Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Time for a new flyline - suggestions?

All,

I realized last week fishing PA that the line on my three weight was kaput. There was a chunk out of it part about the 15 foot part space which is the sweet spot for that rod and how I fish it. The current line is one not made any more, a Cortland Quiet Taper, that was designed for light rods and small streams so it had a very short forward taper then pretty much running line and it worked very well. It lasted four years with annual cleaning so can't complain on it's service life.

So, time for a new one and again I would like something with a reasonably short forward taper that loads quickly and it doesn't need to be 90' long. Other option I see is some manufacturers are making lines in half weights so I could step up to a 3.5 weight if it was a standard WF line.

The only line I've truly disliked is the Wullf Taper one's. I also didn't have very good luck with the early 555 lines finding that had lots of memory in cold water (that may have changed, it's been a few years)

I was thinking of are the Cortland Precision trout or Precision Platinum. The SA Ultimate Trout Taper one's seem to be a standard head but only 45' in length (which is fine) or the Mastery Series Trout line.

Experiences? Thought? Speculations? Someone who want to mail me any of the above?

Pugs I don't know what to tell you, I am a DT guy, I think a DT would fit your needs well. I like Scientific Anglers. I been fishing the Bright Orange for 25 years or longer. Most of the time I fish either a 5 wt or 4 wt Rod thou I have rods going down to 2 and up to 10. I use to fish a Lee Wulff line on a 2 wt Scott, you didn't need a whole lot of line out to load the road. Lee was an old friend of mine. One of the things I found out about Cortland Fly lines in the 444's that on the lighter weight rods, 3 wt line worked well better than well on my 4 wt Scott. These days they make so many lines now it its hard to choose. The other reason why I like DT lines is that I fish a lot and I mean a lot, its not uncommon for me to spend 180 days on the trout stream, or at leas part of the day. I wear out a fly line in a couple of months, so reversing a DT I can get a few more months out of a line, and when you are looking at the prices these days, the days of 26 dollar lines are long gone, so its also a cost effective aspect to my choices as well. Of course its not a problem for most, most fly fishers don't spend now were near as much time on the water than me. The fishing here in CT were I am at the present is very good, the days have been dry and seasonable with cool night time temps and the trout are on a major feeding jag. I had some of the best dry fly fishing this last week, than I have seen in quite a long spell and when I mean the best, How dose picking up a fish on just about every drift! Nice fat Browns and Rainbows, my biggest fish last week was a hook jawed male brown, a tad over 22 inchs. Most of my fish last week were in the 14 to 18 inch range. The few Brookies were a little shorter. Its raining here today, and I am in the Book store typing. I think the next 21 days is going to be the best of the year. I am thinking of going out to the San Juan over Christmas this year, if I can figuire a way to do it, unemployment you see. Camping out there is just as easy as camping here, and the Rainbows are huge. Torpedo's with fins. Well I have to do some flytying now.

You wont go wrong with the Mastery Series. I love it on my 4 weight.

Thanks guys. I use a double taper on my six weight but I really like ability to shoot reasonable short lengths without much of a backcast since I fish a lot of small streams.

I have been very happy with my Rio Grand on my 7' 3 wt for small stream action. I have the SA Mastery Series on my spare spool and its a good line too but my Winston is pretty fast and responds better to the Grand

Thanks. Other than one Sage I have I'm really a pretty slow rod fan. I've often thought of another bamboo just because I like that type action but I've not found one I like for the money I like yet.

Gents,

Did some more investigation and ended up going with a plain old Cortland 444. It has a ten foot head and suspect it will work just fine.

Allen