for Proaxis. My skiff partner one day was an athletically expert caster who is an advisor to a US rod maker and he asked, "How long is this line?". I answered, "90'". He said, "I sure with it was 120' long, I don't like holding backing in my hand while casting".
3. A not yet named flats line from RIO. Most know RIO has introduced a non-stretch trout line called, "Perception". Well they have developed a flats version too and generously honored me by allowing me to field test it. I don't know much about its taper but my NRX thought it was a terrific line and NRX is line temperamental. This line communicated feeling exceptionally well; because of it no-stretch core? I'm not sure but perhaps. Like other RIO coatings it was super slick and quite and generated distance or in close shots with ease. I am still weighing the merits of non-stretch lines dry fly trout fishing but fishing my sideways crab fly witch involves an accurate placement in front of a bonefish, one or two stripes to both remove any slack from the line/leader and also get the fish's attention, then pause so the fly's 10 appendages re-deploy and it sinks toward escape in the bottom's soft marl, hopefully provoking an engulfment from the bonefish, benefits from the lack of stretch. The fish eats the fly held in direct connection to my hand and I strip-strike the fly home with none of the shock absorbing effect of a conventional fly line or nylon leader. I have used Airflo's Tropic Ridge in the past which is the perfect match for my Scott S4s and felt similarly but somehow the responses of this prototype RIO feel sharper yet. I suspect they may introduce it in its final form and color at this summers IFTD Show.
1. SA Mastery Textured Bruce Chard "Grand Slam". There is a mouthful. I do not know Capt. Chard out of Florida and sometimes Andros except by sterling reputation. His reputation is enough that SA designed with him and named for him their newest flats line for bonefish, permit and tarpon. Its taper is aggressive! It is a 100' long with a 40' head that is about a half size heavy with only TWO FEET of front taper for turning over long leaders with weighted flies but nearly 20' of rear taper to vanquish hinging and provide loop stability during long casts. It is a two-tone line with two colors variants, a pale blue head for tan bottomed flats and an olive head for fishing over turtle grass. Thought went into this line. It loaded my Hardy Proaxis #8 perfectly and turned over a hand built 14' Fluorocarbon #15 leader as advertised. Proaxis is a powerful rod with a fast tip and excels in windy condition which we had. This line cast great and despite its dramatic taper placed my sideways swimming crab flies with precision and deft. But to a man, our guides did not like it. They insist that the hiss of textured lines is transmitted through the line into the water and is a frequency the fish don't like when you strip the fly. I am aware of no evidence that this is true and I suspect it may not be. But SA has not done any research into this question and it is always hard to fish in a way that your guide disapproves of.
2. Cortland Liquid Crystal Blue. Introduced as a clear floating line, a blue tinted, translucent version was introduced this year for those, like me, who need to see where their fly line is. Not for the high-vis camp still but enough so I never lost a clear sense of where my line, leader and fly where in relation to my targeted fish. And it floated adequately too but not so high as to be blown about by the wind. Cortland's newest flats line is "unusual"; it eschews the typical braided nylon monofilament core in favor of a nylon monocore. And they coat it, not with PVC but with polyurethane. The core has a melting point a bit higher that the polymer coating so they actually fuse together during production. This means there can be no adhesion issues of coating to core and also the inherent stretch of the nylon core is all but eliminated by the no stretch coating thermal bonding to it. Different in design than SA's Grand Slam, Blue still is aggressive in its weight bias toward the front of the belly, a medium 6' front taper and glorious 26' of rear taper for maximum stability at distance. And distance casting is accomplished easily as this line is slick as slick can be. Oh, and quite too. Another perfect match for Proaxis. My skiff partner one day was an athletically expert caster who is an advisor to a US rod maker and he asked, "How long is this line?". I answered, "90'". He said, "I sure with it was 120' long, I don't like holding backing in my hand while casting".
3. A not yet named flats line from RIO. Most know RIO has introduced a non-stretch trout line called, "Perception". Well they have developed a flats version too and generously honored me by allowing me to field test it. I don't know much about its taper but my NRX thought it was a terrific line and NRX is line temperamental. This line communicated feeling exceptionally well; because of it no-stretch core? I'm not sure but perhaps. Like other RIO coatings it was super slick and quite and generated distance or in close shots with ease. I am still weighing the merits of non-stretch lines dry fly trout fishing but fishing my sideways crab fly witch involves an accurate placement in front of a bonefish, one or two stripes to both remove any slack from the line/leader and also get the fish's attention, then pause so the fly's 10 appendages re-deploy and it sinks toward escape in the bottom's soft marl, hopefully provoking an engulfment from the bonefish, benefits from the lack of stretch. The fish eats the fly held in direct connection to my hand and I strip-strike the fly home with none of the shock absorbing effect of a conventional fly line or nylon leader. I have used Airflo's Tropic Ridge in the past which is the perfect match for my Scott S4s and felt similarly but somehow the responses of this prototype RIO feel sharper yet. I suspect they may introduce it in its final form and color at this summers IFTD Show.
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) is starting to distract me with it's never ending grating noise. I do love the way it casts though....
