Fly Lines

It's incredible to me that Scientific Anglers added more than 100 items to its product line this year. After all, they are the manufacturer of other brands of fly lines besides their own, and they are dwarfed by the main businesses of their parent company 3M. You'd think they have enough to keep them busy, especially if you saw the crowds at their show booth. SA's newly expanded 2007 offering includes a high-floating Dry Tip technology on their new Mastery Series GPX and Nymph lines, Lefty Kreh Signature Fly Lines at a low $39.95 price point, and the addition of a Wet Tip section to its L2L Reconnect leader system. For spey casters, Dr. Way Yin, Steve Choate and Al Buhr collaborated on SA's new spey fly lines, which offer streamlined welded loops on multi-tip and shooting-head versions, and SA is introducing a new Tungsten Leader in 10' and 15' lengths and 5.5-inch-per-second sink rates. Read more here.

Cortland's new Precision Dyna-Tip Trout Line also sports a high-floating tip section and marries a new "Rocket 2" type taper to their classic 555 Dyna-Tip line.

Jim Teeny, Inc. has a new Mel Kreiger "Looped Shooting Head System" coming out this season. The 3-head system includes intermediate, medium and fast-sink looped heads in lengths from 24' to 27'.

For those who don't know, the biggest difference between fly lines manufactured by Airflo, a British company, and those manufactured by most U.S. companies is that Airflo lines use polyurethane rather than PVC in their fly line coatings. Polyurethane, which doesn't require on solvents and a curing process, casts better (at least according to Airflo) and allows some special post-production touches, like adding fully fused integrated loops (no transition spots) to the end of lines. The big thing for Airflo this year has been the introduction of their Ridge Technology, which is exactly what it sounds like: tiny ridges that run parallel to the line from beginning to end. Word from Airflo at the show was that the average fly caster could expect a 5% improvement in distance casting by using the new lines.

"Boutique" fly line maker (our label, not theirs) Monic also brought their friendly staff to the FFR show. The Monic guys are still busy going outside the bounds of traditional fly line construction, doing new stuff with their monofilament-core saltwater lines like adding a fluorescent green dye to the belly and running line of their Phantom Tip line. Monic is one of the few companies that has ever offered a Gel Spun (polyethylene) core fly line; their take on the non-stretch core is that it provides greater hook-setting power and sensitivity. When pressed on the issue of fly line memory with Gel Spun lines, Monic has a ready answer: they manufacture a special coating which is less likely to take a set than standard PVC coatings, and so simply casting will generally eliminate the set in their lines.

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